Saint Joan · Chapter
Modern Distortions of Joan’s History explained
This chapter examines how standard reference works accurately report the facts of Joan of Arc's career—her visit to Vaucouleurs, meeting with Charles at Chinon, relief of Orleans, coronation at Rheims, capture at Compiègne, trial and execut
What happens
This chapter examines how standard reference works accurately report the facts of Joan of Arc's career—her visit to Vaucouleurs, meeting with Charles at Chinon, relief of Orleans, coronation at Rheims, capture at Compiègne, trial and execution at Rouen—but fail by perpetuating a melodramatic legend of a wicked bishop and entrapped maiden. Shaw argues that the fashion of thought changes like clothing, making it difficult for most people to think outside their own period's biases.
Themes in this chapter
Historical Interpretation
Shaw critiques how historical narratives are shaped by contemporary fashions of thought, leading to distortions like the melodramatic legend of Joan.
Justice and Injustice
The chapter highlights the injustice of posterity's attempts to make amends for Joan's execution, often through sentimental or melodramatic retellings.
Characters to notice
- Joan of Arc
Subject of the chapter; her factual career is accurately reported in reference works, but the melodramatic legend distorts the truth.
- Peter Cauchon
Portrayed in the melodramatic legend as the wicked bishop, a distortion Shaw critiques.
- King Charles VII
Mentioned in the context of the annunciation at Chinon, a factual event in Joan's career.
Key passages
“They give accurately enough the facts about the visit to Vaucouleurs, the annunciation to Charles at Chinon, the raising of the siege of Orleans and the subsequent battles, the coronation at Rheims, the capture at Compiègne, and the trial and execution at Rouen, with their dates and the names of the people concerned; but they all break down on the melodramatic legend of the wicked bishop and the entrapped maiden and the rest of it.”
Reference works correctly list the key events and people in Joan's story, but they fail by repeating a simplistic, melodramatic tale of a villainous bishop and a victimized girl.
Shaw contrasts factual accuracy with interpretive distortion in historical writing.
“It would be far less misleading if they were wrong as to the facts, and right in their view of the facts.”
Getting the facts wrong but interpreting them correctly would be less deceptive than getting the facts right but interpreting them poorly.
Shaw emphasizes that interpretation matters more than mere factual accuracy for understanding history.
“the fashion in which we think changes like the fashion of our clothes, and that it is difficult, if not impossible, for most people to think otherwise than in the fashion of their own period.”
Our thinking is as subject to trends as our clothing, making it nearly impossible for most to escape the mindset of their own time.
Shaw argues that historical understanding is always colored by contemporary biases.