Saint Joan · Chapter
The Inevitable Flatteries of Tragedy explained
Shaw explains the necessary artistic liberties taken in his play Saint Joan, arguing that to convey essential truth, the dramatist must make historical figures like Cauchon, Lemaître, and Warwick more self-aware and articulate than they wer
What happens
Shaw explains the necessary artistic liberties taken in his play Saint Joan, arguing that to convey essential truth, the dramatist must make historical figures like Cauchon, Lemaître, and Warwick more self-aware and articulate than they were in reality, thereby sacrificing verisimilitude for veracity.
Themes in this chapter
Historical Interpretation
Shaw directly addresses the tension between historical accuracy and dramatic truth, arguing that the stage must make figures more intelligible than they were in real life.
Heresy and Sanctity
The chapter touches on the roles of Cauchon and Lemaître as representatives of the Church and Inquisition, central to the heresy trial of Joan.
Characters to notice
- Peter Cauchon
Shaw notes that the real Cauchon was not a scoundrel, but the play flatters him by making him more conscious of his role as a representative of the Church.
- Dunois
Mentioned as being falsified in melodramas as a lover, whereas the play aims for a truer portrayal.
- Warwick
Shaw explains that Warwick is endowed with enough consciousness to explain the feudal system to a modern audience.
- Brother John Lemaître
The real Lemaître may not have been as able as depicted, but the play gives him greater clarity to represent the Inquisition.
- Joan of Arc
Shaw contrasts the melodramatic portrayal of Joan as a prima donna with his own aim to present the essential truth of her career.
Key passages
“It goes almost without saying that the old Jeanne d'Arc melodramas, reducing everything to a conflict of villain and hero, or in Joan's case villain and heroine, not only miss the point entirely, but falsify the characters, making Cauchon a scoundrel, Joan a prima donna, and Dunois a lover.”
Shaw asserts that traditional melodramas about Joan of Arc oversimplify the story into a battle between good and evil, distorting the real characters.
Shaw criticizes the melodramatic tradition for its lack of nuance.
“But it is the business of the stage to make its figures more intelligible to themselves than they would be in real life; for by no other means can they be made intelligible to the audience.”
The stage must present characters with a clarity and self-awareness they lacked in reality, so the audience can understand them.
Shaw justifies his dramatic license as necessary for communication.
“All I claim is that by this inevitable sacrifice of verisimilitude I have secured in the only possible way sufficient veracity to justify me in claiming that as far as I can gather from the available documentation, and from such powers of divination as I possess, the things I represent these three exponents of the drama as saying are the things they actually would have said if they had known what they were really doing.”
Shaw argues that by sacrificing surface realism, he achieves a deeper truth: his characters say what they would have said if they had understood their own historical roles.
Shaw's defense of his method balances historical evidence with imaginative insight.