Telling The Truth In Joan Of Arc

It did not take long before Joan decided that she needed to assist in the war. She was merely 17 years old, still a young teenager that was ready to leave home, her family, and anything else that tried to stop her behind. With a claim that she heard voices, she convinced her jury and the English that she was God’s Chosen one and that this worthy voice told her that she must go to France (p. 24). Taylor details the conversations that took place during Joan’s trials, allowing the reader to make their own judgement of why Joan decided to go into war and if she was actually guided by angels or if she was simply talented in fabricating stories.

When Joan was thirteen years old, she began to hear voices and see visions. She identified these visions as St. Catherine, St. Margaret, the Archangel Michael, sometimes Gabriel, and large groups of angels on some occasions (Joan of Arc Bibliography). She was determined that God had sent these voices, to give her a very important mission: to save France by taking down its enemies, and to make Charles as its rightful king.

“One day, when she was about thirteen, Joan sat in her father’s garden…A sudden flash of light seared her eyes… Somewhere out in the darkness, she heard a powerful male voice ‘Joan,’ it called” (25-26). This was the first time that this had happened and it wasn’t going to be the last time ether. Overtime she had got better at picking out this voice and finally one morning when she was daydreaming she had looked up and had saw the archangel Michael standing right beside her. Then after some time she was visited by the two saints she has always looked up to Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. She took this as a calling to go and have the young dauphin Charles VII crowned (27-28).

When she was 16 years old Joan travelled to Vaucouleurs, a stronghold of the Dauphin of France. She told the Captain there of her visions but he didn't believe her and sent her home.

One of the first reasons why Joan of Arc should be considered great is that she pioneered the idea that women can be strong. She was a powerful young woman in a time when her gender was expected to be meek and delicate. In the fifteenth century, most women would be expected to marry or become a nun. (6) Men would typically go off to do the fighting as the women stayed home with the children. However, Joan had a different idea as to what she would do with her life. Instead of accepting the marriage her father arranged for her she refused the match. She then continued to defy social norms by cropping her hair, dressed in men’s clothing, and riding to her king to offer herself up as a military asset. (4) She committed her life to serving her

Firstly, Joan (pronounced Jeanne in French), has visions as a child. Several years later, she arrives in Chinon, France, to speak with Charles, the Dauphin, about driving out the English. Joan then leads an attack and defeats the English at their stronghold “Tourelles”. The second day, Joan leads another attack. As both sides regroup, she tells the English to leave, which, surprisingly, they do. The Burgundians then take her prisoner and charge her with the crime of heresy. Her conscience then makes here question whether or not her visions were actually from God. Convinced, the Burgundians then charge her of witchcraft, and she is burned at the stake.

Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in Domrémy, France, to a poverty-stricken family. Life for her family was challenging, Joan never even got a proper education, but her mother still made sure to instill a love for Catholicism in her. During this time, there was a large conflict between France and England, now known as the Hundred Years’ War. When Joan was 13, the Anglo-Burgundians, from England, invaded her village and forced her family, and several other families to leave. At that time, she began to hear voices that she supposed were sent from God. She believed these

No one was going to stand between Joan and what was right. She returned, “Joan went to Vaucouleurs again in January 1429. This time her quiet firmness and piety gained her the respect of the people, and the captain, persuaded that she was neither a witch nor feebleminded, allowed her to go to the Dauphin at Chinon” (britannica.com). Joan was set on making a difference in the world.

Her uncle was the first to have believed in her mission. On May 1428, Joan’s voices commanded her to go to Vaucouleurs to contact the garrison and supporter of Charles, Robert de Baudricourt, and with her uncle’s help she did just that. At first, Baudricourt laughed her off but Joan didn’t give in and went back the following year. Seeing that she was getting approval from the villagers, he approved and gave her a horse and some escorts. Before her departure, she changed into the man’s look she was famous for and traveled to Chinon, where Charles was currently located along with his court.

