The work The Man and the Arms has two themes: one is war and the other is marriage. The romantic side of war is based on the idealistic mentality that men fight because they are heroes, and that the soldier who takes the biggest risks gains the greatest glory and is the greatest hero.

Love and marriage, on the other hand, became one of the most frequent themes of his works. He viewed marriage not as a means of satisfying personal desires of individuals nor as a means of family institutions, but as a means for the birth of a new and better generation.

In The Man and the Arms, as well as in other works, he mocks the prevailing seriousness, but behind the humorous connections of Raine, Sergius, and Bluntschli lies the memory of Shaw's childhood in a home overshadowed by the failure of his parents' marriage.

In his works, he refers to real human problems such as in prostitution (Mrs. Warren's Profession), war (The Man and the Arms), religious intolerance (The Devil's Disciple), revenge (The Change of Captain Brassbound), etc.