Joan of Arc

--- George Bernard Shaw

This semester I have read just one English novel called Joan of Arc, but it’s a really

fantastic and attractive story, it’s a story about how a heroine whose name was Joan help a king to resist the invasion from enemy. When Louis XIII was the king, the British and the Burundians invaded France and wanted to have the northern part of France. The heroine Joan helped French people coronate their new king, Louis XIV, getting almost all the invaded land back with the help of three saints. But after that, she was caught by the Burundians and was burnt on a cross by her enemy. This is the famous story about Joan, the saint.

So how could she succeed in defeating the enemy again and again at first? Someone says it’s because saints have chosen her and the God has given her power. But I think Joan had this wonderful success because of her confidence. Why I say so? Actually I think nothing special happened to Joan, the things which really mattered were Joan’s thoughts. In my opinion, one who can win a battle must have some military ability to lead the whole army and Joan was competent. And because of this point Joan was more confident to win any battles. Of course, saints’ help is also a factor but not the main one. So I think her success at first did not happen by accident. But After some battles, Joan said that she had lost her support from the saints, but actually this wasn’t the main reason to cause her failure. The more important thing was that she had lost her primary confidence, so she lost the battle at last.

So I think confidence is the foundation of success. And we can also find that in the real world, confidence is also very important. During the Athens Olympic Games, Li Ting and Sun Tiantian have won the gold medal for the women’s double in the tennis game. It was the first time our anthem playing on the tennis court. Some medium said that they won just by chance, it was their good luck. But I don’t think so. In fact they have won that game because of their believing in themselves and their hard work, because they have confidence, so they have created the fairy tale in Greece.

So learning from this story, we shall learn Joan’s braveness and her pureness, and learn to believe ourselves. We need to be confident when we are speaking in public or others will not remember us among all the speakers. We need to have confidence in our daily life or we’ll give up the things we are struggling to do now. As the saying says “Confidence is the key to success.” and “Confidence is equal to half of success.” So give ourselves more hints that tell ourselves we can! Only in this way can we shall avoid being a coward, or being selfish and fatuous. Then we’ll live a life full of fragrance!

 

第二篇：读《圣女贞德》有感

读《圣女贞德》有感

在英国文学史上，萧伯纳是继莎士比亚之后又一位伟大的戏剧家，他的一生在文坛上留下了无数佳话。但和莎士比亚不同的是，萧伯纳更为长寿，创作时间更长，剧本数目也更多。《圣女贞德》就是其笔下一大作。这是一部历史悲剧，剧中女主人公贞德在历史上确有其人。她出生于法国一个名叫栋雷米的村庄，当时英法两国正处于百年战争时期，法国的命运岌岌可危。国仇家恨和强烈的爱国心使贞德决心站出来，保家卫国，赶走侵略者。

在萧伯纳笔下，贞德就是贞德，她既有谋略，聪明、勇敢，又天真、鲁莽、固执，是一个有血有肉的人。他在剧中强调了人民的力量。人民护送贞德从香槟地区到希农去见太子：“一个天使，她跟着六个人经过香槟地区，那里是什么都有的，勃艮地人，英国人，逃兵，强盗，还有别的什么，只有上帝知道，可是他们除了乡下人以外，一个人也没遇见。”此外，萧伯纳还热情地讴歌了以贞德为代表的正义力量；讽刺了国王贵族的胆小、懦弱、无能；以及教会的自私、虚伪。

她是狂热的信徒、宗教神秘主义者、天真纯洁，却又可悲地成为一枚被当权者摆弄的棋子，同时又是现代民族主义的创始者和象征，被崇拜的女英雄和圣女。她即使面临酷刑的威胁和火刑的死亡时，仍然坚持著她所听到的来自上帝的声音。无论那个声音是真是假，她的事迹让所有听到她故事的人都会震撼不已。

她本来是一个农村姑娘，却领导着一支法国军队，把英军打得大败，将法国从亡国的危险中解救出来。但是，贞德当时并没有得到应有的荣誉，却受到了来自各个势力的猜忌。最后，教会以她是巫女的罪名，将她处以火刑。对于圣女贞德的描述，显示出人类每个时代以来在性别上的成见和偏见。

人类时时刻刻都应摒弃世俗的看法，摆脱墨守成规，大胆去做正确的有意义的事情，但其中有违常规的有悖世俗的事情，又有多少人能像贞德一样单纯地坚持。