In Pygmalion, Shaw presents the classical story of a professor who transforms a girl of the lower class into an elegant creature, who then falls in love with him -- unfortunately in love, that is.

Set in Bulgaria, Arms and the Man satirizes romantic attitudes about love and war. Raina, the heroine, falls in love with a cowardly, chocolate-loving enemy soldier during an unnamed war. After the war, her fiance challenges her new admirer to a duel, loses heart, and proposes to the maid instead.