 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Table of Contents Act V, Scene III Summary The English are beating the French and Joan uses her occult power to summon the spirits that have helped her in the past. She asks for their help but no effort on her part moves them to help her. When they depart Joan realizes that French defeat is now certain. Joan is captured by the English and is taken to be burnt at the stake. Suffolk has captured Margaret, Reignier’s daughter, and is besotted by her beauty. He decides to get the King married to her since he cannot marry her himself. Reignier agrees to the match on the condition that Maine and Anjou are returned to the French. Suffolk agrees and sets forth to England to persuade Henry to marry the beautiful Margaret. Notes Through out the play Joan is seen in two different and contrasting lights: the French see her as a "saint" and the English as a "witch." This matter is settled in this scene, for the spirits that come at her bidding are "fiends" lending support to the English point-of-view that depicts her power as black- magic and witchcraft. The spirits desert her and take with them the good fortune that had led to the French victories. The playwright makes it explicit here that the French victory had nothing to do with courage but was a result of occult powers used against the upright and brave English. This scene also serves, as an introduction for Margaret, the woman Henry VI will marry. Suffolk’s infatuation for her leads him to arrange a marriage between the King and Margaret. He agrees to give Reignier, Maine and Anjou in lieu of this marriage. Suffolk is well aware that the king is already engaged to be married and this decision of his will have far- reaching consequences. Suffolk epitomizes the failure of a courtly aristocracy to provide an adequate image of feudal service and chivalry. Shakespeare sets one Frenchwoman against the other, for no sooner has Joan been dragged off the stage than Suffolk enters with Margaret in his hand. Shakespeare uses contrast for the basic structure of the whole scene between Margaret and Suffolk. Suffolk is so overcome by his infatuation with Margaret that he chivalrously offers to let her go with the immediate result that he has to stop her when she takes him at his word and starts to leave. The first part of the scene is built upon humorous cross-purposes, with both characters addressing the audience rather than one another. Suffolk debates how he may avoid letting her go. She reacts to his self-absorption with a mixture of bewilderment and mockery. In the second half of the scene Margaret turns tables on Suffolk by using his own technique against him. Margaret’s witty use of "quid pro quo" suggests a perfect balance between them. The cross-purposes which, at the start of the scene, began by isolating Margaret and Suffolk from each other, gradually come to suggest collusion. Shakespeare clinches the point as Margaret leaves the stage. After Suffolk has plighted her his faith on Henry’s behalf, he calls her back again and asks her for a kiss, ostensibly as a ‘token to his majesty.’ However, after giving him the kiss, she proves to be a perfect match for him as she shows that she understands his real meaning and the facts of the situation in her lightly mocking, teasing reply, "That for thyself: I will not so presume. To send such peevish tokens to a King." There is humor and formal balance in this scene. Table of Contents | |
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