Discuss
the role of voices and visions in the character of Joan.
Shaw’s
views on the voices and visions
In the preface to his play Saint
Joan Shaw analyses critically the ‘voices and visions’ of St. Joan in the light
of modern thought as well as the accepted norms of society consisting of
enlightened persons. Whatever criticism
we may level against Joan’s voices, we cannot say that she was a liar or an
imposter. Her imagination is so vivid that all new ideas might have come to her
as an audible voice. Joan cannot be dubbed insane or mad as some of the
accusers did because her behaviour after the divulging of the so called Voices
is never abnormal. The vision of Saints Catherine, Margaret and Michael that
Joan is supposed to have had are due to the dramatized imagination, bringing
the pressure of the evolutionary force on her. Shaw says: “If Newton’s
imagination had been of the same vividly dramatic kind he might have seen the
ghost of Pythagoras walk into the orchard and explain why the apples were
falling.” No one would have dared to call Newton
insane even if he had expressed such a vision. Nor could such a vision have
invalidated the theory of gravitation. If Joan were to be called mad, all
religious- minded and devout persons also could be called mad. An array of
legendary personages does indeed attract new convents. She was in reality a
very sane person with, of course, some hallucination
The
Crazy for Masculine Dress
Joan always insisted on wearing a
soldier’s uniform and equipment because that was really convenient for her
activities. We cannot say that if she had been in a woman’s attire she would
have been in physical danger. The mission that she undertook was such that a
feminine dress would have been ridiculously incongruous.
