Saint Joan

In the cathedral of Rheims, immediately after Charles VII’s coronation, Joan is praying. She is still dressed in men’s clothing. Dunois comes to tell her that people on the street want her to come out so that they can see The Maid. Joan does not want to go out, preferring the action of the battlefield to the dullness of politics. Dunois reminds her that she needs more friends because the courtiers do not like her. Joan is confused, wondering why they do not love her since she has brought them victory and asked very little for herself. Dunois says it is because they are jealous, worrying that her success makes them look incompetent, and that the court will likely discourage her from trying to retake Paris next.

Discouraged, Joan tells Dunois that she hears voices in the echoes after the bells ring, and that the voices give her confidence and comfort. Dunois responds with gentle skepticism, saying that he would think her mentally ill if the voices didn’t give such reasonable advice—the implication being that the voices she claims to hear are really just the working of her own rational mind. King Charles VII enters, complaining that his robe is too heavy and the holy oil on his head smells rancid.