By this stage in the play—act 2—Sergius has become rather cynical about the profession of arms. Once he was quite hung-ho when it came to war, but now he believes that soldiering is "the coward's art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong and keeping out of the way when you are weak."
Sergius's astonishing change of worldview is a prelude to a new, more down-to-earth attitude to matters of the heart. In due course, he will utterly reject Raisa's romantic idealism and instead turn his attentions to the more earthy and unrefined Louka. In truth, Raisa never got to know Sergius; she fell in love with an ideal, not a living, breathing human being. Louka, on the other hand, is introduced to the real Sergius, the thoroughgoing cynic beneath the chocolate-cream soldier exterior. Now that Sergius has divested himself of a superficially romantic attachment to war, he no longer has to pretend to be someone he isn't, either in his personal or professional life.
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