An Essay On Joan Of Arc

“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” The Roman Catholic saint Joan of Arc spook these inspirational words over five hundred years ago. She became such an inspiration that writers such as Shakespeare and Mark Twain went on to tell her story in their work and in plays. Today Joan of Arc is well known in European history as a famous heroine. She fought and lead troops, motivating them in the Hundreds Year War to keep the English from invading. These very acts that have made her a woman that is admired for courage and noble qualities today are the same acts that landed her on trial and burned at the stake then.
Joan of Arc was born in northeastern France, around the year 1412, in a city known as Domremy. She came from a family of peasant farmers. Her father taught her to raise livestock, harvest crops and to go the church, where she spent a great deal of time praying to saints. Education was not a high priority at the time to her family, she never attended school or learned to write and read. Most of the focus in Joan’s childhood went to England gaining control of Southwestern France during the Hundreds Years’ war and France trying to overcome them to get control back.
At age thirteen Joan claimed that she began to hear voices, she later came to the conclusion they were the holy voices of Saints Margaret, Catherine, and Michael. The saints told her Charles VII was in need of her assistances and about the kingdom of France with the great misery. In the fall of 1428 Joan formed an alienes with the captain of the royal garrison and he showed her the way to the king. By yearly 1429 Joan had a meeting with t...

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...gerous French heroine, that preformed witchcraft but attempted to cover it with the catholic faith. The play ended with Joan claiming to be pregnant, hoping they would free her from the stake. She was still put to death and died calling on demons to set her free from the flames. Many of Shakespears plays promoted that identity by celebrating the superiority of average Englishmen over his European neighbors and often represented them as ridiculous or villainous. Joan was not seen as ridiculous or villainous, she was seen as much more to others.
Joan of Arc sacrificed her entire life for what she believed in; standing by what she knew was the truth to her even if it meant death. In 1920 she became an official saint, and is now canonized with the same saints she had claimed to speak with. Before this happened her reputation did have to undergo a rehabilitation process.