Essay

Joan of Arc: Hero or Villain?

In medieval times, the number of female heroes was very small. This makes the acts of one Joan of Arc even more remarkable. Joan of Arc was a young peasant girl, who had never even learned to read or write. She grew up in a small village, but when she was 17, she heard the voices of saints telling her to go fight in the Hundred Years' War and save France from England. With this, she ventured from her village to go see the king and ask for a place in the army. Joan grew up poor and insignificant, but had an adventure in her short life. She died a noble hero, and now lives on in history books, and art, and our minds as the hero who saved France.

Joan, known as Jeanne d'Arc or Jeanne la Pucelle before she joined the army, grew up in a small village in France known as Donremy. She was a serious Catholic and, as previously stated, had never learned to read or write. At the age of 17, in the middle of the Hundred Years' War, she claimed to have heard the voices of saints, sent from God to tell her to fight for the French and against the English in the ongoing war. After hearing these voices, she left her village to go speak to Charles, heir to the French throne. He tried to trick her by hiding amongst his nobles, but despite the fact she had never seen him before, she found him with ease. She explained her story to him and he granted her a place as a general in the army. She led her soldiers without doubt, and won the Battle of Orleans, as well as many other battles. After winning the Battle of Orleans, she became known as the Maid of Orleans. Her final battle was the Battle of Compiegne, where she was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English for a great amount of money. The English declared Joan a witch, and burned her at the stake, but not before giving her one last chance to live. They told her that they would let her go if she said that she never heard any voices and that all of this was just a ruse to get in the army. Since she was, in fact, burned, it's easy to guess her choice.

Joan of Arc was a hero to the French. She won many important battles for the French, including the crucial Battle of Orleans. Although she was unable to succeed in the Siege of Compiegne, she still won too many battles to not be called a hero. She won back a lot of land for the French, and became such an important asset to the French that the English were willing to pay very large amounts of money in order to keep her from leading her army. Another reason that Joan was a hero applies to all people in any military: she was willing to give her life to save her country. She knew that she may die, but she also knew that - to quote Spock from Star Trek - "The needs of the many are greater than the needs of the few or the one." She was voluntarily making herself a target for the English, but she knew it was for the greater good, and did it anyway. One last reason that Joan was a hero is that her heroic death unified and inspired the French to have a different view of themselves. Joan died for her country after being captured and found guilty of witchcraft in England. She was to be burned at the stake, and was offered a chance to live if she would admit that she never heard any saints and was just a foolish young girl. Joan refused to say that, stating that she couldn't lie. She was burned at the stake at 19, and the death of someone so young, especially in the name of a war, unified the French and allowed them to stand up together against the English.

It may be said that Joan of Arc was a villain or a fraud because she had no solid proof that the saints spoke to her. However, this does not necessarily mean she is a villain. Even if Joan had made up the fact that the saints spoke to her, she still led the French to many victories in the Hundred Years' War. Because of this, the English may see her as a villain, but that doesn't change the fact that she is a French hero. In Joan's last battle, she was supposedly very nervous. People who see her as a villain may question this and ask, "Why was she nervous if she had help from the saints?" What they misunderstand is that the war was not Joan's entire life; perhaps the saints had told her she was going to be captured in the upcoming battle, and she was nervous about that. Maybe she was no longer hearing the voices of the saints, and that worried her. Perhaps that caused her to act rashly, and that is why she was caught. There are various reasons why Joan could have been nervous and/or gotten captured. It cannot be narrowed down to just nerves about the upcoming battle.

Jeanne d'Arc, Jeanne la Pucelle, Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc. No matter what she was called, she was a hero of France. Joan grew up an unnoticed peasant girl and died a victorious leader. She heard the voices of saints giving her a mission, and she followed through on their requests, going to the king and asking to be in the army. She won many battles for the French, and sacrificed herself after her last battle for the sake of her king and country. She became a saint, and is now known as the great young warrior who united France in the Hundred Years' War. Joan fought proudly in the war for her people. This fact is undeniable. However, there is the question: what would have happened if Joan had never fought for the French? If she was too afraid to follow the saints' orders? The events of Joan's life are rather important, and may have had a "butterfly effect" if they had never happened, but what would the effect be? Would she be see more openly as a hero? Or maybe, this time, a villain.