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Unit 25: Saint Joan: Characterization

Scene IV, however, the audience will realize how such pragmatism, such realism, such Notes
“commonsense” becomes a double-edged sword that can work against Joan as well as for her. As a
pragmatic man, the Earl of Warwick is not truly concerned with the Church’s condemnation or
rehabilitation of Joan: he is concerned only that Joan undercuts his authority as a feudal lord, and
therefore she must be destroyed.

25.1.5 Bishop Cauchon

Bishop Cauchon emerges in Shaw’s play as a man who wants to do what is right, but who is unable
to do so. Indeed, readers should consider the possibility that Shaw establishes Cauchon as a “foil”
in many ways to Joan herself. Like Joan, he is a person of principle, even if his principles serve the
interest of the Church and not of the individual conscience or imagination (for instance, his repeated
insistence that the Church is not subject to political necessity). As Joan is (literally) sanctified after
her death, Cauchon, we learn in the epilogue, is (virtually) demonized after his. And yet his words
in the epilogue could just as easily have come from Joan’s mouth: “I was faithful to my light: I could
do no other than I did.”

25.1.6 Joan
Joan is, of course, the focus of the play. There can be little doubt that Shaw honestly attempts to
present a human Joan. But readers will have to conclude if he has truly done so, especially given the
drama’s famous final line: “O God when will [the world] be ready to receive Thy saints?” Surely,
Joan is not a “saint” for Shaw in the medieval sense of a miracle-worker. Yet she is a “saint” of the
imagination, and, for all the ways in which she may be like us, she may remain, even for Shaw,
fundamentally of a different order.

Self Assessment
Multiple Choice Questions:
1. The Dauphin, a reluctant ruler of the kingdom that is rightfully his is later
(a) King Charles VII (b) King Charles V
(c) the real heir of the kingdom (d) was opposed by Joan.
2. Which of the following statements is not true about Joan?
(a) The focus of the play (b) The most cruel oppressor
(c) The human and patriotic (d) The saint.
Fill in the blanks:
3. The Dauphin seeks to avoid ......, and, in Shaw’s play, he is all but forced by Joan into his
royal position.
4. Captain Jack Dunois is described by Shaw a good natured and capable man who has no
affectations and no ...... .
State whether the following statements are true or false:
5. The Earl of Warwick exemplifies the pragmatism of which Shaw writes in his preface.
6. Bishop Cauchon emerges in Shaw’s play as a man who wants to do the wrong.

25.2 Summary

• Characters in Saint Joan are defined by their actions. The Chaplain’s viciousness is shown in
his relentlessly maniacal pursuit of Joan’s execution. Cauchon and the Inquisitor’s compassion
is shown in the lengths to which they go to try and get Joan to repent.

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