 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 Joan La Pucelle In a play largely devoted to the celebration of Talbot, there could be no place for anything like a modern reading of Joan of Arc. She is accordingly shown in a grotesquely unfavorable light, as devil-inspired lecherous and consumed by vanity. A character of lowly birth, she is utterly confident of her high destiny, she is a challenge to the play’s patriotic values, with her pungent contempt for pomposity and the fanaticism of her belief in the French cause. She is a witch and derives her power from the forces of hell. She uses this power to humble the English, and consequently Shakespeare’s attitude to her - on the surface - is one of simple enmity. But she is also a peasant girl, with a sharp tongue and a simple direct attitude towards the overblown nobility with whom she has to cooperate. The result is a tug-of-war, which Shakespeare fails to arbitrate. Jane, in the final analysis is shown as evil: the alliance of political misrule with witchcraft. She provides relief from the surrounding boredom and barbarism. She is shown as a comic figure, pretending to be a heroine. After she leads France in victory what Charles delivers is nothing but a parody of magnificence. "All the priests and friars in my realm. Pucelle shall be France’s saint." This speech insinuates that heroism without ethical sanctions merely becomes another corrupt secular religion. As the representative of that religion Joan suggests charlatans and imposters. Beneath these postures, Joan is generically an imposter created only to exhibit the ornate theatrical facade, as well as the policy and "stratagems" by which aspirant baseness masquerades as nobility. Hence, the scenes in which she is exposed and burnt as a witch serve a formal expository purpose that supersedes any need for a controlled, sequacious plot. The presence of "fiends" substantiates the fact that her powers are evilly inspired. These are followed by the shepherd, who underscores the real baseness of her origins with his unvarnished testimony that "she was the first fruit of my bachelorhood." Finally, the reiterated innuendo of sexual misconduct is made utterly explicit in her confession that Charles (or Alecon or Reignier) has left her with a child. And yet, the picture painted of her is not wholly black. Occasionally, there are moments of depth. This is notably apparent in the surprisingly eloquent tone of the lament, which she utters over her country’s ruin, "Look on thy country...malady of France." She is scornful of the dreary routines of practical men and also has the peasant’s dislike of fancy talk and high-flown titles. She turns this scorn on the English mobility. When Lucy comes to inquire about Talbot’s body her savage banter seems curiously sympathetic. Her character sketch, drawn by the playwright is two dimensional and stiff. But once this is understood and accepted it is possible to feel her as a vivid presence. Table of Contents | |
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