Born in 1412 in Domremy, to Jacques and Isabelle D'Arc a peasant farmers. Joan was the youngest in her family with three brothers and a sister. Joan excelled at spinning and sewing and it was her nature to be prayerful, to help in all the family chores and to care for the poor. She was known to frequent the parish church and to pray. When she was thirteen-years-old Joan became aware of a voice accompanied by a flash of light that spoke to her. In her vision she saw St. Michael the archangel who bid her to be a good girl and who told her that St. Catherine and St. Margaret would soon come to her. When the two saints first appeared to her they were gentle in their request that she go see the dauphin and that she secure and army from him to lift the siege at Orleans. These initial visions happened in 1425 and continued for the next three years, growing more insistent.With great reluctance, Joan began to speak of her visions, so that she could act on starting her mission to save France. In 1428, when Joan was seventeen she was pressed to marry receiving an offer from a suitor whom her parents encouraged. However, Joan knew she would never be able to carry out her mission if this were to happen so she refused the man who offered marriage. She even had to travel to the ecclesiastical court in Toul where she won her case.
The French now laid siege to Orleans. If Orleans was lost, France would fall to the English. Joan's voices insisted that she must save Orleans. The second part of her mission was to take the heir to the French crown, Charles VII to the city of Rheims to be crowned. This would mean clearing the way to Rheims and removing the English from the city. To accomplish all this she was to start by meeting with Robert de Baudricourt. Her voices now insistent, Joan knew she had to act. So began her mission which would ultimately succeed, but lead her to martyrdom.
Discussion
The Language of Fire is a novel of historical fiction written in free verse. Hemphill, who admits to having been fascinated with St Joan of Arc since her fourth grade catechism class, has done a stellar job in capturing the story of Joan of Arc and her remarkable mission. Impressed with Joan's belief in herself, in her God-given mission and her ability to rise above her station, Hemphill was motivated to write her story.
The novel begins with the author portraying Joan in a decidedly modern feminist manner as she questions her friend Mengette about what she wishes for her life,
"Did you ever wish
to be something
besides a wife and mother?"
Formed exclusively by her Catholic faith, Joan would have been intent on living a holy life and discovering and doing the will of God, something modern teens are not taught nor would likely consider. Hemphill admits that she took creative license with the young Joan, since little is known about her early youth. But in some ways, portraying a historical figure with modern attitudes does no favours to today's readers, who are led to believe that young people everywhere have always thought as they do today. As the novel progresses, Joan loses this feminist perspective and her character feels more true to the Joan we know from history.
To make Joan seem more realistic and relatable, Hemphill "created an internal struggle for Joan throughout her journey." She wanted to present Joan as a person "of flesh and blood" instead of just the "largely pious and brave warrior." For Joan that struggle was to reconcile her mission from God with her place in society as a young woman with few rights. She knew God was calling her to a soldier's mission to save France, yet she was baffled as to how to accomplish this. She kept her mission a secret for several years, until the voices became threatening. Even her "voices" instructions to travel to meet Robert of Baudricourt, initially seemed impossible to her.
Hemphill portrays Joan of Arc as in awe of what God has done through her,
"...for I am a seventeen-year-old girl
who now leads thousands of men.
It seems beyond impossible,
yet because of Him
I am."
as confident and in charge,
"Because I need answer to no one,
except God and the dauphin."
full of faith and virtue,
"I explain with a smile,
'All who follow me into battle,
I must be assured
I will see again in heaven.' "
Hemphill simplified one aspect of Joan's story; the voices who direct her. Joan of Arc indicated that she had visions and heard the voices of St. Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine and St. Margaret. Instead the author merged their voices into one voice, the voice of God, "...not only for ease of reading and comprehension, but more importantly because although in the fifteenth century hearing the voices of saints was not hard for people to imagine, modern readers do not in large part pray to saints." But many, as Hemphill notes in her Author's Note, do pray to God.
The Language of Fire captures the complexity of Joan's mission, the physical, political and social obstacles she had to overcome, the utter depravity of her imprisonment, the corrupted trial she endured and the horror of being burned alive at the stake, her naked corpse raised up and burned, her ashes thrown into the Seine.
The theme of fire can be found throughout the novel, foreshadowing Joan's martyrdom. Throughout this telling, Joan is troubled by dreams of fire, being trapped in her father's barn, set alight by the marauding English. It is a foreshadowing of the gruesome, brutal end Joan experiences at the hands of the English. The novel begins with Joan burning at the stake in 1431, expecting the fire to speak. Throughout her young life Joan has experienced dreams involving fire. It is always the same dream, Joan trapped in the rafters of her father's barn, the fire lit by English soldiers. Told by her voices that she will die young, Joan comes to suspect that she will "face a deadly fate somewhere beyond these victories." The dreams of fire haunt her in prison and to the very end when her fate is sealed.
If you read any fiction novel about Joan of Arc this year, The Language of Fire is highly recommended. Well written, true to Joan's life and filled with plenty of interesting details, it is a captivating account of Joan of Arc's heroic life.
Image credit: https://www.jeanne-darc.info/biography/visions/
Book Details:
The Language of Fire by Stephanie Hemphill
New York: Balzer and Bray 2019
492 pp.
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