Essay — Divine Vocation in Saint Joan (A)

Write a critical appreciation of the following passage, relating it to the dramatic presentation of divine vocation or calling, here and elsewhere in the play. [A Levels 2021] Situated near the climax of the play, this passage depicts the events of Joan’s trial, as various figures of authority from the Church question Joan on her suspected heresy. This moment presents the clash between their conceptions of divine vocation, a conflict visually reinforced by the physical separation of Joan’s “prisoner’s stool” and the Church’s “judicial chairs” on opposite ends of the stage. As various ecclesiastical figures — for whom divine vocation is attached to institutional loyalties — challenge Joan’s individualistic divine calling, the audience discerns that society is unable to escape its preconceived beliefs to accept Joan’s visionary ideas regarding divine inspiration. Ultimately, Shaw reveals that an individual’s divine calling cannot be understood by society because it is inherently subjective: it cannot be verified by our limited, human faculties. Shaw first establishes that an individual’s and society’s understandings of divine vocation can come into conflict: while Joan believes that one’s divine vocation involves direct service to God, figures of clerical authority view divine vocation as obedience to ecclesiastical institutions. Throughout the scene, this clash of perspectives is reinforced through the structure of interrogation, as the Church’s leading questions and Joan’s resolute answers juxtapose their contrasting understandings of divine vocation. Ladvenu asks if Joan is “subject to our Lord the Pope, to the cardinals, the archbishops, and the bishops for whom his lordship stands here”. Ladvenu’s long list of ecclesiastical figures in decreasing order of hierarchy evinces his firm commitment to upholding the institutional structures of the Church, with his respect for authority further emphasised by his formal, reverential address of these figures (“our Lord the Pope”, “his lordship”). In addition, he repeatedly employs diction associated with obedience (“subject”, “submit”) when discussing Joan’s relationship with the Catholic Church, suggesting that one’s divine vocation must be circumscribed by religious institutions. This conception of divine vocation is dismissed by Joan, who repeatedly states that “God must be served first”. By omitting mention of the many layers of clerical hierarchy, Joan bypasses the Church to place herself directly and principally beneath God, revealing her individualistic understanding of divine calling that dissociates the concept from institutional loyalties. As such, Shaw foregrounds the way divine vocation can be understood in conflicting ways. Subsequently, Cauchon asks Joan if “you, and not the Church, are to be the judge” of how to serve God, and Joan retorts with the rhetorical question “What other judgment can I judge by but my own?”. The repetition of “judge” across the lines creates a stichomythic qual