Research Paper on:
Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Ireland (when he was 65 years old), and it was produced in New York, London, and Paris almost simultaneously. According to Hamilton: "While Shaws Joan is usually seen as the  foremother of Protestantism and of French nationalism, the play can be read in many other ways" (359). What is implied by such statements is that the play cannot be classified  as being uniquely Irish and it cannot be thought of as only a religious, social, or political drama. There are those literary critics and historians who see it as primarily  an allegory for the reconstruction of post-World War I France. Others see it as being related almost exclusively to the issue of Irish nationalism and the relationship between that nations  Protestants and Catholics. Yet others address it as a story that deals primarily with the overt religious issues that it explores. What is important to understand is that it is  all of those things. It is the politicization of a religious story and a religious legend about a woman canonized in 1920 and modernized for its 20th century audience.  Religion, Politics, and Drama While considering "Saint Joan," it is also important to understand that art, be it music, literature and, or, theater is a reflection of the way people  think and behave. It is also a precursor to where the society is going because it involves the processes of past and present in a way that suggests the  future even as it serves to mirror the present. Plato (and, by extension, Socrates) held that art should be judged according to its truth, but it can only provide  a "true opinion" since it must be judged by external standards. It is those external standards that are often the most telling in terms of the underlying historical perspective offered