The Depiction of La Pucelle: Joan of Arc, saint or sinner, in Henry VI Pt. 1

Or, how Shakespeare may or may not be a Catholic sympathiser in his history play

Part 3 of my Chronological Shakespeare Project, in which I read all of Shakespeare’s plays in chronological order.

A virgin hero and a lying shepherdess; the savior of France and a witch; the right-hand of the Dauphin and also in an affair with him? Shakespeare’s “la pucelle,” or Joan of Arc, seems to everything and nothing at the same time. About halfway through the play, she has her wonderful monologue:

Look on thy country, look on fertile France,
And see the cities and the towns defaced
By wasting ruin of the cruel foe.
As looks the mother on her lowly babe
When death doth close his tender-dying eyes,
See, see the pining malady of France;
Behold the wounds, the most unnatural wounds,
Which thou thyself hast given her woeful breast.
O turn thy edged sword another way,
Strike those that hurt and hurt not those that help.
One drop of blood drawn from thy country’s bosom
Should grieve thee more than streams of foreign gore.
Return thee, therefore, with a flood of tears,
And wash away thy country’s stained spots. (Act III.7)

In which she convinces the Duke of Burgundy to join the French side of the war. One could certainly imagine that she is bewitching him— but there is no clear indication that is what is happening. Joan is not resorting to any magic or wiles: she speaks simply, “plainly” and her love for France, land and people, shine through her words. This is what Burgundy falls for: he agrees to join the Dauphin because Joan is so earnest in her desire to save France and to do the best by this.

Joan, here, is depicted favourably: one can imagine the Catholic Saint, dressed in armor, carrying her standard, a sword sheathed on her belt, addressing these words to Burgundy. One can easily see a light shining from her face, hear her voice as the cinematic score picks up once more with a hopeful refrain. Shakespeare indeed paints Joan as exactly what she claimed to be: called by God to deliver France. And yet, his depiction is muddled only a little while after.

Joan is caught by the English and is sentenced to be burned at the stake as a witch. As she is being led out, a shepherd accosts her, allegedly her father, though Joan vehemently denounces the claim.

First let me tell you whom you have condemned:
Not one begotten of a shepherd swain,
But issued from the progeny of kings;
Virtuous and holy, chosen from above
By inspiration of celestial grace
To work exceeding miracles on earth.
…
No, misconceived Joan of Arc hath been
A virgin from her tender infancy,
Chaste and immaculate in very thought,
Whose maiden blood thus rigorously effused
Will cry for vengeance at the gates of heaven. (Act V.6)

When threatened with her upcoming death, Joan then claims to be pregnant (by three different men) but is ultimately not granted clemency. This seems to be a complete change in character from her previously noble and virtuous depiction. What is one to make of this?

Several writers have suggested that Shakespeare, if not an actual Catholic, was at least sympathetic to Catholicism. Since we have no autobiography to draw from, it is to the plays that one must go in order to find evidence for this claim. And, as strange as it might seem, Joan’s character in this play might serve as a tantalizing piece of evidence.

For most of the play, Joan is with the French: and during this time, she maintains that rigorously holy and consecrated persona. It is not until she is captured by the English that she becomes a strange witch character. This happens to match how these two different nations saw Joan, too— something which Shakespeare must have been aware of. For the French, Joan of Arc is a beloved hero, who rescued the French from invasion. Primarily a Catholic nation, Joan of Arc was whole-heartedly embraced as a saint and sent from God. On the other hand, however, the English would only have had cause to hate Joan, to desire to see her as a witch, for they burned her. Protestant, they would also have been unfriendly to her claims of being a saint or sent from Heaven to rescue France (which, naturally, would imply that God was on France’s side). And so, when Joan is in “English hands,” she acts and speaks like one possessed by the devil.

Shakespeare seems more sympathetic to the French, Catholic Joan: she is given a greater part in the play and there is an underlying tone of irony in the scenes with the English: an absurdist element that makes it difficult to take that version of Joan seriously. But nevertheless, there is also an ambiguity: which version of Joan is more real? Are either?