Saint Saint Joan: Joan: As A Tragic agic play This play is not a tragedy in the ordinary sense of term. There is not that sense of finality which belongs to all true tragedies, whether classical of romantic. It seems indeed, that there is no end to the contest that has been represented. It is a continuous struggle between an all embracing authority and the spirit of protest, and as there is no cessation in the march of the Evolutionary ‘Will, it enters into a new phase as one generation succeeds another. That is the justification of the Epilogue which shows how the world has ‘progressed’ in this respect. oan of !rc was burnt for heresy. Witchcraft, and sorcery in "#$", rehabilitated in "#%&, "#%&, design designat ated ed 'enerabl nerablee in "()#, "()#, declar declared ed *lesse *lessed d in "()+ "()+ and finally canonied- all these only mar different stages in the ‘progress’ of humanity. !nd the history of oan will never be complete, because there is no end to the evolution of the /reative will. It is in this manner that that 0haw 0haw effe effects cts reconc reconcili iliati ation on betwe between en the comed comedy y of imper imperson sonal al evolution and the tragedy of personal death.
0aint oan is a tragedy 1uite different from the !ristotelian or the romantic ones. 2owever, it affects the proper purgation of the feelings of pity and fear lie !ristotelian or romantic tragedies. !ccording to !ristotle, 3 tragedy is an imitation of an action which is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude4. It is written is a
language
embellished with each ind of artistic ornaments, and arouses the feelings of pity and fear in the hearts of them of the audience. In classical tragedies the suffering and death or either of them is caused by the will of 5od. In romantic ones it is brought about by an individual villain, who plays upon the ‘fatal flaw’ of the hero. !s far as 0aint oan is concerned, it is according to 0haw himself 3a high tragedy4 and not a mere melodrama or a police court sensation. In a high tragedy, tragedy is brought about neither by any villainy of a individual nor by a conspiracy of fate 6 but it is brought about by pious and innocent persons, acting in good faith and with the best of intentions. 0haw intentionally whitewashed the cruel and corrupt bishop /auchon and the in1uisitor so that his play may not fall into the category
of a melodrama. In the preface to 0aint oan he maes it clear in the following manner, 3The rascally bishop and the cruel in1uisitor of 7ar Twain and !ndrew 8ang are as dull as picpocets 6 and they reduce oan to the level of the even less interesting person whose pocet is piced. I have represented both of them as capable and elo1uent e9ponents of the /hurch 7elitant and the /hurch 8itigant, because only by doing so can I maintain my drama on the level of high tragedy and save it from becoming a mere police court sensation.4
2e further continues, 3 .. if oan had not been burnt by normally innocent people in the energy of their righteousness her death at their hands would have no more significance than the Toyo earth1uae, which burnt a great many maidens. The tragedy of such murders in that they are not committed by murderers. They are judicial murders, pious murders 6 and this contradiction at once brings an element of comedy into tragedy : the angels may weep at the murder, but the gods laugh at the murders.4 In a high tragedy there is no room for conflict between the villain and the hero. In 0aint oan also there is no such conflict 6 because villain is an essential character in a melodrama not in a tragedy proper. Therefore, *ernard 0haw introduces no introduces no villain in the play and thus avoids all conflict with the hero. In the preface he says : 3 There is no villain in the piece. /rime, lie disease, is not interesting
: it is
something to be done away with by general comment ;..4 *ut it cannot be said that there is no conflict at all in the play. Without conflict action comes to a stand still. Therefore 0haw has replaced this melodramatic
conflict by a sophisticated conflict between 5enius and
. >nlie the traditional tragedy, 0aint oan has an epilogue added at the end. It may be significant form various points of view but it lessens the tragic effect of the play. !ccording to certain critics, this Epilogue is not only a superfluity, but also a serious fault. 2owever, the significance of Epilogue cannot be neglected altogether. It is through it that *ernard 0haw reveals the real nature of human beings who can have all lip sympathy with any one, even with a saint lie oan, but they are never prepared to receive 5od’s saints even in 2is world. !lso, Whew confirms that a person may be burnt or perished but has or her ideas last for ever. In the preface 0haw declares that the story of oan did not end wither burning, rather it began with it. The burning of a woman is a common everyday occurrence.
!ccidents tae place and women get burnt. In oan’s case it is not the burning which is sufficient, but the canoniation which is the conse1uence of it. This aspect of oan’s tragedy is highlighted by Epilogue. It is this Epilogue that maes the play a ‘serio-comic’ wor. oan, being the central figure in the play named after her, can safely be called the heroine of it. 0he is actually the hero of the play in the tradition-al sense of the term. 8ie a true tragic hero, she commands the attention, admiration and tears of the audience. When she is put to the stae all in the theatre weep or sob. 0he, by her acts and speeches, wins
sympathy and pity of all6 and is loved and honored as a saintly gently girl. !lthough technically it is wrong to mae a saint the hero ?heroine@ of a play, because saints are supposed to be submissive and tolerant, and thus they give on rise to conflict which may lead them to their tragedy yet *ernard 0haw has very successfully developed the character of oan from an ordinary village teenager to a canonied saint. 0he is the true hero ?heroine@ of the play because her death arouses the feelings of pity and fear in the hearts of the audience. 0he does good and dies for good. 2er burning is actually 3not the end for her, but the beginning.4 In a word. 0aint oan is a high tragedy. It is neither a melodrama nor a police court sensation. oan is undoubtedly the true tragic heroine because she wins admiration and sympathy from all 1uarters. 2er burning arouses the feelings of pity and fear in the hearts of the audience. Thus saint oan is a great tragedy with some special traits of its own.
