Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Saint Joan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Institutions and the Corruption of Integrity
Gender
Sanity vs. Madness
The Quest for Personal Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
An English Chaplain and a nobleman sit at a table in a tent at an English camp. The nobleman is an imposing man in his mid-forties. While the nobleman reads the Book of Hours contentedly, the Chaplain seethes silently. The nobleman praises the “workmanship” of the Book of Hours, though he laments how unfortunate it is that, nowadays, “instead of looking at books, people read them.” The English-born Chaplain doesn’t share the nobleman’s flippant mood, however: the English have been defeated and he’s bitter about it. Angrily, he imagines strangling the “witch” who has brought about England’s many recent defeats.
Sitting at a table aligns the Chaplain and the nobleman (Warwick) with their respective institutions—Chaplain Stogumber with the Church and England, and Warwick with English nobility and the feudal system. Warwick’s criticism of “people read[ing]” the Book of Hours (an illustrated Christian devotional book from the Middle Ages) “instead of looking at [it]” is a criticism of individual knowledge and inquiry: Warwick would prefer that the common people remain dependent on authorities’ interpretations of the Book of Hour rather than arrive at their own understanding.
Themes
The nobleman is more concerned with the Bastard of Orleans (Dunois), as he is a renowned commander. The Chaplain counters that Dunois is “only a Frenchman,” which upsets the nobleman, who believes this nationalist rhetoric to be destructive, as “men cannot serve two masters.” If serfs pledge allegiance to their country, it’s “goodbye to the authority of their feudal lords, and goodbye to the authority of the Church.” The nobleman asserts that they must burn the witch, and that he’s waiting for the Bishop of Beauvais to set these plans into action.
The nobleman (Warwick) is upset by the Chaplain’s insult that Dunois is “only a Frenchman” because nationalist rhetoric like this threatens his own hold on power: if national identity supersedes regional identity, his position of power as an earl (a nobleman who rules over a region of a king’s court) will be compromised. The nobleman wants to burn the witch (Joan) because she explicitly promotes such nationalist rhetoric.
Themes
The nobleman’s page enters to announce the presence of Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais. The nobleman introduces himself to Cauchon as Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and his Chaplain as Master John de Stogumber. The men sit around the table and discuss their shared problem: “the young woman from Lorraine.” Stogumber believes that Joan is a sorceress and Warwick thinks she should be burned at the stake.
Shaw’s stage directions specify that the men sit around the table to discuss Joan, which alerts the reader that their discussion will be oriented around the interests of their respective institutions. Warwick and Stogumber’s overzealousness to see that Joan is killed shows how readily they are willing to disregard Joan’s rights in order to maintain their positions of power.
Themes
Cauchon approaches the problem of Joan more cautiously: they must not only act on their own opinions, he cautions, but also on those of the French court. “A Catholic court,” corrects Warwick. Cauchon insists that, though sacred in their goals, Catholic courts ultimately consist of mortal men, like all other courts. And because the court consists of mortal Frenchmen, it will be difficult to convince them that Joan is a witch merely because the French army defeated the English army.
Warwick’s side comment about the French court being a “Catholic court” reflects his skepticism that the court’s interests aren’t in line with his own—he fears that the court’s treatment of Joan will be more spiritually than politically motivated. Cauchon’s response touches on the French court’s nationalist bias, which isn’t in line with Cauchon’s spiritual interests: because Joan is French and has brought the French military victories, the court may well feel loyal toward her and therefore less willing to convict her of heresy or witchcraft without substantial, convincing evidence.
Themes
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Cauchon feels that the men should attribute the French victory more to Dunois’s military prowess than to Joan’s supposed sorcery. Stogumber is convinced of Joan’s sorcery, however; he recounts hearing that Joan was pierced through the throat by an English arrow yet continued to fight for the rest of the day. Warwick is less superstitious than the Chaplain, but he still wonders why it was only upon Joan’s arrival that the French became successful in battle.
Cauchon’s willingness to attribute the French victory to Dunois’s military skills shows that he is a logical, thoughtful character. In the Prologue, Shaw takes issue with previous adaptations of the Joan of Arc narrative portraying Cauchon as a ruthless villain, so he puts forth considerable effort to portray Cauchon as partial and reasonable. Cauchon stands in contrast to Stogumber, who relies on hearsay and the supernatural to justify his preformed opinion that Joan is a witch.
Themes
Cauchon suggests that the devil is working through Joan in order to destroy the Catholic Church and “damn[] the souls of the entire human race.” Because most of the “miracles” Joan has performed have natural explanations, Cauchon reasons that she is guilty of heresy, not witchcraft. Warwick insists they burn Joan, but Cauchon maintains that the Church’s first obligation is not to execute her, but to save her soul. Only the secular court can condemn Joan to death. If Joan continues with her heresy, however, Cauchon will gladly hand her over to be burned.
To Cauchon, the core of Joan’s sinfulness lies not in her actions but in her ideas. He’s not concerned about her so-called “miracles,” because they can be attributed to natural causes–Joan’s miraculous victories can be explained by the fact that she is simply a more adept soldier than her English opponents, for example. Cauchon is more concerned with what he regards as the devil working through Joan to “damn[] the souls of the entire human race.” Because Cauchon is a churchman, he sees it as his primary obligation to save these souls—including Joan’s. Because Cauchon is spiritually motivated, thus, he will only hand Joan over to the secular arm should she refuse to repent and be saved.
