Character guide

Raina Petkoff

major

Also known as Raina, Miss Raina, Raina Breathless, Raina Severely, Raina Rising, Raina Pleased, Raina Bitterly, Raina Hurrying, Raina Interrupting, Raina Hm, Raina Pretending, Raina Wincing, Raina Gratitude, Raina Riling

Raina lives inside her own operatic imagination, adoring Sergius's portrait like a priestess and reading herself to sleep on Byron and Pushkin. When a hunted Swiss soldier climbs through her window, she hides him and lies for him, discovering that her beautiful ideals cost something real. Her struggle between noble self-image and plain truth drives the play's central comedy of disillusion.

Captain Bluntschli

major

Also known as Bluntschli, Bluntschli True, Bluntschli Astonished, Bluntschli Who, Bluntschli Rising

Bluntschli enters Raina's room as a starving, mud-spattered fugitive with a revolver and no illusions about war. Practical, unromantic, and quietly amused, he punctures her heroic vocabulary while depending on her secrecy to survive. His return as a competent soldier of business forces Raina, Sergius, and the whole Petkoff household to reckon with what competence and honesty actually look like.

Sergius Saranoff

major

Also known as Major Saranoff, Major Sergius Saranoff, Major, Sergius, Saranoff, Sergius Grimly, Sergius Flushing, Sergius Striding, Sergius Ironically, Sergius False, Sergius Grinning, Sergius Recoiling, Sergius Gravely, Sergius Withdraw, Sergius Starting, Sergius No

Sergius is betrothed to Raina and adored by the whole household as the embodiment of Byronic heroism, but he suspects his own glory is theatrical. He chafes against Bluntschli's unglamorous efficiency and drifts toward Louka, whose frank contempt for his posing unsettles him. His crisis of honor and desire exposes the gap between the romance everyone performs and the people they actually are.

Catherine Petkoff

supporting

Also known as Catherine, Catherine Severely, Catherine Outraged, Catherine A Swiss, Catherine Flaming

Catherine runs the Petkoff home with brisk authority, betting her husband about coats and lecturing her daughter on Bulgarian glory. She is socially ambitious and fiercely protective of appearances, yet practical enough to hide a fugitive soldier when it suits her. Her management of the household's secrets and her pride in Sergius keep the domestic comedy spinning through the play's middle acts.

Major Petkoff

supporting

Also known as Petkoff, Petkoff Bosh, Petkoff Grinning, Petkoff Not, Petkoff Exasperated, Petkoff Muttering

Petkoff returns from the front with military rank he never sought and a comfortable appetite for lunch, newspapers, and his old coat. He is genial, easily managed by Catherine, and cheerfully baffled by Bluntschli's businesslike efficiency. His blundering good nature and obliviousness to the romantic intrigues around him make him the play's warmest comic anchor.

Louka

supporting

Also known as Louka Master, Louka Complaining, Louka Retreating, Louka Fiercely, Louka Swiss, Louka Writhing

Louka serves the Petkoffs with barely concealed insolence, contemptuous of Raina's raptures and of Nicola's contented servility. Ambitious and clear-eyed, she sees Sergius's theatricality for what it is and sets her sights on him as a way up. Her fierce refusal of her station turns the play's romantic plot into a contest over who gets to rise.

Nicola

supporting

Also known as Nicola Coming forward

Nicola moves through the Petkoff household as its most competent and least sentimental member, fetching the disputed coat from the blue closet and acting as valet while officers wager over his errand. His engagement to Louka sets up a quiet contest of ambition: he prizes respectability and steady advancement, she scorns his patient servility. Grounded and unsentimental, he anchors the play's upstairs-downstairs comedy and gives Shaw a working-class counterpoint to the romantic posturing around him.

Paul

minor

A soldier or servant briefly mentioned in the household.

The Serbians

minor

Also known as the Serbians

Offstage enemy army in the war between Bulgaria and Serbia.

The Petkoffs

minor

Also known as the Petkoffs

Collective reference to the Petkoff family.