Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Louka
Louka is an ambitious servant in the Petkoff household
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She behaves defiantly and her physical
movements, gestures and postures produce the impression of
haughtiness and discontent
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Her little acts
of rebellion ‐ flouting convention by openly smoking a cigarette, her
careless manner and her pronounced swagger ‐ are deliberate
reaction to this
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In Act 2, when she presents her arm for Sergius to kiss,
it is the act of a person who considers herself his equal
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Her defiance of the upper‐class people can be
ascribed to the angst deposited in her
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Nicola as a man
with practical wisdom proceeds to warn her about her manners
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She refutes his philosophies, refusing to accept her social
status, “You’ll never put the soul of a servant into me”
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She refuses to accept ten levas from him as share of
the bribes
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I was not
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”
She doesn’t plan to dwell in her social state, “You were born to be a
servant
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All her actions are motivated by her aspirations to rise to a
better position in society
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Always on the lookout for opportunities, she discovers a
truth about the fugitive in Raina’s chamber at night and keeps it for
use in future
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In Act II when she finds Sergius posing as a
pleasure seeker, she responds to his overtures of love, leading him
on when he flirts with her
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In Act 3, when Sergius
tries to compensate for the bruise by offering her an amorous favour,
she rejects it straight implying that she wants more
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” Here
by implication of the logic, Louka wants him to come out of the
class‐barrier and accept her on equal terms
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Later when she sees her opportunity, she blames
him for the insults she has received from others, turning the
situation in her favour by designing a carefully worded demand for
apology that appeals to his romantic nature
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Thus, she successfully manipulates her way
to her goal
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She seems to
posses a natural intelligence that enables her to spot her
opportunities and see through Raina’s and Sergius’ pretensions and
hypocrisy
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We find her possessing subtle power
of observation and perception, by which she foretells Raina’s
moving away from Sergius in the case of the fugitive’s return
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Louka observes
her from a pragmatic position: “I know the difference between the
sort of manner you and she put on before another and the real
manner”
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Though she is fully aware of the effects any confrontation with
the aristocracy will bring about, she is determined to take her
chance and make her fortune
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The implication is that she
has earned it through her determination, her realistic outlook and

her strength of conviction in her own worth
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Louka is Shaw’s instrument for forcing Sergius, and perhaps the
readers to re‐examine the conventional romantic and social norms
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Louka is a medium for the playwright’s social commentary
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Shaw tries to en
courage his audience to see people as individuals, rather than as
members of a particular class
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