Do you think that socialism or social equality is a dominant theme in the play, Arms and the Man? Give a reasoned answer.

Socialism and social equality were both important themes in the work of George Bernard Shaw, and he wrote many essays and prefaces advocating both of these causes. In the play Arms and the Man, we see one of Shaw's commonly repeated points, that aristocratic ideals, especially as expressed in heroic poetry and similar artistic genres, harm people both as individuals and as couples. 

Both Sergius and Raina are unhappy with the constraints of an...

Socialism and social equality were both important themes in the work of George Bernard Shaw, and he wrote many essays and prefaces advocating both of these causes. In the play Arms and the Man, we see one of Shaw's commonly repeated points, that aristocratic ideals, especially as expressed in heroic poetry and similar artistic genres, harm people both as individuals and as couples. 

Both Sergius and Raina are unhappy with the constraints of an aristocratic ideology that not only limits their personal development but also seems to be inexorably constraining them to an unhappy marriage. The voice of reason and the character we are intended to admire most is Captain Bluntschli, a Swiss bourgeois, who lacks the false ideology of the Bulgarian aristocrats and combines a simple and pragmatic approach to war with a rather charmingly romantic approach to marriage, focused not on heroic ideals but on personal emotions.