The Shavian Web: Three Aspects of "Saint Joan"

Seminar paper from the year 1995 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Technical University of Berlin (Institu für Englische und Amerikanische Literaturwisenschaft), course: George Bernard Shaw, language: English, abstract: This paper concentrates on Shaw's understanding of history as it is manifest in his chronicle play

Saint Joan. The attempted examination will be carried out along three aspects which are quite

clearly discernible yet closely intertwined. Broadly speaking, these aspects could be called:

1. The historical; finding out how close is Shaw to the historical facts of which he was in full

knowledge.

2. The dramatic; leaving aside the obvious "Stage Limits of Historical Representation" (Shaw's

own wording in the Preface to the play) it shall be shown how Shaw exploits optimally the

dramatic potential of Joan's story.

3. The didactic; this term being used for the sake of argument to cover Shaw's social, political

and moral concerns.

In the following chapters these three aspects will be shown in their mutual relation whereby

attention will be paid to the question of their eventual hierarchy. What was Shaw's main goal

when writing Saint Joan? Did he intend to tell what happened in France in the first half of the

15th century? Did he want to write a parable conveying pungent social criticism without having

to be too explicit? Or did he just feel like writing a good play which Saint Joan undoubtedly is?

In other words, I will try to work out the intentions underlying the interplay of the aspects

mentioned above and show how these are determined by Shaw's weltanschauung, which is to say

by his philosophical/religious conception of the creative evolution.