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Literary Devices
Warwick is enthusiastic about working with Cauchon to burn Joan, and Cauchon accuses him of “treat[ing] the Church as a mere political convenience.” Cauchon insists that he is no political bishop: his priority is Joan’s soul. Stogumber accuses Cauchon of being a traitor and valuing the interests of the Church over those of England, which offends Cauchon. Warwick defends his and Stogumber’s eagerness, explaining to Cauchon his fear that the English will be defeated unless somebody stops Joan.
Shaw uses Warwick to represent Medieval society’s political forces. When Cauchon accuses Warwick of “treat[ing] the Church as a mere political convenience,” he means that Warwick’s primary motivation for wanting to stop Joan is the threat she poses to the existing feudal society—not the spiritual wellbeing of Joan’s soul. By calling Cauchon a traitor, Stogumber emphasizes the existing tension between his and Warwick’s political loyalties to England and Cauchon’s spiritual loyalties to the Church.
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Literary Devices
Stogumber interrupts to question how Joan can be accused of heresy when she prays nonstop. With gusto, Cauchon explains his condemnation of Joan. “She acts as if she herself were The Church,” insists Cauchon. Joan wants it to be she and not the Church who crowns Charles king. Further, she claims to receive messages directly from God—without the aid of the Church. In short, Joan rejects the Church’s authority.
Cauchon’s main problem with Joan is that she believes she can understand the word of God without the Church’s help. Joan presumes to have a direct connection with God, and Cauchon fears that this belief will spread and threaten the Church’s authority over common people.
Themes
Cauchon believes the devil is using Joan to spread a “cancerous” form of heresy in order to destroy the Church’s power. He lists heretics from history who have acted as Joan acts now, such as “the man Hus” who “infected all Bohemia,” and “a man named WcLeef” who “spread pestilence in England. Joan, Cauchon insists, is not so different than “Mahomet.” All these heretics share the destructive mindset that the individual’s voice takes precedent over “the Church’s accumulated wisdom and knowledge,” and Cauchon believes such thinking needs to be stopped before it spreads to the masses.
“The man Hus” refers to Jan Hus, a 14th-century Czech theologian and reformer whose ideas would influence other reformers down the line, notably Martin Luther, a major figure in the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. “A man named WcLeef” refers to John Wycliff, another important predecessor to the Protestant Reformation. Wycliff was notably critical of the privileged status of the clergy. Cauchon initially presents his case against Joan as an exclusively spiritual crusade, but by citing dissenters of the clergy like Hus and Wycliff, he shows that his condemnation of Joan is also political: like Warwick, he sees Joan as a threat to his current position of power.
Themes
Warwick isn’t a churchman, so he’s unimpressed with Cauchon’s heresy lecture. He encourages Cauchon to consider the “temporal institutions of the world, as well as the spiritual ones.” Warwick believes that Joan’s views threaten to destroy the existing feudal system. Under Joan’s system, nobility would be required to surrender their land to one king, who would then present the seized land to God. Under this new system, feudal lords (mid-level nobility) would lose their land and power, and serfs would only be required to pledge allegiance to the king. In this way, Joan presents a similar threat to the Church as she does to the feudal system: in either case, she eliminates the need for intermediary authority figures, leaving individual, common people answerable only to one king or God. Warwick calls Joan’s philosophy “Protestantism.”
It’s ironic that Warwick and Cauchon remain unimpressed with one another’s cases against Joan, as they demonize her for strikingly similar reasons. Warwick is concerned with the “temporal institutions of the world” while Cauchon is more concerned with “the spiritual ones,” but both men’s main problem with Joan is rooted in the threat she poses to institutional power. Protestantism didn’t officially take shape until the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th century, so Shaw is taking some liberties with historical accuracy when Warwick refers explicitly to Joan’s philosophy as such. The effect seems to be Shaw’s attempt to draw on the larger theme of dissent and rebellion against dominant social institutions in a way that extends beyond Saint Joan’s specific, historical moment.
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Literary Devices
Cauchon agrees that Joan’s political position is problematic. He ties it to a component of Joan’s heresy that he calls “nationalism,” wherein individuals pledge allegiance to their regions over allegiance to the Church. Cauchon deems nationalism “anti-Church.” The Chaplain, whose simplicity renders him unable to follow Warwick and Cauchon’s dialogue, nevertheless cries out for Joan’s burning. Cauchon and Warwick reach a point of agreement as they realize the more nuanced ways in which Joan’s philosophies make her their common enemy. Cauchon and Warwick’s debate has left the simple-minded Stogumber confused, but he’s still on board with putting Joan to death on the basis that she “rebels against Nature” by wearing men’s clothing. In the end, the three men agree that Joan must be stopped.
Cauchon sees nationalism as “anti-Church” because it compromises the common people’s allegiance to the clergy, much in the same way Warwick sees nationalism as anti-feudal because it compromises the common people’s allegiance to their regional noblemen in favor of allegiance to the king. The fact that all Stogumber—the simpleton—can rally behind is how Joan “rebels against Nature” by wearing men’s clothing underscores how ridiculous it is for society to condemn Joan so harshly for something as trite and harmless as subverting gender norms.
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