Saint Joan

Orleans' armored heroine

Saint Joan is a 1923 play by George Bernard Shaw dramatizing the trial and execution of Joan of Arc.

The work portrays Joan as a proto-Protestant and nationalist whose vision threatened both church and feudal authority.

Shaw's preface, nearly as famous as the play itself, defends Joan against charges of heresy while examining the tragedy of institutions destroying what they cannot understand.

canonizationOfficial declaration of sainthood
Hundred Years' WarMedieval English-French succession struggle
FranceWestern European republic
French nationalismPatriotic devotion to Paris's homeland
dramaTheatrical art or turmoil

George Bernard Shaw · Charles VII · divine guidance · Orleans · martyrdom · burned at the stake · mysticism · trial · visions · literature · feminism · heroism · Burgundians · Roman Catholic Church · medieval warfare · peasantry · operas · theology

Opposites

moral/spiritual character type

Saint JoanFaust

Legendary deal-with-devil maker

Mephistopheles · Doctor Faustus · Satan · Judas Iscariot · Macbeth

dramatic genre/tone

Saint JoanThe Importance of Being Earnest

Victorian comedy of manners

Waiting for Godot · farce · burlesque · absurdist comedy

gender and power archetype

Saint JoanCleopatra

Egypt's last pharaoh

Salome · Helen of Troy · Delilah · femme fatale · Mata Hari

Family

saint, Joan, saints, saintly, sainthood, sainted, saintliness, unsaintly

Familiarity: Top 500,000
Profile: Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Rated G