# Arms and the Man: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> George Bernard Shaw. 10 speaking roles, 14,528 words, about 104 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/arms-and-the-man
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Bluntschli** has the most to say in Arms and the Man: about 445 lines and 3,735 words, 25.7% of the play. Arms and the Man is Shaw’s comedy about a romantic young woman and the practical Swiss soldier who hides in her bedroom during a Bulgarian war. Bluntschli, listed as Man in Act 1, is the largest part with about a quarter of the words, and Raina follows with about a fifth. Sergius and Petkoff speak only in Acts 2 and 3.

- Speaking roles: 10
- Scenes: 3
- Words: 14,528
- Speech time: 104 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Bluntschli | 445 | 3,735 | 25.7% | 26.7 | 3 |
| Raina | 389 | 2,985 | 20.5% | 21.3 | 3 |
| Sergius | 262 | 2,028 | 14% | 14.5 | 2 |
| Petkoff | 205 | 1,667 | 11.5% | 11.9 | 2 |
| Catherine | 191 | 1,471 | 10.1% | 10.5 | 3 |
| Louka | 183 | 1,407 | 9.7% | 10.1 | 3 |
| Nicola | 125 | 1,083 | 7.5% | 7.7 | 2 |
| The Officer | 10 | 77 | 0.5% | 0.6 | 1 |
| A man’s voice | 8 | 71 | 0.5% | 0.5 | 1 |
| Male voice outside | 1 | 4 | 0% | 0.0 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: Act 1 = Act 1; Act 2 = Act 2; Act 3 = Act 3.

