Read the book Saint Joan by Bernard Shaw.
Thematic Content: He is always as great as Shakespeare and almost as complex. For now, the thematic context would be that he worships great people, who move the world forward despite all odds, but often pay a big price for it.
Shaw is a very great dramatist. Most people feel he is second only to Shakespeare himself. He has some ideas, though, that needs explaining if a student is to get the best out of him.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the popular philosophic and psychological theories talked a lot about evolution, the survival of the fittest. Shaw was influenced by these ideas and honored the person who could their own success, advancement, transcendence. This is the famous Shavian heroine or hero. It’s called creative evolution, not natural evolution, which is Darwin’s big idea. So enjoy how Joan creates herself despite everything that is going on around her, despite all that is against her. She is the new deal in human or at least Western Civilization. Bringing the world out of the middle ages in a way, paving the way for nationalism and individual thought, goals, aspirations. The world at first is romantically behind her. Then unfortuanely she makes the world insecure, and the powers that be work against her. Finally, the sad comedy of it all is that they make her a saint after she has been removed from any kind of power or unpleasantness towards the real bosses of the world. Sound familiar? We often lock up, kill, our best people, the ones ahead of their time, fighting for independence and a new world order.
Write an essay how according to Shaw what happens to a great person, especially a woman, in this world of ours. First greeted, then feared, then gotten rid of, then made a saint!