How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Scene.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue.
Quote #1
STEWARD: [whispering] "She wants to go and be a soldier herself. She wants you to give her soldier's clothes. Armor, sir! And a sword!" (1.49)
Women soldiers were completely unheard of at this time.
Quote #2
ROBERT: It is the will of God that I shall send you back to your father with orders to put you under lock and key and thrash the madness out of you." (1.56)
Robert's statement reveals the complete lack of power that women had at this time. Young girls were at the mercy of their fathers until they got married. Then they were at the mercy of their husbands.
Quote #3
THE ARCHBISHOP: "This creature is not a saint. She is not even a respectable woman. She does not wear women's clothes." (2.57)
The whole cross-dressing thing is one of the main things that gets Joan executed at the end.
Quote #4
JOAN: "I do not want to be thought of as a woman. […] I do not care for the things women care for. They dream of lovers, and of money." (3.49)
Joan seems to define most women as petty and selfish.
Quote #5
JOAN: "I wish you were one of the village babies."
DUNOIS: "Why?"
JOAN: "I could nurse you for awhile." (5.22-5.24)
This seems like an incredibly maternal thing for a person to say who doesn't want to be thought of as a woman.
Quote #6
THE INQUISITOR: "When maids will neither marry nor take regular vows […] then, as surely as the summer follows the spring, they begin with polygamy, and end by incest."
Whoa, really? Does this seem like a bit of leap to anybody else? We wonder if this is just a horror story told to keep women under men's control.
Quote #7
JOAN: "I will do a lady's work in the house – spin or weave – against any woman in Rouen." (6.26)
The real Joan is recorded as having made this boast of homemaking skills as well. We wonder if she took pride in being able to handle "women's" and "men's" work.
Quote #8
JOAN: "There are plenty of other women to do [women's work]; but there is nobody to do my work." (6.129-6.130)
Is this the most offensive thing to these men – that a woman could do what they could not?