Villains in Saint Joan

Warwick is desperate to get his hands on Joan because of her strong nationalism and how she rebels by behaving not like the other females, but rather fights with men and wears men’s clothes. It is a problem for him that she does not like to follow rules because most of the common people adore her and could easily be influenced by her to begin rebelling or just cause chaos in general. Warwick also believes that her nationalism is threatening him and the other nobles by superseding “the aristocracy, and make the king sole and absolute autocrat. Instead of the king being merely the first among his peers, he becomes their master” (97). But it is an even bigger problem if all the people residing in France started to claim that they are French because t

Before Joan’s death and during the trial, the Church had the help of the Inquisitor. Again, it is not that the Inquisitor wanted Joan to suffer or die, but he is just performing his duty of discovering and punishing heretics. He tries to make Joan look as much of a sinner and a heretic as possible, so that she can be “ruthlessly stamped out” (127) and will not “wreck both Church and Empire” (127). The Inquisitor’s work may at first seem “cruel to those who do not know how much more cruel it would be to leave it undone”, but it is not only necessary, it is “essential mercy” (123) to the sinner. His ultimate duty is to try to make the girl to see her sins and her heresy so that she could recant her sins, thus saving her soul from eternal damnation. It was not the intentions of the Inquisitor that Joan should die, since he did what he thought was best to help the misguided Joan, and other people who also have sinned like as her.

It is true; there are no villains in Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan. The characters all have good intentions, but different believes, which is what led to the conflicts between them. Cauchon is only interested in Joan because her behaviour is like that of a heretic. Warwick is opposed to Joan’s idea of nationalism, since she could cause harm to the nobles of England. However, everybody had justified reasons for what they did, in most cases they are just trying to

Some topics in this essay:
Cauchon Joan, Cauchon Warwick, Warwick Cauchon, French English, Saint Joan, Dethrone Christ, Inquisitor Joan, Church Empire”, Catholic Church, Joan Arc, warwick cauchon, inquisitor joan, bernard shaw’s, recant sins, saint joan, cauchon joan, dethrone christ, villains bernard, villains bernard shaw’s, cauchon warwick,