Joan of Arc and Application in the Current Times Essay

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open? How is this woman's history framed? With today's society would Joan of Arc's message be heard? How would it be different or told another way?

People, during the Middle Age, were taught about leadership, primarily through great men's biographies. Irrespective of the number of mathematical models produced, the discipline must accommodate inspirational accounts of ideal leaders and gruesome cautionary ones of those who were bad. Since the astounding recruitment of French soldiers by Joan of Arc to join her in battle, the world has yielded to charismatic and outsized leaders (Bennis, 2007). A key idea revealed in the movie is: the era might have been a lot more lurid and frenzied than one imagines. Nothing occurs slowly despite the tempo being tedious. Joan is, initially, portrayed as a maniacally cheery child, capering so merrily through fields that the sheep get scared (Maslin, 1999).

The Messenger (with Milla Jovovich playing the lead role) renders a disturbing and distorted image of Joan, inconsistent with history, which states that she was, in fact, a solid, forceful, and rational peasant girl. She won over soldiers by her powerful faith and earnestness. Her trial before the English demonstrates her piousness, wisdom, and simplicity. More than two decades later, during a trial revision, every witness was keen to pay tribute to Joan's supernatural abilities and virtues. The above-mentioned personality of Joan is at complete odds with how she is portrayed in the movie. The Messenger shows Joan as a conscientious psychopath suffering from a sickness (which has reached an advanced stage), and not as the angelic Maid of Lorraine. She is uneasy, hysterical, and harshly metes out short orders and commands. Her behavior is spastic and erratic, and her on-screen representation shows no natural grace and charm. She is even, sometimes, shown to be uncontrollably screaming (Horvat, n.d.).

This again appears to be an effect of occultist mysticism underpinning the entire movie. All through the course of the movie, Joan's "revelations" are linked to a kind of tempestuous and horrific atmosphere and uncanny new-age background music, making audiences fearful that a terrible event will occur. The ambience is akin to that of horror movies, when evil figures like ghosts and devils are shown. It has never been stated anywhere who the strange "voices" belong to, hinting that a delusion or personal demon has affected Joan. However, history explicitly states that Joan, at her trial's ending, declared that the voices she heard belonged to St. Michael, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine. The Messenger fails to mention any of these names (Horvat, n.d.).

Joan's impact didn't perish with her -- rather, she left an eternal mark that, even today, influences women's issues. In my view, were Joan to exist in contemporary society, she would deal with the subject of women's exclusion from the U.S. army combat roles. Joan of Arc represents a strong example of how the fairer sex is capable of handling such responsibilities; she also demonstrated their ability, in the Hundred Years' War, to lead in combat roles. Though the subject of women taking up arms was controversial in her time too, Joan dressed in men's attire to deal with it. In modern society, however, this step wouldn't exactly be necessitated, as females are increasingly being recruited into the military; still, Joan would have been keen on ensuring that women assume an equal combative role too (Joan of Arc, n.d.).

History relates Joan's controversial decision to don male attire as an issue that possibly led her through increasing hardships with the masses --the subject still inspires much writing, based often on a partial grasp of evidence. As the English translation of Joan's condemnation is more readily available, her tale as stated in this historical document is normally accepted without objection; there is no or minimal effort put into examining the various other sources or theological principles of the age, with regard to cross-dressing. Furthermore, her clothing and, consequently, eyewitness's understanding of its use, are usually misinterpreted (HAJAS, 2006).

Compare and contrast the movie Joan of Arc, using the readings (see above) to note how the directors, writers, costumers, etc. portray her in particular ways.

People tend to observe changes, whether explicit or slight; the latter are often, unfortunately, discounted in their magnitude. Federman, in his Medium is the Message, states that noting changes in cultural or social ground conditions suggests the emergence of a novel message (i.e., impacts of a novel medium). The early warning enables people to begin identifying and characterizing the novel medium prior to it becoming obvious to all -- this usually happens over several years or decades.

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Also, if one realizes that this medium is accompanied by adverse effects to culture or society, there is a chance to change its evolution and development before it becomes impossible to escape its effects (Federman, 2004).

It is challenging to define the self-concept of a long-dead individual; though their acts are something we are familiar with, their self-perception cannot be easily known. The issue of determining the extent to which a female's self-concept can develop in the absence of male influence, as well as finding the link between worldly actions and other-worldly revelation, gives rise to questions that are unanswerable. These points are illustrated in many aspects of Joan's life. There is a stark contrast between Joan's roles, prior and subsequent, to revelations -- she transforms dramatically from an illiterate girl from a peasant family to inspiring her nation's army, during a crucial stage of the historic Hundred Years' War. Secondly, her statements during trial regarding her spiritual experiences offer a rare view of the development of a fresh identity. Another key point is that Joan kept mum about the visions she saw for no less than 4 years, not revealing them to a single soul. After gaining fame, Joan was still completely reliant on these voices for guidance, never turning to her family or military allies for counsel. This independence of Joan permits us to perceive a self-governing female experience for Joan (Barstow, 1985). In the movie, The Messenger, Joan is shown to be constantly nervous and highly insecure. There is no element of divine union that must be accompanied by serenity and peace. Viewers, who are unaware of how Joan -- canonized by the Church in 1920 --is in reality, will doubt both Joan's sanity and sanctity (Horvat, n.d.).

Joan was a charismatic and powerful female figure in a totally male-dominated world; her success caused mix feelings of alarm, rage, and admiration to crop up in people who came across her. She was in no way connected to the sphere of power; she claimed to have a private connection with the spiritual world, which led her to eternal national fame. Joan surmounted the barriers of gender, poverty, and social class and emerged as one among the key heroes of France (Barstow, 1985). The movie depicts Joan as getting shot by an arrow on the chest and surviving, in spite of her refusal to get medical attention. Historians aren't happy with the concept 'miracles', and thus, question this point. Nevertheless, this movie's basis is primary sources. The element that disappoints most in this movie is Joan's characterization as slightly psychotic, frequently babbling, crying and screaming. While it is true that Joan was a teenager and rude to military commanders, royals, and clergymen, she is also portrayed in history as courageous, charismatic, and smart- characteristics the movie shockingly doesn't convey (Tunzelmann, 2011).

The most prominent of all female visionaries belonging to the latter part of the Middle Age is Joan of Arc. In spite of, or probably due to this, there is no serious historical analysis of this peasant girl of Domremy. Joan's canonization may have partly transpired because of her being politically valuable (Sowards, 1994).

How does this particular image of Joan of Arc contribute to or challenge the 'Danger of a Single Story' by novelist Chimamanda Adichie of her life that gets retold in many ways?

Chimamanda Adichie's 'Danger of a Single Story' causes one to think of Alvin Toffler's words that the 21st century illiterates won't be individuals who are incapable of reading and writing, but individuals incapable of learning, unlearning and relearning (Adichie). Mankind should attempt to unlearn the immortalized stereotypes, which prevent one from digging deeper. Nigeria's history is the inspiration behind Adichie's novels, which relate the forgotten tales Westerners haven't repeated in generations. In her view, not only should diverse standpoints be sought, but individuals should also narrate personal tales. Through this process, which is long overdue, her hope is to see the first indications of the breakdown of stereotypes and cliches (Yee, 2015). Though Joan is the most prominent visionary of the age, she wasn't unique, and merely assumed a readymade task. The numerous female mystics and prophets we know only form part of Europe's phenomena. One can easily understand that religion in the late medieval times gave rise to a greater number of female adepts, compared to male ones, in view of men's opportunities….....

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