Abstract

Saint Joan, written in 1923 is widely accepted as one of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw’s most brilliant plays. Contemporary scholars’ study on this drama mainly focuses on the analyses of the character’s personality, the cause of Joan’s tragedy, and the limitation of Shaw’s drama. However, Saint Joan is a play full of profound meaning and contains extensive enlightenments to people of all. It carries out a thought-provoking discussion over the topic of religious belief, feminism, social landscape, and even political issues that have impacts on the process of historical development and personal fate. Nevertheless, the domination of medieval authorities in France should be the most significant cores that cause Joan’s tragedy. Therefore, the analysis in this field has a sweeping value. There is no denying that throughout world’s history; almost all countries are unexceptionally sacrificing some geniuses and saints in the attempt to consolidate their own authorities. Accordingly, many brilliant warriors stand up and fight back. So this thesis will explore how Joan rebels against the medieval authorities—Catholic and Political legal to procure a complete picture of the drama’s social impacts upon the medieval society in France and the modern world, so as to fill in the meager study of Saint Joan to some extent.
This paper consists of five parts. Part One is the introduction which includes the writing background of Saint Joan, research situation home and abroad, research limitations and writing purpose of this thesis. Part Two is an overview of the medieval authorities—Exclusive Catholics, Disintegrated Royal Government and Corrupted Aristocracy. Part Three focuses on expounding how Joan challenges these unjust authorities as a feminist rebel. Part Four comes to the enlightenments in terms of historic and present contexts. Part five, the conclusion, manages to figure out the significance of this research on Saint Joan and the lessons we can learn from Joan’s bitter sufferings and her eternal spirit.

Key Worlds: Saint Joan; feminist rebel; medieval authorities; universal value
 
摘要

《圣女贞德》（1923）是爱尔兰剧作家萧伯纳的巨作之一。当代学者对于《圣女贞德》的学术研究主要集中在人物性格分析、导致贞德悲剧的因素以及萧伯纳戏剧的局限性方面。然而，《圣女贞德》是一部内涵极为丰富的作品，对社会各阶层的启迪作用颇为深远。它对宗教信仰、妇女问题、社会形态乃至影响历史发展及个人命运的政治因素等诸多问题都进行了发人深省的讨论。然而，当时中世纪权威统治才是导致贞德死亡的最核心因素。因此，在这领域的研究是很有前景的。毋庸置疑的是，纵观人类历史，几乎所有国家都无不例外地牺牲圣贤之人以巩固自己的权威；与之相应的，许许多多的伟人也奋起反抗。这篇论文将深入研究贞德是怎样反抗中世纪权威—宗教法庭和政治权威，进而提炼出作品对中世纪以及当代社会所产生的重要影响，期望填补对戏剧《圣女贞德》研究的漏洞。
该论文共五部分。第一部分主要介绍国内外对该作品的研究现状，以往研究现状的局限性以及本文的研究目的。第二部分主要纵揽中世纪权威，分别从政府，贵族和宗教三方面进行论述。第三部分将对贞德如何反抗中世纪权威进行细节性的剖析。第四部分从历史和当代两个方面阐述戏剧《圣女贞德》的重要意义所在。第五部分是结论，着重指出该论文研究的重要意义，以及我们从贞德的苦难和不屈不挠的精神中应汲取的教训。

关键词：圣女贞德；女性反叛者；中世纪权威；普适意义