# Tragedy Not Melodrama explained — Saint Joan

> Chapter companion for Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw.

## What happens

Shaw argues that the drama of Joan of Arc is a tragedy, not a melodrama, because there are no villains. The people who condemned Joan were not evil but normally innocent people acting with good intentions and righteousness. This contradiction between pious intentions and tragic outcomes introduces an element of comedy into the tragedy, elevating it above mere police court sensation.

## Themes in this chapter

### Justice and Injustice

Explores the paradox of judicial murder: how normally innocent people can commit terrible acts in the name of righteousness, turning justice into tragedy.

### The Tragedy of Greatness

Joan's greatness is underscored by the fact that her death was not the work of villains but of well-intentioned people, making her story a high tragedy rather than a melodrama.

## Character check-ins

### Joan of Arc

The subject of the tragedy, whose death at the hands of normally innocent people gives the story its tragic significance.

### Peter Cauchon

Portrayed not as a rascally bishop but as a capable and eloquent exponent of The Church Militant, avoiding the melodramatic villain trope.

### The Inquisitor

Portrayed as a capable and eloquent exponent of The Church Litigant, not as a cruel figure, to maintain high tragedy.

### Mark Twain

Mentioned as one of the authors who reduced Joan's story to melodrama by depicting Cauchon and the Inquisitor as villains.

### Andrew Lang

Mentioned alongside Mark Twain as an author who reduced Joan's story to melodrama by depicting Cauchon and the Inquisitor as villains.

## Key lines

> There are no villains in the piece.

No character is purely evil or malicious.

_Shaw establishes the central thesis that the drama lacks traditional villains._

> The rascally bishop and the cruel inquisitor of Mark Twain and Andrew Lang are as dull as pickpockets; and they reduce Joan to the level of the even less interesting person whose pocket is picked.

Portraying Cauchon and the Inquisitor as villains makes Joan's story as trivial as a petty crime.

_Shaw criticizes melodramatic depictions that diminish Joan's significance._

> The tragedy of such murders is that they are not committed by murderers. They are judicial murders, pious murders; and this contradiction at once brings an element of comedy into the tragedy: the angels may weep at the murder, but the gods laugh at the murderers.

The horror of these killings lies in their being done by righteous people, creating a dark comedy where divine beings react differently.

_Shaw highlights the ironic and comedic aspect of pious violence._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/saint_joan_se/chapters/tragedy-not-melodrama
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/saint_joan_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/saint_joan_se/chapters