- **Bluntschli**: Act 1 (1,701), Act 2 (89), Act 3 (1,945)
- **Raina**: Act 1 (1,402), Act 2 (455), Act 3 (1,128)
- **Sergius**: Act 2 (962), Act 3 (1,066)
- **Petkoff**: Act 2 (920), Act 3 (747)
- **Catherine**: Act 1 (328), Act 2 (948), Act 3 (195)
- **Louka**: Act 1 (150), Act 2 (562), Act 3 (695)
- **Nicola**: Act 2 (408), Act 3 (675)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Bluntschli: “He did it like an operatic tenor—a regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting a war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills. We nearly burst with laughter at him; but when the sergeant ran up as white as a sheet, and told us they’d sent us the wrong cartridges, and that we couldn’t fire a shot for the next ten minutes, we laughed at the other side of our mouths. I never felt so sick in my life, though I’ve been in one or two very tight places. And I hadn’t even a revolver cartridge—nothing but chocolate. We’d no bayonets—nothing. Of course, they just cut us to bits. And there was Don Quixote flourishing like a drum major, thinking he’d done the cleverest thing ever known, whereas he ought to be courtmartialled for it. Of all the fools ever let loose on a field of battle, that man must be the very maddest. He and his regiment simply committed suicide—only the pistol missed fire, that’s all.” | Act 1 | 175 | 18 |
| Nicola: “Never you mind my soul; but just listen to my advice. If you want to be a lady, your present behaviour to me won’t do at all, unless when we’re alone. It’s too sharp and impudent; and impudence is a sort of familiarity: it shows affection for me. And don’t you try being high and mighty with me either. You’re like all country girls: you think it’s genteel to treat a servant the way I treat a stable-boy. That’s only your ignorance; and don’t you forget it. And don’t be so ready to defy everybody. Act as if you expected to have your own way, not as if you expected to be ordered about. The way to get on as a lady is the same as the way to get on as a servant: you’ve got to know your place; that’s the secret of it. And you may depend on me to know my place if you get promoted. Think over it, my girl. I’ll stand by you: one servant should always stand by another.” | Act 3 | 175 | 18 |
| Sergius: “Not a bit. They all slashed and cursed and yelled like heroes. Psha! the courage to rage and kill is cheap. I have an English bull terrier who has as much of that sort of courage as the whole Bulgarian nation, and the whole Russian nation at its back. But he lets my groom thrash him, all the same. That’s your soldier all over! No, Louka, your poor men can cut throats; but they are afraid of their officers; they put up with insults and blows; they stand by and see one another punished like children—aye, and help to do it when they are ordered. And the officers!—well I am an officer. Oh, give me the man who will defy to the death any power on earth or in heaven that sets itself up against his own will and conscience: he alone is the brave man.” | Act 3 | 148 | 15 |
| Nicola: “Come: don’t be so contrary with me. I’ve some good news for you. See, a twenty leva bill! Sergius gave me that out of pure swagger. A fool and his money are soon parted. There’s ten levas more. The Swiss gave me that for backing up the mistress’s and Raina’s lies about him. He’s no fool, he isn’t. You should have heard old Catherine downstairs as polite as you please to me, telling me not to mind the Major being a little impatient; for they knew what a good servant I was—after making a fool and a liar of me before them all! The twenty will go to our savings; and you shall have the ten to spend if you’ll only talk to me so as to remind me I’m a human being. I get tired of being a servant occasionally.” | Act 3 | 142 | 15 |
| Nicola: “Discharge you for untruthfulness. Who would believe any stories you told after that? Who would give you another situation? Who in this house would dare be seen speaking to you ever again? How long would your father be left on his little farm? Child, you don’t know the power such high people have over the like of you and me when we try to rise out of our poverty against them. Look at me, ten years in their service. Do you think I know no secrets? I know things about the mistress that she wouldn’t have the master know for a thousand levas. I know things about him that she wouldn’t let him hear the last of for six months if I blabbed them to her. I know things about Raina that would break off her match with Sergius if—” | Act 2 | 140 | 14 |
| Catherine: “Yes, here, as soon as possible. Be quick! Oh, how—how—how can a man be such a fool! Such a moment to select! Captain Bluntschli, I am very glad to see you; but you must leave this house at once. My husband has just returned, with my future son-in-law; and they know nothing. If they did, the consequences would be terrible. You are a foreigner: you do not feel our national animosities as we do. We still hate the Serbians: the only effect of the peace on my husband is to make him feel like a lion baulked of his prey. If he discovered our secret, he would never forgive me; and my daughter’s life would hardly be safe. Will you, like the chivalrous gentleman and soldier you are, leave at once before he finds you here?” | Act 2 | 138 | 14 |
| Sergius: “Oh, yes, quite a romance. He was serving in the very battery I so unprofessionally charged. Being a thorough soldier, he ran away like the rest of them, with our cavalry at his heels. To escape their attentions, he had the good taste to take refuge in the chamber of some patriotic young Bulgarian lady. The young lady was enchanted by his persuasive commercial traveller’s manners. She very modestly entertained him for an hour or so and then called in her mother lest her conduct should appear unmaidenly. The old lady was equally fascinated; and the fugitive was sent on his way in the morning, disguised in an old coat belonging to the master of the house, who was away at the war.” | Act 2 | 123 | 13 |
| Petkoff: “I don’t believe in going too far with these modern customs. All this washing can’t be good for the health: it’s not natural. There was an Englishman at Phillipopolis who used to wet himself all over with cold water every morning when he got up. Disgusting! It all comes from the English: their climate makes them so dirty that they have to be perpetually washing themselves. Look at my father: he never had a bath in his life; and he lived to be ninety-eight, the healthiest man in Bulgaria. I don’t mind a good wash once a week to keep up my position; but once a day is carrying the thing to a ridiculous extreme.” | Act 2 | 115 | 12 |
| Raina: “Well, it came into my head just as he was holding me in his arms and looking into my eyes, that perhaps we only had our heroic ideas because we are so fond of reading Byron and Pushkin, and because we were so delighted with the opera that season at Bucharest. Real life is so seldom like that—indeed never, as far as I knew it then. Only think, Mother, I doubted him: I wondered whether all his heroic qualities and his soldiership might not prove mere imagination when he went into a real battle. I had an uneasy fear that he might cut a poor figure there beside all those clever Russian officers.” | Act 1 | 114 | 12 |
| Nicola: “Yes, me. Who was it made you give up wearing a couple of pounds of false black hair on your head and reddening your lips and cheeks like any other Bulgarian girl? I did. Who taught you to trim your nails, and keep your hands clean, and be dainty about yourself, like a fine Russian lady? Me! do you hear that? me! I’ve often thought that if Raina were out of the way, and you just a little less of a fool and Sergius just a little more of one, you might come to be one of my grandest customers, instead of only being my wife and costing me money.” | Act 3 | 110 | 11 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- The Officer and Male voice outside
- A man’s voice and Male voice outside

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in Arms and the Man?

Bluntschli, with about 445 lines and 3,735 words, 25.7% of everything spoken in the play. Raina is next, with about 389 lines (20.5%).

### How long is Arms and the Man?

The full text has 14,528 spoken words, about 104 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in Arms and the Man?

10 named roles speak in this edition, across 3 scenes. 3 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/george-bernard-shaw/arms-and-the-man) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).