Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw

First produced: 1923; first published, 1924

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Historical

Time of plot: Fifteenth century

Locale: France

Principal Characters

• Joan, the Maid, a teenage French country girl
• Charles, the Dauphin, heir to the French throne
• Archbishop of Rheims, a political prelate
• Jack Dunois, a French general
• Peter Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais
• Earl of Warwick, an English nobleman
• Stogumber, an English chaplain

The Story

At Vaucouleurs castle, Robert de Baudricourt berates his steward for claiming that the hens stopped laying. The steward insists they will not lay until Robert talks to Joan, the Maid, who demands to see him. Robert finally admits Joan. She promptly requests a horse, armor, and some soldiers to take her to the dauphin. She already persuaded several soldiers to accompany her and convinced them that God sent her to save France from the English occupying force. Robert yields, and the hens immediately begin laying again.

At Chinon, the archbishop and the lord chamberlain complain about the dauphin’s irresponsibility. Bluebeard, a nobleman, tells about a cursing soldier who died after being cautioned by an angel dressed as a soldier. Charles appears, looking browbeaten but excited about Robert’s surprise. Almost everyone advises Charles not to see Joan, but he insists. They then decide that Bluebeard will pretend to be Charles, to see if Joan can pick out the real dauphin; the archbishop cynically remarks that such seeming miracles could be as useful as real ones. When Joan enters, she immediately spots Charles and tells him that she is sent by God to help him drive the English from France and to crown him king. Charles, full of doubts, tries to escape her but finally yields and gives Joan command of the army. Cheering, the knights prepare to head for Orléans.

Two months later at Orléans, Dunois’s French forces still do not attack the English because the east wind prevents their ships from going up the river. When Joan arrives, Dunois explains the military situation. Joan grasps the problem immediately and agrees to pray for a west wind to make the French attack possible. As she speaks, a page sneezes and everyone suddenly notices that the wind changed. Joan, overwhelmed by this sign, rushes with Dunois into battle.

In the English camp, Chaplain Stogumber and the Earl of Warwick consider France’s recent military victories. Stogumber resents seeing Englishmen beaten by French “foreigners.” Warwick complains that people are beginning to define themselves by their country rather than by local allegiances—a danger to both feudal lords and to the Church. Warwick therefore hopes to collaborate with Bishop Cauchon, who represents the rival Burgundian faction in France. When Cauchon arrives, he and Warwick agree that neither feels happy about the imminent crowning of Charles, that they prefer to limit his future progress, and that capturing Joan offers the best chance of success. The three men then debate the precise nature of Joan’s threat and the possible remedies. Cauchon considers her a heretic for her belief that God communicates with her directly; if people insist on their own interpretation of God’s will rather than that of the Church, there will be religious and social chaos. His ideal solution is to compel Joan to abandon her heretical belief. In Warwick’s opinion, Joan spreads a secular belief that he defines as Protestantism and that he considers dangerous to the feudal social structure—the idea of “nations” under autocratic kings who hold their power directly from God. Warwick and Cauchon, who define Joan’s belief as nationalism, agree that Joan must at least recant her heresy; if she can be thoroughly neutralized they are willing to spare her life, but Stogumber is prepared to burn her as a witch.

At Rheims Cathedral, Charles is crowned king of France. Joan wonders to Dunois why everyone suddenly seems to hate her. She says that once she conquers Paris, she will return to the country. Dunois expresses doubts about more fighting, but Joan insists that her “voices”—the saints’ voices she hears and obeys—tell her she must continue. When Charles and others arrive, Joan suggests that she return to her father’s farm. Everyone seems much relieved, but it is obvious that she wants to continue fighting for France. When the archbishop comes, he counsels that her stubborn confidence in her own beliefs will lead to her destruction. Dunois reveals that the English offer a reward for whoever captures Joan. Joan finally realizes that, if she is captured, none of her old supporters will try to save her.

In May 1431, Joan is about to be tried for heresy in Rouen. Stogumber and a French priest complain that many charges were dropped, but the Inquisitor and Cauchon insist that the crucial ones remain. Warwick reveals that English soldiers are guarding the site, ready for trouble. Soldiers bring Joan into court. When questioned, Joan does not understand the charges, insisting that she loves the Church and therefore cannot be a heretic. Some suggest that she be tortured to make her confess, but the Inquisitor refuses. Joan continues to assert that everything she did was at God’s command and that she trusts her own judgment of what God wants of her. Her insistence on her own judgment condemns her as a heretic. Several people beg her to recant, and, when she realizes the punishment is death, she does so. When she learns, however, that her alternative punishment will be life in prison, she denies her recantation and chooses death at the stake. English soldiers lead her away and execute her. Those who see her die, including Stogumber, are transformed.

In 1456, Charles is reading in bed when Ladvenu, who helped Joan at the trial, brings word that Joan’s verdict was overturned: the judges were ruled corrupt and Joan declared innocent. Several people from twenty-five years earlier, including some who died in the meantime, appear, including Joan, Cauchon, Dunois, an English soldier who gave Joan a makeshift cross, Stogumber, and Warwick. They reveal their subsequent fates. A twentieth-century man appears, announcing Joan’s canonization in 1920. Strangely, no one wants a living Joan, and, one by one, the ghostly spirits disappear. Alone, Joan wonders when this world will be ready to receive God’s living saints.

Bibliography

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