Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc a young woman condemned by a church that she sworn to faithfully follow, but is ultimately put to death under their power. In “Saint Joan” Shaw is attempting to show the madness of organized religion. When religion is left to the powers of men, who are unable to put their own agendas aside will led to horrible injustices. Even though Shaw's “Saint Joan” is a story of courage and heroism, in actuality its a story of the hypocrisy of religious fanatics who use their power for their own needs.

Saint Joan is a reflection of how Bernard Shaw the writer of this play saw religion in general. Shaw had many beliefs but organized religion was not one of them. Shaw considered himself an Atheist, and consider the church an unwanted distraction. In Bernard essay “Why is Law Indispensable he writes,” The truth is, laws, religions, creeds, and systems of ethics, instead of making society better than its best unit, make it worse than its average unit, because they are never up to date. You will ask me: "Why have them at all?" (Shaw). This is the reason he made the Catholic Church the antagonist in “Saint Joan. Shaw is trying to show how hypocritical the Catholic Church is being in his play. The church claims to be making things better for Joan but instead they are condemning her to a horrible imprisonment and death. Joan a girl who believes faithfully in the Catholic Church but the church sees her as a threat and sets out to eliminate her. If the church supposedly represents the mercilessness of God why did they not gave that same mercy to Joan.

“Saint Joan” is filled with many religious characters but the only one who truly believes they are doing God's work is Joan. Even though there is no proof that Joan is hearing these voices...

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... law but they do not do the same. They condemn Joan for her faith and then make her saint after the fact. Organize religions change their views on according to those who hold the power. The English saw Joan as a threat so she was made a criminal because they were the ones in power. The French regain their power and then the church made her a saint. The people who convicted her, our know being accused of being immoral and corrupt but they were always immoral and corrupt. Everyone knew what they were doing was wrong but no one ever did anything to stop it. Joan was the victim of politics that come from organized religion. She lived her life according to God's will and she believed the church was doing the same. Unfortunately Joan had to learn the hard way that she can only put her trust in God and not the religious fanatics of organized religion.