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Hyperbole
Definition of Imagery
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that engages... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines... read full definition
Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—In the Bells:
In Scene 5, Joan uses imagery to describe to Dunois what her voices sound like and where they come from:
It is in the bells I hear my voices. Not today, when they all rang: that was nothing but jangling. But here in this corner, where the bells come down from heaven, and the echoes linger, or in the fields, where they come from a distance through the quiet of the countryside, my voices are in them.
Joan draws on Dunois's familiarity with the sound of bells. Church bells notoriously sound beautiful and remind all who hear them of the church and the religious principles it represents. Joan uses this comparison in part to help Dunois understand that her voices are a guidepost, constantly drawing her attention back to her faith and her spiritual mission.
But Joan distinguishes between the church bells that rang at Charles's coronation earlier in the day and the bells in which she hears her voices. Compared to Joan's bells, church bells are "nothing but jangling." This distinction emphasizes both Joan's belief in the superiority of her voices and what they represent, and also her skepticism of the church. Church bells are rung not by God or angels, but rather by humans who work for the institution of the church. The coronation bells do not mean that God has recognized Charles as king. They simply mean that the church has recognized him. To Joan, the institution's recognition does not matter so much as God's. She hears her voices in bells that ring out "from heaven" and echo through the countryside across vast distances. As opposed to the church bells, they are unbounded by the physical placement of a church and the ability of sound waves to travel. They are also a direct line of communication from God to the people who live in the countryside. Church bells, on the other hand, represent a hierarchy in which people listen for a middle man to ring them.
Related Themes:
Scene 6
Explanation and Analysis—Flames of Hell:
In Scene 6, Stogumber finds that he is deeply disturbed by Joan's execution, which he just witnessed. He uses imagery to describe both his experience and Joan's, drawing a metaphorical comparison between her execution and the fate of those who have condemned her:
You madden yourself with words: you damn yourself because it feels grand to throw oil on the flaming hell of your own temper. But when it is brought home to you; when you see the thing you have done; when it is blinding your eyes, stifling your nostrils, tearing your heart, then—then—[Falling on his knees]. O God, take away this sight from me! O Christ, deliver me from this fire that is consuming me! She cried to Thee in the midst of it: Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! She is in Thy bosom; and I am in hell for evermore.
Stogumber emphasizes the physical sensations he experienced while watching Joan burn. He describes how horribly different these feelings are from the "grand" feeling of "throw[ing] oil on the flaming hell of your own temper." It feels good to fan the flames of vengeance against a "heretic" or rebel like Joan. But smoke and fire in the eyes and in the nostrils, and the horror in the "heart" of anyone with human sympathy for Joan, chokes out this good feeling. Watching Joan burn has made it evident to Stogumber that to damn her to this horrible fate is also to "damn yourself" in a religious sense.
He draws this metaphor out through the rest of this speech. "O Christ, deliver me from this fire that is consuming me! She cried to Thee in the midst of it: Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" is a deliberately unclear line. Stogumber could be reporting Joan's pleas to God while she was burning, but it seems just as likely that he is himself calling to Christ and pleading for salvation from "this fire that is consuming me." The next line clarifies that the latter is at least part of what he means. He addresses Christ directly, stating that "She [Joan] is in Thy bosom; and I am in hell for evermore." Stogumber is no longer just comparing the experience of watching the execution to the experience of being actually burned alive. Now, he is suggesting that his fate is worse: Joan burned physically but gets to spend eternity in heaven. Stogumber, on the other hand, has damned himself to eternity in the flames of hell.
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Epilogue
Explanation and Analysis—Noses in the Mud:
In the Epilogue, when Joan appears to Charles in a dream, he tells her that the woman he loved has also died, but that she was different from Joan in that she was beautiful. Joan responds with a pair of images that paint her as beautiful in a different way:
I was no beauty: I was always a rough one: a regular soldier. I might almost as well have been a man. Pity I wasn't: I should not have bothered you all so much then. But my head was in the skies; and the glory of God was upon me; and, man or woman, I should have bothered you as long as your noses were in the mud.
Joan offers up the image of her own head "in the skies," and she states the "the glory of God was upon me." Meanwhile, Charles and the other men's "noses were in the mud." This twin pair of images not only exalts Joan while denigrating the others, but it also suggests that the men could never really see Joan and how she shone in God's glory. They were looking at the ground and missed her true beauty, which had nothing to do with her physical body.
Joan also states that she "might almost as well have been a man" because then her success as a military leader would not have "bothered you all so much." Joan's relationship to her gender is a topic for much fruitful discussion. Shaw likely does not mean to imply that Joan is transgender, although there are ways to bring this lens to bear on the play. Shaw's explicit meaning seems more related to the double standards women face. Joan is legendary in part because she was persecuted as a heretic, and she was persecuted as a heretic in part because she was a woman. If she had not been a woman, she would not have faced the same expectations to be physically pretty and demure. Then, the men might have seen her true beauty and glory for what it was. On the other hand, she may not have made such a mark on history.
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