Themes of Saint Joan by G.B. Shaw

Introduction to Author

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, and political activist. He greatly influenced Western theatre, culture, and politics from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays in his lifetime. The word ‘Shavian’ has entered the English Language encapsulating Shaw’s ideas and his means of expressing them. He has been regularly rated second only to William Shakespeare amongst the British dramatists.

Major Works

• ·         Arms and the Man
• ·         Candida
• ·         You can Never Tell
• ·         Saint Joan
• ·         Caesar and Cleopatra
• ·         The Man of Destiny               
• ·         Pygmalion

His Achievements

·         G.B. Shaw received the Nobel Prize in Literature in the year 1925.

·         Thirteen years later, he won the Oscar for the best-adapted screenplay – Pygmalion.

Introduction to Saint Joan

Saint Joan is a play about the 15th-century French military figure “Joan of Arc”. The play was published in 1923, three years after the canonization of Joan by the Roman Catholic Church. The play demonstrates Joan’s life based on this incident and on the records of her trials. Shaw writes in his preface to the play,

“There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting. It is something to be done away with by general consent”

Michael Holroyd has characterized the play as ‘A tragedy without villains’ and also as Shaw’s ‘only Tragedy’. John Fielden has discussed further the appropriateness of characterizing ‘Saint Joan’ as a tragedy.

Themes of Saint Joan

Warfare

The setting of Saint Joan is in Medieval France. At that time, France was suffering from the depression of 100 years of war. There were various different forces striving for power. Amongst them, the most important were the English, Burgundies and the Armagnac. In this play, Joan’s main aim is to fight against all those who opposed uniting France under the rule of Armagnac, and heir to the French throne, Charles II. Warfare depicts everything in Saint Joan; from a unifier to a divider to a holy rite.

Quotes for Warfare

Joan: Our soldiers are always beaten because they are fighting only to save their skin, and the shortest way to save your skin is to run away. Our knights are thinking only of the money they will make in ransoms: it is not kill or to be killed with them, but pay or to be paid.

Dunios (to Joan): You have the makings of a soldier in you. You are in love with war.

Women & Feminism

Joan can be considered as an early pioneer fighting for women’s equality. She was a woman by physic yet she considered herself as a soldier. She dressed like a man and influenced the most powerful men of her time.

Joan: If I were to dress as a woman, they would think of me as a woman; If I dress as a soldier, they would think of me as a soldier

She refused to do normal things that expected from women of that time like getting married or listen to men’s order. She rebels against the social conventions of her time and chose her own path. She was fully determined and had the courage to stand for herself and make her own decisions in the male-dominated society.

Joan: There are plenty of other women to do (women’s work), but there is nobody to do my work.

Religion

Saint Joan highlights the life of a Catholic saint. Religion is one of the major themes of Saint Joan. There were huge clashes seen between Protestantism and Catholicism. Other popular religious topics like faith, heresy, and repentance are also discussed in the play. Also, Joan admits of hearing voices and seeing the visions of God in the entire play. She frequently uses the word, God. She says,

“I believe that God is wiser than I, and it is his commands that I will do. All the things that you call my crimes have come to me by the command of God. I say that I have done them by the order of God: it is impossible for me to say anything else”

Hence, the entire play is driven by Religiousness. Joan is rebuked by the Archbishop. End of the play is also marked by religiousness when the readers are introduced to Saint Joan.

The Archbishop: Child, you are in love with religion; there is no harm in it. But there is a danger.

Reality and its Versions

Joan always claimed that she heard voices coming from God.

Joan: The blessed saint Catherine and Margaret speak to me every day.

However, there were different versions of reality. The church believed that the voices were demonic in origin. Some of her friends told her that the voices were just her own intuition talking to her.

Joan: I hear voices telling me what to do. They come from God.

Robert: They come from your imagination.
Joan: Of course, that is how the messages of God come to us.

Joan refused each and everyone’s version of reality relying upon her own deep belief. It was one of the main factors that led to her execution. Saint Joan is all about different versions of Reality.

Some other Quotes

Joan: I know that your counsel is of the devil, and that mine is of God. (This leads to her execution)

Joan: Oh, it’s true: it is true, my voices have deceived me. I have been mocked by devils: my faith is broken. (This is the only time in the play when Joan doubts her own version of reality)

Admirations

Joan is a highly influential character who has gained such admiration, that she launches an entire movement that gradually unites the country. Even the men who executed her couldn’t stop respecting her for her courage and strong determination. Her spirit was so powerful that it continued to inspire a whole lot of generations. Eventually, her admiration grew so much that the Catholic church made her a saint. Saint Joan is an epitome of the life, death, and the legacy of this influential character.

Steward: She puts courage into us. She really doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything.

Charles: If you could bring her back to life, they would burn her again within six months, for all their present adoration for her.

Power

Saint Joan depicts the struggle for power and fight between the French and the Englishmen. The military conflict was the most obvious one. Along with this, there was yet another struggle going on. It was a struggle for power inside the country between the king and the innocent. They are always manipulated by rich-class people. On the other hand, Joan, a simple peasant girl lived in a society where women had no rights. However, she was fully determined and powerful because she was driven by divine power and not the political one.

Joan: We are all subject to the king of heaven; and he gave us our countries and our languages, and meant us to keep to them.

Pride

The most common thing in every character of the play is immense pride. The main character, Joan was pious and a simple girl. But she was accused of being too proud. This was her only sin. His pride leads to her downfall. She believed she got orders from God and everyone must listen to her.

The Archbishop: You have stained yourself with the sin of pride.

Joan: I am not proud: I never speak until I know I am right.

The reason why pride is the major sin in the play is, in medieval times, the major power of the country was represented by the Church. Other pieces of literature written during that period also showed that the characters with extreme pride were punished at the end.

Joan: In his strength, I will dare, and dare, and dare, until I die.

Society and Class

The play was written in a period where the society was rigorously divided by class and position. Saint Joan precisely depicts the inner workings of the complex structure. There were levels of power within the church – The political structure was not left unstained. There were kings and feudal lords and a lot of common peasant and soldiers. The readers very well get to know that those who didn’t obey this rigid hierarchy were severely punished.

Joan: If we were as simple in the village as you are in your courts and palaces, there would soon be no wheat to make bread for you.

Joan: There is great wisdom in the simplicity of a beast, let me tell you; and sometimes great foolishness in the wisdom of scholars.

Conclusion

"I think, (its) the greatest of Shaw’s plays. As to the epilogue, to which several dramatic critics have objected, shows, the essence of the theme is the struggle of religious inspiration against established religions, against the patriot, the statesman, and the indifferent."

                                                                                             Desmond MacCarthy

The New Statesman, April 1942.