Bathos in Literature with Special Reference to Arms and the Man: Cinematic Adaptation and Dramatic Techniques Employed

This paper examines the operation of bathos in George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man and analyzes how the play’s anti-romantic critique of war, love, and class is extended through its 1989 screen adaptation. The study argues that bathos is not merely a comic effect in Shaw’s drama but a structuring principle that repeatedly brings elevated ideals down to the level of material reality. Using qualitative textual analysis and comparative adaptation study, the paper shows how Shaw dismantles heroic militarism, sentimental romance, and social pretension through irony, reversal, anti-climax, and dialogic confrontation. It further demonstrates that the cinematic adaptation preserves the ideological core of the play while transforming some of its dramatic effects through visual framing, performance, and pacing. By locating bathos at the center of Shaw’s dramaturgy, the paper presents a research-oriented reading of the play as an anti-romantic text whose comic surface produces sustained social criticism.