Ayesha Hossain

Ms. Ledwidge

Saint Joan by Barnard Shaw is a play about a young woman who believes that she can
lead the French forces to victory in 1429. However, due to the male chauvinism at the time, she
does not have many friends at the court. After the Coronation of the Dauphin, she argues with
the Archbishop, Dunois, and King Charles VII because they don’t want her to take Paris. Instead
they say that nobody supports her anymore and that she stands alone. In her grief, Joan makes
a speech which uses diction and imagery to bring out her loneliness.

Joan’s use of high diction along with syntax and repetition in her speech, appeals to the
reader and reveals how alone she really feels. Using parallelism she says, “there is no help, no
council” in order to prove that nobody has come to her aid. She also repeats the word “alone” a
few times; for example, she says “I am alone on Earth. I have always been alone.” She also uses
both parallelism and repetition when she says “France is alone, God is alone, and what is my
loneliness before the loneliness of my country and my God.” In this quotes, she is telling the
reader that she is similar to both France and to God, so why should people think that she is
evil? She is only a “friend” of the court and wants her country to be victorious. Another place
she uses repetition is when she says “In His strength I will dare, and dare, and dare until I die.”
This statement conveys Joan’s determination to overcome her loneliness to the reader. She
believes that “His friendship,” “His Counsel,” and “His love” will allow Joan to prove her beliefs
right. She wants to use her loneliness to fight back and use it as her weapon, not her weakness.

Throughout her speech, imagery is used as well to further prove how lonesome she is.
Instances of imagery are when she says, “I am alone on Earth” and “my father told my brothers
to drown me if I would not stay to mind his sheep while France was bleeding.” To the reader,
this portrays an image of a lonely unhappy Joan tending to her sheep, but wanting to help
France. She uses imagery as well when she says “I find only wolves fighting for pieces of her
torn body” referring to France. This image along with her statement “if i go through the fire, I
shall go through it to their hearts for ever and ever” makes Joan sound like a hero and martyr.
Through her language she is able to profess a love for her country and only wants to be given a
chance to protect it. However, she receives no help from people of the court and is truly by
herself.