Working on George Bernard Shaw

Monologues

The Art of Rhetoric Argument

SAINT

JOAN

Before

JOAN. They do come to you; but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart, and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do. (Turning brusquely from him) But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you: that you must strike while the iron is hot? I tell you we must make a dash at Compiègne and relieve it as we relieved Orleans. Then Paris will open its gates; or if not, we will break through them. What is your crown worth without your capital?

Saint Joan

Beginnings, Middles and Ends

JOAN. They do come to you; but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart, and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do. (Turning brusquely from him) But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you: that you must strike while the iron is hot? I tell you we must make a dash at Compiègne and relieve it as we relieved Orleans. Then Paris will open its gates; or if not, we will break through them. What is your crown worth without your capital?

Beginning is a response. Middle is one argument in two parts. End is a final rhetorical question.

Looking For Lists: Verb Action

JOAN. They do come to you; but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed¹ from your heart, and listened to the thrilling² of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear³ the voices as well as I do. (Turning brusquely from him) But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you: that you must strike while the iron is hot? I tell you we must make a dash¹ at Compiègne and relieve² it as we relieved Orleans. Then Paris will open³ its gates; or if not, we will break4 through them. What is your crown worth without your capital?

1→2→3: verb action drives the idea forward. Notice past, present, future verb progression in the 1st example. Whenever you see a list, use it to your advantage: forward momentum, rhythm.

Looking For Parallel Structures: Compare/Contrast or Antithesis

JOAN. They do come to you; but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart, and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do. (Turning brusquely from him) But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you: that you must strike while the iron is hot? I tell you we must make a dash at Compiègne and relieve it as we relieved Orleans. Then Paris will open its gates; or if not, we will break through them. What is your crown worth without your capital?

Compare/contrast drives the idea forward. Whenever you see this structure, find which words need lifting to make the point crystal clear.

Punctuation (or Drive For Curtain)

Period. End of an idea. Drive forward → to each one, then // stop.

Colon: The clause that comes after a : is dependent on the earlier clause. It is a continuation, a modification, clarification. The : means the idea is not finished. Drive forward: →

Semi-colon; The clause that comes after a ; is a clause that could stand on its own, but it achieves greater meaning if linked to the earlier clause. Drive forward; →

E x p a n d e d Word. Shaw’s italics.

Dashes. Sets off parenthetical ideas.

Ellipses. Rarely used.

Breathing: Full stops // at periods. Catch breaths # elsewhere.

Oral/Aural signal: Downward glide↓ at periods. Upward↑ or neutral→

(sideways) glide elsewhere.

Pronunciation

JOAN. They do come to you; but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart, and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do. (Turning brusquely from him) But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you: that you must strike while the iron is hot? I tell you we must make a dash at Compiègne and relieve it as we relieved Orleans. Then Paris will open its gates; or if not, we will break through them. What is your crown worth without your capital?

More often than not, choose the Anglicized pronunciations: an’-je-lus, Cohm-pyen’, Or-leenz’ or Or’-le-enz, Pa’-ris.

Web Resources

Whatever you do, look it up and be consistent.

http://history.boisestate.edu/westciv/audio/

http://www.yourdictionary.com/

www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s (free e-texts)

Tactics

JOAN. They do come to you; but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart, and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do. (Turning brusquely from him) But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you: that you must strike while the iron is hot? I tell you we must make a dash at Compiègne and relieve it as we relieved Orleans. Then Paris will open its gates; or if not, we will break through them. What is your crown worth without your capital?

Tactic

change

Tacticchange

Tacticchange

Structure: With each tactic Joan compares herself to them.

Word Quality

JOAN. They do come to you; but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it; but if you prayed from your heart, and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do. (Turning brusquely from him) But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you: that you must strike while the iron is hot? I tell you we must make a dash at Compiègne and relieve it as we relieved Orleans. Then Paris will open its gates; or if not, we will break through them. What is your crown worth without your capital?

Note change in weight and feel and sound. Crown/capital- hard ‘k’ sounds, alliterative.

GBS-In his own voice

I am old. Over eighty, in fact. Also, I have a white beard; and these two facts are somehow associated in people’s minds with wisdom: that’s a mistake. If a person’s a born fool, the folly will get worse, not better, by a long life’s practice. By having lived four times as long as any of you, gives me only one advantage over you: I have carried small boys in my arms--and girls--and see them grow into sixth form scholars; then into young men and women in the flower of youth and beauty; then into brides and bridegrooms who think one another much better and lovelier than they really are; then into middle age paterfamiliases and anxious mothers with elderly spreads; and finally I’ve attended their cremations(?). Well, now, you maynt think much of this, but just consider: some of your school fellows may surprise you by getting hanged; others of whom you have the lowest opinion who turn out to be geniuses and become one of the great men of your time: therefore always be nice to young people.

The Four Examinations

Some of the questions can be answered whole or in part textually within the monologue alone, but not all.

You must read the rest of the play for the other answers.

Don’t surmise. Don’t make things up. Answers must be supported textually, book and verse. Tell me where in the text your answer is supported.

Your Assignment

• Read over the assignment carefully.

• Choose your monologue.

• Memorize/Prepare it thoroughly.

• Read the play.

• Hand in a copy of your monologue with text work. (see Instruction page)

• Hand in a separate page answering the basic questions. (see Instruction page.)