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RELIGIOUS MORAL PANIC + HOW ITS USED TO STRENGTHEN INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL -…
RELIGIOUS MORAL PANIC + HOW ITS USED TO STRENGTHEN INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL
SAINT JOAN
The church authorities, particularly the Inquisitor and Bishop of Beauvais, condemned the church for heresy, believing her claim of direct communication with God usurped their divine authority
Joan's nationalist ideals, which encouraged a singular loyalty to the King of France rather than to localized feudal lords, were seen as a threat to the existing social and political order.
Joan is made to seem mad or lying in regards to her voices, a point Shaw really explores in his paragraph 'Joan's voices and visions.'
Shaw emphasises that 'Socrates, Luther, Swedenborg, Blake saw visions and heard voices just as Saint Francis and Saint Joan did' (p11)
In the preface to Saint Joan, Shaw observes that “The test of sanity is not the normality of the method but the reasonableness of the discovery.”
'Oh, it is true: it is true: my voices have deceived me. I have been mocked by devils: my faith is broke. I have dared and dared; but only a fool will walk into a fire'
In Saint Joan, the institution tries to degrade Joan's character and make her seem mad - she is led into a false confession but she is too headstrong
ROBERT. How do you mean? voices?
JOAN. I hear voices telling me what to do. They come from God.
ROBERT. They come from your imagination.
JOAN. Of course. That is how the messages of God come to us.
Woman: are you quite mad? Do you not see that your voices have deceived you? (p139)
'[Impatient, but friendly] They all say I am mad until I talk to them, squire. But you see that it is the will of God that you are to do what He has put into my mind' p61
Use of foreshadowing by Shaw, tragic irony in the sense that the more the institution know about Joan, the more they believe she is mad. Clearly she is naive here.
“Minding your own business is like minding your own body: it’s the shortest way to make yourself sick.” - scene 2
THE CRUCIBLE
In the crucible, mass hysteria is used as a tool to coerce the women into false confession, and worsen accusations of witchery in Salem. The witch trials was a fire that fed itself.
Mass hysteria is used to weaken the women of Salem, and turn their men against them.
Giles Corey mentions in passing that his wife reads books that he doesn't understand or that she 'keeps' from him, both Giles and his wife are executed.
Giles realises the strength of his comments when he tries to save his wife from execution, but he cannot do so.
Mary Warren, who originally tries to challenge the system and stand up for herself, ends up succumbing to the pressure placed on her by the courts and she begins blaming John Proctor
Mass hysteria is weaponized by the respective institutions to perpetuate their misogynist ideals and limit the influence of individuals who attempt to challenge such hierarchy.
The women in the crucible and joan in saint joan are made to seem mad, a result of moral panic.
Moral panic + how its used to strengthen institutional control
(Remember to write about how the fear of the institution may be linked to their socialist backgrounds, talk about how the girls in the crucible and Joan are made to seem mad, exploration into female hysteria?) ‘Fear will drive men to any extreme; and the fear inspired by a superior being is a mystery which cannot be reasoned away.’
The moral panic, fuelled by reliigon, is weaponised
People are turned against one another, though they are for the same cause. All the people in the Crucible and Saint Joan are devoutly religious.
The girls are forced to make hysterical confessions in fear of being hanged. Tituba, Mary Warren or Joan and the angels.
Shaw -
Fear will drive men to any extreme; and the fear inspired by a superior being is a mystery which cannot be reasoned away