Saint Joan: Scene 1 Summary & Analysis

The Dauphin is the anticipated King Charles VII of France—he has yet to be crowned, so he maintains the title of “dauphin.” Joan’s lofty military goal—to raise the siege of Orleans—refers to taking back French land seized by English forces during the Hundred Years’ War. By calling noblemen like Poulengey and Metz by their nicknames, Joan actively establishes herself as their equal, despite her comparatively lowly social and economic position.

Joan’s assurance that Baudricourt will have a place in heaven speaks to her self-confidence: she believes she can know the saints’ intentions without needing the Church’s guidance to interpret God’s will.

Baudricourt’s skepticism toward helping Joan isn’t exclusively rooted in his own ideological or moral values but, rather, in the more logistical concern of having to answer to the social structures to which he is held accountable. Should Joan get “into trouble,” her status as a bourgeoise means that there are more consequences than if she came from a family of poor laborers. Baudricourt’s assumption that Poulengey’s intentions for helping Joan are dishonorable shows how cynical he is toward other people’s ability to act virtuously and uncompromised by institutional or personal corruption. When Poulengey repeats the steward’s earlier claim that there is “something about” Joan, he reinforces the unique, anti-institutional position she holds that sets her apart from other characters in the play.

Most people who reject Joan do so on the grounds that she is capricious, impractical, and inexperienced. Poulengey presents an opposing viewpoint when he argues that France’s political situation is so dire that it needs the input of someone like Joan, who thinks outside the box of the old, accepted approaches to military and political pursuits. Poulengey’s belief that Joan can work miracles may be perceived literally or figuratively: Poulengey might well believe Joan has supernatural powers, but the “miracles” of which she is capable of are also symbolically miraculous in their ability to disrupt the status quo.

Joan’s statement that “the messages of God come to us” through her own “imagination” enforces her belief in the individual’s power to know and assess the world around them without the guidance of outside powers like the Church or the government. Baudricourt’s observation that Joan’s voices are merely her “imagination” is meant to discredit her voices, but Joan’s agreement legitimizes them, as she believes that one may obtain the highest degree of truth through personal introspection. Joan’s belief that the English should stay in their own land where they speak “their own language” evokes the growing sense of nationalism that developed during the Hundred Years’ War, when national loyalties began to supersede religious and regional loyalties.

Given the strength of England’s military forces, Joan’s overconfidence is certainly unfounded, though it’s reasonable to suspect that Baudricourt’s initial dismissal of her is amplified by the sexist norms of his society. This is reinforced by the fact that Baudricourt is quick to believe in Joan once he sees evidence of a miracle (the hens laying eggs), but remains unconvinced by her attempts to persuade him using logic and reasoning—in other words, Baudricourt is quicker to believe in a miracle than a woman’s use of rhetoric.