Significant modern interpretations of Joan of Arc.

98 Pages·2017·4.3 MB·English

by  Virginia Quarrier Wynn

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Electronic Theses and Dissertations
1-1948
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Virginia Quarrier Wynn
University of Louisville
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Wynn, Virginia Quarrier, "Significant modern interpretations of Joan of Arc." (1948). Electronic Theses and
Dissertations. Paper 2193.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2193
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UNIVERSITY OF IDUISVILLE
SIGNIFICANT MODERN INTERPRETATIONS OF JOAN OF ARC
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A ms.enation
Submitted to the Facul.t :r
Of the Graduate School of the Uniyersit:r of Louisville
In Partial. Fulfillment of the
Reql,l1rell8nts for the Degree
Of Kaster of Arts
(
DepartJEnt of English
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Virginia Quarrier W:rnn
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Year
1948
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July 2015

SIGNIFICANT MODERN INTERPRETATIONS
OF JOAN OF ARC
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• i
CHAPTER
I THE ROMANTIC GIDRIFICATION OF JOAN OF ARC • • 1
II THE SCHOLARLY BIOGRAPHY AND ITS SUBSEQUENT
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POPULARIZATION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••
III A SCEPTICAL BELITTLING OF JCViN OF ARC AND A
ROMANTIC REACTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 30
IV DRAMATIC INTERPRETATIONS: PARTICUlARLY
DISCUSSING SHAW'S ATTITUDE OF PRAGMATIC
59
HERO-WORSHIP • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
CONCLUSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 81
84
BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION
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Five hundred years have passed, and Joan remains a living
breathing presence, when those others of her day have become
little more than names, a museum of labelled shadows. 1
What is the explanation of this continued interest in a young girl who
lived for only nineteen short years in the first part of the fifteenth
century?
Before attempting to answer this question, let us briefly
I ,,, summarize the facts of her life: she was born, it is believed, on
January 6, 1412 in a small town in north-eastern France. There,
Domre~,
at the age of thirteen, she first heard voices and saw visions of saints
and angels who, in the years that followed, instructed her to go to the
aid of the city of Orleans which was besieged by the English, am after-
wards crown the Dauphin at Rheims. Within three short months she ful-
filled her mission, though she continued in the service of the king for
the next year, until taken prisoner by the Burgundians while fighting
before Compiegne. Sold to the English, she was tried for sorcery and
heresy, and burned at the stake in Rouen on May 30, 1431 - just a year
after her capture.
These main facts of Joan of Arc's life have never been seriously
questioned, yet their interpretation has continually changed throughout
the years. In the age of Shakespeare, the Maid's character was distorted
by nationalistic prejudice; in the eighteenth by the new rational-
century~
ism; and, in the nineteenth, by the romantic reaction. With the coming
of modern times, however, there was no longer one accepted
~enera1ly
interpretation, but instead four distinct attitudes were widely expressed:
the'romantic, the scholarly, the sceptical, and the pragmatic, to each
1. Paine, Albert, Bigelow, Joan of Arc, Maid of France, The Macmillan
Company, New York, 192;;-Y.2', p: 327":"" -
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of which one chapter of this thesis will be devoted.
That a vit al interest in Joan of Arc has continued into the
twentieth century is due, in large measure, to a desire, on the part of
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several great writers of our present age, to explain her voices and
visions. . as well as her entire personality; on the basis of recent
findi~s
in science and psychology. Furthermore, in France, her name became
important in both a political and a religiOUS 'W8."T as was never the case
in England or America. In all countries, though, men were inspired to
reinterpret the J4aid s story, since her canonization caused them once
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again to wonder about her achievements.
remarka.bl~
The fundamental reason, though, for a continued interest in the
deeds of Joan of Arc lies in the fact that 8D1' interpretation of her
accomplishments invariably rests upon the author's beliefs about theology,
pathology, and metap~ics. And this explains "the fascination of
France's national saint - not just the subject ot a biograplv', not
merely a picturesque figure in armour and a scarlet cloak, but a figure
who challenges some of the profoundest tenets ot what we do or do not
belieTe. More, perhaps, than aD1' other lBilitar;r tigure in history, she
forces us to think." 2
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2. SackV'ille-West, V., Saint l.l.v,. ... a..Y, Doran, & Comp8D1',
Inc., New York, 19~5, p.