Joan of Arc?

Question

Alright, so I'm writing a paper, and you Yahoo! people are so smart... I wanted to bounce some ideas off of you.
So if you would be so kind, please argue with, or agree with and elaborate on the following claim:

The traits that caused Joan of Arc to become so powerful, overconfidence, femininity, and an overpowering belief in her God, were the same characteristics that led her to be captured and eventually killed.

That would help me so much... Thanks!

Answer 1

I think that everything that happened to Joan of Arc were caused by her relationship with God and the saints that she spoke with. Her "overconfidence" wasn't confidence in herself, but was confidence in the truth of her visions. The saints with whom she spoke had convinced Joan of the truth of their identity, so she believed in them. Her "femininity" wasn't a factor, I don't believe, unless you mean the extent to which she denied it. Her gender, however, was a factor. It caused many to doubt her, at first, and then formed the basis of the charges of witchcraft, as another answerer said.

You should check out a movie called "The Messenger". It is a good view of the Joan of Arc story.

http://www.amazon.com/Messenger-Story-Joan-Arc/dp/0767845722/ref=pd_sim_d_1/102-5747137-7918537?ie=UTF8

Answer 2

Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne d'Arc,[1] (1412 – 30 May 1431)[2] was a national heroine of France and is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She asserted that she had visions from God which told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to the siege at Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence when she overcame the light regard of veteran commanders and lifted the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims and settled the disputed succession to the throne.

The renewed French confidence outlasted her own brief career. She refused to leave the field when she was wounded during an attempt to recapture Paris that autumn. Hampered by court intrigues, she led only minor companies from then onward and fell prisoner at a skirmish near Compiègne the following spring. A politically motivated trial convicted her of heresy. The English regent John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had been the heroine of her country at the age of seventeen and died at just nineteen. Some twenty-four years later Pope Callixtus III reopened the case and a new finding overturned the original conviction. Her piety to the end impressed the retrial court. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920.[3]

Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in Western culture. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who have created works about her include Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Twain, Shaw, Brecht and Honegger. Depictions of her continue in film, television, and song.
Please see also www.wikipedia.org

Answer 3

The connection of Joan of Arc and Goddess worshipping was a Murrayism. I'm disappointed the History channel would use it. She was a Christian. Very Christian. Most Pagans today would probably have found her more like Falwell and Robertson than any Pagan figure...

Answer 4

I'd definitely leave out the femininity. Joan went out of her way to downplay her femininity. She did two things that at the time were considered MOST unfeminine: She cut her hair like a man, and she wore men's clothes. These were two of the things that led her English captors to accuse her of witchcraft. She did everything she could to blend in with other men; so femininity is out.

I'd also argue that her overpowering belief in her god was the source of her confidence. But I wouldn't call it "overconfidence." She hereself predicted that she would be captured. So you could argue that her faith actually led her to a sense of fatalism that contributed to her downfall.

Answer 5

Well, yeah, but that's a really mean over-simplification of the event. To begin with, she was never that powerful nor confident. She often doubted herself and her ability to do what must be done. Secondly, her femininity was something that she hid, so that's hardly a factor, either. Her belief in God was certainly absolute, but overpowering? She was firm and complete in her beliefs, but it was primarily her betrayal at the hands of the French Dauphin (with Roman Catholic advisors whispering poison in his ear about her sexuality) that led to her capture and death at the stake for being female, sorry, i mean, a witch. Because she refused to recant, you COULD say that the same traits that gave her life also was ultimately responsible for taking it away, but that fails to take into consideration the amazing number of absolute bastards that brought her death about.

Answer 6

Her capture & being killed was due not solely on her character but also politics. The French aristocrats were jealous of her & was afraid they may lose favour with the dauphin whilst the dauphin was a weak minded perosn.

The English would love to see her dead after the embarrassment she had caused them.

Answer 7

how about the word meglomania, she showed the same traits as a person suffering from OCD, the fact that she was alledgedly a woman bears no evidence to relating that with her capture and subsequent death, becoming a martyr was her goal, she achieved that, you could argue that she was a religeous maniac, with a power /dominance compulsion, by todays standards that wiould stand up, however if you apply the norm of society at the time, then you relay a different senario. lf

Answer 8

Yes

Answer 9

You're better off researching this properly and ignoring the answers you get here. Most people on this site are thick as pig shi t.