In the end Sergius demonstrates courage and embraces his true feelings and asks Louka for her hand in marriage. He flirts heavily with Raina’s more practical maid Louka, whom he feels at ease with. Despite grandly proclaiming his love for Raina, he finds their relationship exhausting. His ignorance of the science of warfare makes him an inept officer he struggles to coordinate troop movements and must appeal to Bluntschli for help. Believing in the romantic ideals championed by poetry and opera, Sergius leads a doomed cavalry charge, and is saved only by dumb luck. Sergius is Raina’s somewhat foolish fiancé. Eventually Bluntschli overcomes Raina's posturing and asks for her hand in marriage, using his newly inherited wealth to win Major Petkoff's approval. During his visit he learns of his father's death, resulting in his inheritance of a large sum of money. Yet Bluntschli has a romantic heart and returns to see Raina, whom he has become taken with. Bluntschli is unconcerned with romantic ideas about heroism or conduct in war he is concerned with professional conduct, efficiency and survival. Bluntschliīluntschli, a Swiss mercenary who clambers through Raina's bedroom widow as he flees Bulgarian troops, best represents the qualities promoted by the play: realism and pragmatism. The play ends with her engagement to the practical Bluntschli. By the end of the work, Raina has, with Bluntschli's prompting, abandoned her romantic posturing and embraced a more pragmatic viewpoint. She also shows significant compassion, cringing at the cruelty of hunting down fleeing troops and ultimately saving Bluntschli's life. Yet Raina has doubts about the realism of the notions that she and Sergius share. She self-consciously attempts to live up to these romantic ideals Catherine reveals that she always listens outside doors, waiting for the most dramatic moment to enter. Raina, a young woman from an upper class Bulgarian family, begins the play clinging to romantic delusions about both war and love, worshiping her fiancé Sergius' brave feats in war and cherishing the pure love they share.

Bernard shaw arms and the man