Saint Joan

by

George Bernard Shaw

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Saint Joan makes teaching easy.

Saint Joan: Scene 1 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
It’s a spring morning in 1429 at the castle of Vaucouleurs. Captain Robert de Baudricourt, an irritable, apathetic military squire, sits at an oak table in one of the castle’s chambers and berates his steward for the hens’ refusal to lay eggs. The steward replies that the hens won’t lay eggs and the cows won’t produce milk because “there is a spell on [them] since the arrival of “The Maid” at Vaucouleurs. For the past two days, a girl from Lorraine has been sitting outside the castle waiting to speak with Baudricourt, and she refuses to leave until he sees her. Baudricourt condemns her “impudence.”
By seating Baudricourt at the table, Shaw reinforces both his position as a nobleman and his ties to French political institutions. In contrast, the hens symbolize the natural world. When the steward suggests that the hens won’t lay eggs until Baudricourt agrees to see Joan, he aligns Joan with nature, thereby setting the groundwork for her anti-institutional positions toward matters of religion and politics. 
Themes
Institutions and the Corruption of Integrity Theme Icon
The Quest for Personal Knowledge  Theme Icon
Baudricourt has instructed his steward to throw the Maid out, but the steward insists that her “positive” demeanor prevents him from doing so. The steward tells Baudricourt that the Maid is in the courtyard talking to soldiers, something she does frequently when she isn’t praying. Baudricourt scoffs at this, insinuating that she is talking to the soldiers in order to proposition them.
Joan’s “positive” demeanor sets her apart from many of the other characters of Saint Joan. Because Joan answers to no one but herself—she honors no obligation to answer to the Church or the nobility—she projects this air of positivity, self-assurance, and integrity that many other characters lack. Joan’s integrity is inconceivable to characters like Baudricourt who assume that Joan must have ulterior motives. Baudricourt’s demonstrates his skepticism when he assumes Joan’s motives for engaging with the soldiers are immoral rather than practical or earnest.
Themes
Institutions and the Corruption of Integrity Theme Icon
Gender Theme Icon
The Quest for Personal Knowledge  Theme Icon
Baudricourt calls out the window to the Maid and summons her inside. The Maid—Joan of Arc—appears in the doorway. She is 17 or 18 years old, sturdily built, and has “an uncommon face” with wideset, large eyes. When she addresses Baudricourt, she speaks confidently, demanding that he give her a horse, armor, soldiers, and that he send her to the Dauphin. The Lord has given her these orders, she claims. This angers Baudricourt, who insists that Joan return to her “Lord,” for Baudricourt takes orders only from the king. Joan clarifies: “my Lord is the King of Heaven.”
Many earlier adaptations of the Joan of Arc narrative depict Joan as striking or beautiful, despite little historical evidence to suggest this was so. Shaw believes that this idealized portrayal of Joan romanticizes her, and his goal in writing Saint Joan was to present a more flawed, nuanced depiction of her. Baudricourt’s assumption that Joan is talking about a feudal “lord” further reinforces his ties to the temporal institutions at play in Saint Joan.
Themes
Institutions and the Corruption of Integrity Theme Icon
Although Baudricourt calls Joan mad, she refuses to back down. She needs Baudricourt to give her supplies and send her to the Dauphin so that she can drive the English out of Orleans and restore French control of the territory. Baudricourt balks at this ambitious project, but Joan insists that she is merely acting on God’s instruction. She doesn’t need many soldiers, anyway, and "Polly" and "Jack" have already agreed to go with her. Baudricourt is scandalized that Joan would refer to Squire Betrand de Poulengey and Monsieur John of Metz so informally. Joan doesn’t see a problem with the familiarity, though, because that’s what their friends call them.
The Dauphin is the anticipated King Charles VII of France—he has yet to be crowned, so he maintains the title of “dauphin.” Joan’s lofty military goal—to raise the siege of Orleans—refers to taking back French land seized by English forces during the Hundred Years’ War. By calling noblemen like Poulengey and Metz by their nicknames, Joan actively establishes herself as their equal, despite her comparatively lowly social and economic position.
Themes
Gender Theme Icon
Get the entire Saint Joan LitChart as a printable PDF.
Saint Joan PDF
Joan explains that she’s organized everything—Baudricourt need only grant her permission to be off; what’s more, if he signs off on her journey, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, with whom Joan speaks regularly, will assure Baudricourt a place in heaven.
Joan’s assurance that Baudricourt will have a place in heaven speaks to her self-confidence: she believes she can know the saints’ intentions without needing the Church’s guidance to interpret God’s will.
Themes
The Quest for Personal Knowledge  Theme Icon
Baudricourt dismisses Joan and sends for Monsieur de Poulengey. Poulengey enters and Baudricourt warns Poulengey about Joan’s background: she’s a bourgeoise. Her father isn’t a gentleman, but he’s not a laborer, either. Though he doesn’t have any direct power, his connections could “give a lot of bother to the authorities,” therefore it’s important to Baudricourt that Polly not get Joan “into trouble.” Poulengey insists that he has no dishonorable intentions for Joan. Baudricourt is aghast and can’t imagine why else the soldiers would have offered to accompany Joan to the Dauphin. Poulengey insists that there’s just “something about her.”
