St Joan Evaluation

ST. JOAN

The play itself was fairly good, but getting there was what I was unhappy with. I normally would not read the preface and for a lot of it I still just tuned it out. Fifty-five pages on someone else’s opinions, theories, praises, and off-topic discussion is really not appealing to me. Such as on page 21, Joan is said to be a historical and human phenomenon. She may have been made a saint and been a great leader, but she is certainly not the only saint, and is among hundreds of great leaders. I’d say she’s still just a normal person with her own personality who makes a good story. With the preface and everything at the end, 96 of the 208 pages were not even story. Basically half of the book was, well at least to me, boring, unnecessary and taking up space.

Now to the actual play. Since it’s history I can’t really argue with the story, and I don’t plan to. The play though I have a few problems with, and just a few things I noticed. It’s fairly well written, and detailed enough, except for one or two places where it will suddenly jump. Such as switching between scenes four and five. They leave us, Joan and her army about to attack Orleans, and pick up, at an English camp after Joan has attacked Orleans and four other places. Perhaps in an actual play it would seem better, and even as I think about it now it seems better. I read it not watched it though, and reading it as I went through the