Henry VI Part 1 Gender Quotes

Guess the French aren't so Mars-like after all… Just after Charles has been bragging about the French and comparing the English to ghosts, the English have whipped them badly on the battlefield. It's even more embarrassing because Charles was literally just boasting that he'd rather die than retreat (1.2.20-21). Oops.

Charles is impressed. But in praising Joan this way, he might be accidentally implying that he's a sissy. Deborah is a great biblical hero, but Barak, the male commander she works with, is a little less impressive.

When God tells Barak to go out and fight the enemy, he says he'll only go if Deborah goes with him. She says that's fine, but then the glory will go to a woman, which it totally does when a woman named Jael pounds a tent peg through the head of the bad guy later in the story. Which leaves us with one question: Do you think Charles knows he's implying this? Or is he so caught up with Joan that he fails to recognize all the implications of his comparison?

Charles is speaking alone with Joan during this conversation, and Reignier and Alencon aren't just bored while waiting—they're also making subtle jokes suggesting that Charles and Joan might be exploring sexual territory together. Though Joan has just turned down the Dauphin's romantic advances (1.2.113-116), both the French and English continue to hint at a possible sexual relationship between Joan and the Dauphin, and the play leaves the question open. How it's performed makes a big difference to how the audience sees it.