Baudricourt’s skepticism toward helping Joan isn’t exclusively rooted in his own ideological or moral values but, rather, in the more logistical concern of having to answer to the social structures to which he is held accountable. Should Joan get “into trouble,” her status as a bourgeoise means that there are more consequences than if she came from a family of poor laborers. Baudricourt’s assumption that Poulengey’s intentions for helping Joan are dishonorable shows how cynical he is toward other people’s ability to act virtuously and uncompromised by institutional or personal corruption. When Poulengey repeats the steward’s earlier claim that there is “something about” Joan, he reinforces the unique, anti-institutional position she holds that sets her apart from other characters in the play.
Themes
Institutions and the Corruption of Integrity Theme Icon
The Quest for Personal Knowledge  Theme Icon
Baudricourt tells Poulengey to be practical, but Poulengey replies that it would be most practical for the French to align themselves with “the Duke of Burgundy and the English king.” The English control over half the country, including Paris and this castle, which Baudricourt is “only holding […] on parole.” The Dauphin refuses to fight back, however, and his command over the French is weak at best: nobody respects him, as his own mother has insinuated that he’s illegitimate. France’s situation is so dire, Poulengey argues, that only thing that can save it is a miracle, and he believes that Joan can work miracles. On these grounds, Poulengey insists that Baudricourt pledge allegiance to the girl. 
Most people who reject Joan do so on the grounds that she is capricious, impractical, and inexperienced. Poulengey presents an opposing viewpoint when he argues that France’s political situation is so dire that it needs the input of someone like Joan, who thinks outside the box of the old, accepted approaches to military and political pursuits. Poulengey’s belief that Joan can work miracles may be perceived literally or figuratively: Poulengey might well believe Joan has supernatural powers, but the “miracles” of which she is capable of are also symbolically miraculous in their ability to disrupt the status quo.
Themes
Institutions and the Corruption of Integrity Theme Icon
Sanity vs. Madness  Theme Icon
The Quest for Personal Knowledge  Theme Icon
Quotes
The men call for Joan to return and they interrogate her about the voices of saints she claims to hear in her head, and which provide her with instructions for how to act and in what to believe. She tells them that she doesn’t talk to them in the way she does other people. Baudricourt suggests that they’re only her imagination, which she agrees with, but only because “that is how the messages of God come to us.” She reiterates the messages God has sent to her: to stop the siege of Orleans, to crown the Dauphin, and to drive the English out of France. She knows fighting won’t be easy, but she is confident that God is on her side. The English are only men, and because God “gave them their own country and their own language,” they must be expelled from France.
Joan’s statement that “the messages of God come to us” through her own “imagination” enforces her belief in the individual’s power to know and assess the world around them without the guidance of outside powers like the Church or the government. Baudricourt’s observation that Joan’s voices are merely her “imagination” is meant to discredit her voices, but Joan’s agreement legitimizes them, as she believes that one may obtain the highest degree of truth through personal introspection. Joan’s belief that the English should stay in their own land where they speak “their own language” evokes the growing sense of nationalism that developed during the Hundred Years’ War, when national loyalties began to supersede religious and regional loyalties.
Themes
Institutions and the Corruption of Integrity Theme Icon
Sanity vs. Madness  Theme Icon
The Quest for Personal Knowledge  Theme Icon
Quotes
Literary Devices
Baudricourt finds Joan’s confidence ludicrous, emphasizing the strength and determination of the English soldiers. Joan counters this, reasoning that because she has God on her side, the French will be successful in battle. Although he remains skeptical, Baudricourt agrees to send Joan and her three soldiers to Chinon to see the Dauphin. Immediately after they leave, the steward runs into Baudricourt’s chamber to announce that the hens are laying eggs again. Baudricourt sees this as evidence that Joan was truly sent from God.
Given the strength of England’s military forces, Joan’s overconfidence is certainly unfounded, though it’s reasonable to suspect that Baudricourt’s initial dismissal of her is amplified by the sexist norms of his society. This is reinforced by the fact that Baudricourt is quick to believe in Joan once he sees evidence of a miracle (the hens laying eggs), but remains unconvinced by her attempts to persuade him using logic and reasoning—in other words, Baudricourt is quicker to believe in a miracle than a woman’s use of rhetoric.
Themes
Institutions and the Corruption of Integrity Theme Icon
Gender Theme Icon
Sanity vs. Madness  Theme Icon
Literary Devices