The voices told Joan to leave her home, the only place she had ever known, to become a soldier, and to participate in war. The voices also insisted Joan take a vow of chastity, which she so willingly did. Joan’s God wanted her to risk her life, to escort men into battle to crown a king. Joan was urged to leave behind everything she had ever known to support her God. She boldly left her family with no more than a second glance because she was so fixed on what God wanted her to do. She knew what she had to do: crown the dauphin king of France, Charles VII. Surprisingly, Joan gained Charles’ support, quite quickly, through God. Joan joined Charles’ forces and before long, she was given an army and charged into Orléans to begin battle with the English. Joan’s success only lasted nine months, but the battles she won were so important to the French that it seems they lasted much longer. Her luck changed in May 1430, when she was captured by the Burgundians, the soldiers who ruined her town almost 20 years ago, and then sold to the English. From this point on Joan would no longer be a soldier but a prisoner for the rest of her life and this was the will of Joan’s God.

This girl soldier has struck fascination in the hearts of Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Joan of Arc was born on January 6, 1412 in the little village of Domremy, in France. Her parents owned about 50 acres of land and her father was a town official. She lived a normal holy life until one day when she was 13 St's Catherine of Sienna, Margret, and Michael, who told her to drive out the English from France and to bring Dauphin to Reims for his coronation. Three years later when she was 16 she asked a relative to take her to Vancoleurs where she asked the garrison commander Robert de Baudricourt for an armed escort to bring her to the French Royal Court at Chinon. At first, he thought she was joking and rejected her request, but at their second meeting where she made a prediction about the outcome of the next battle before the messengers arrived to report it her request was granted. She traveled to Chinon dressed as a male soldier which would later lead to charges of "cross-dressing." At Chinon she was accepted as a soldier and began her campaign to liberate France and bring the true king to the throne. “With the favor of her king supporting her, Joan the Maid could now unfurl her banners” (Carrol 519). Joan won many impressive victories many where the French army was at a large disadvantage, but her faith in God remained strong throughout all hardships even in

For Joan of Arc, 1428 was the start of a new life and journey. In the May of that year, Joan makes her first trip to Vacouleurs to meet with Robert de Baudricourt asking him to send her to the king. He had initially rejected her but her strong willingness to pursue what she wanted led to her attracting a small group of followers who believedthat she truly was destined to save France according to a prophecy. Baudricort finally gave in to her and she set out to Chinon, the site of the prince’s fortress. With the help of Charles, she led an army to Orleans in March of 1429 wearing white armor on her white horse. Joan had led several French attacks and drove the Anglo-Burgundians from their fortess and forced them to leave and cross the Loire River.

During the middle ages, visions could come from only God or the devil. She was accused of hosting visions from the devil and, therefore, witchcraft. Joan believed that faith/God could help the government. She did not want division between the two since her divine guidance led to France’s inevitable victory of the Hundred Years war.

Joan was a very simple, faithful country girl. Until a day God called upon her, to fight in his name against the invading English. At that moment, Joan was chosen a messenger of God. Joan's first encounter

Joan is able to provide the reader with a vivid description of the anxieties and ordeals of being a female throughout childhood and adolescence. She starts out with the simple desire to love and be loved, to find acceptance. These desires are not gender specific, as both males and females strive to be love and be loved and find acceptance. The difference is how women and men actually find these. Due to constant victimization by others a pattern of outsiders becomes Joan’s guard and vengeance. Joan's early misery and resentment causes her to see life as her enemy. Because Joan is made to feel as though she is an object, as many women in her time as well as our own feel too, Joan learns to use idealization as a weapon that will reach her emotionally unreachable mother: Joan claims to defy every effort to make her reduce out of a fear of assimilation and loss of autonomy: "I wasn't going to let myself be diminished, neutralized. I wouldn't ever let her make me over in her image, thin and beautiful" (Atwood, 85-6). This in her mind would be surcoming to the gender stereotype that woman not only should fit into, but had to fit into. It was her own way of rebelling against what a woman should be and being herself. Whether this was the correct way to go about it, her reasons were her reasons and that is what is important to her. Unfortunately this only caused a vicious circle. The more she rebelled against the gender norm for her