54 pages • 1 hour read
George Bernard ShawSaint Joan
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1923A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Scene 3Scene Summaries & Analyses
Scene 3 Summary
At Orléans, the commander Dunois and his page sit beside the Loire river while a banner shows that the wind is blowing east. Dunois composes a poem about the west wind, comparing it to an unfaithful woman. His young page points out a blue kingfisher, irritating Dunois, is waiting for The Maid to arrive. The page wants to catch the kingfisher, but Dunois threatens to put him in a cage to teach him what that would be like. Dunois continues to compose poems, asking the blue kingfisher to bring the west wind and comparing its color to the Virgin Mary’s cloak.
Joan arrives in her armor, angry because the troops have brought her to the wrong side of the river, not the Orléans side. Dunois explains that they cannot cross the river because the English are holding two forts that block the bridge to the city. Joan impatiently decides to lead her soldiers to retake the forts, impressing Dunois with her bravery. He admits that he also loves war. After telling him that she wants to be a soldier and never take a husband, Joan recommends that he use larger artillery to take the forts. She promises to lead the military charge and explains that her sword is sacred because she found it after a revelation from St. Catherine.
Dunois tells Joan that his plan is to cross the river by boat with the heavy guns and fire on the fort from behind, but the wind is blowing in the wrong direction. Dunois tells Joan to go to the church and pray. Joan finally concedes that this is practical and promises to pray for a western wind. The page sneezes and the banner changes direction, showing that the wind has changed. Dunois orders the attack and Joan bursts into tears, embracing Dunois and telling him to help her onto the ladder so that she can scale the city walls. They leave to attack Orléans.
Scene 3 Analysis
The third scene marks a shift from the previous scenes as Joan’s zeal and courage finally meet their match in Dunois’s pragmatic military competence. Dunois’s poetry, together with his sympathy for the kingfisher, immediately characterize him as someone whose sincerity matches Joan’s. Rather than dealing with cynical and corrupt noblemen who must be persuaded to her side, Joan finds in Dunois a kindred spirit. His military inaction is not the result of cowardice or political scheming, but rather prudence. Dunois offers reasonable justifications for his hesitancy, but he also condescends to Joan, saying, “let me begin to make a soldier of you” (107). In contrast to Joan, Dunois prefers caution on the battlefield. He seems to admire Joan for her bravery, but he does not at first take her seriously as a military leader. When Joan is eager to lead a battle charge, he reminds her, “I welcome you as a saint, not as a soldier. I have daredevils enough at my call, if they could help me” (109). Through this conversation, Dunois’s tactical knowledge tempers Joan’s impatience for battle, demonstrating that she is not ignorant of pragmatic reasons for the delay, but rather than she is so confidant in her divinely ordained mission that she sees it as only a minor setback. Joan agrees to perform the role of a saint: “I will tell St. Catherine: she will make God give me a west wind. Quick: shew me the way to the church” (109). Immediately after this, the wind changes. The play itself takes no definitive stance on whether this event is divine intervention or coincidence, though Shaw’s Preface certainly suggests that he would view it as the latter.
This scene explores the tension of Common Sense versus Supernatural Ability. The miraculous shift in the winds convinces Dunois and his page of Joan’s holiness. Throughout this scene, Joan is affiliated with nature through her control of the wind and the coincidental appearance of a blue kingfisher right before she arrives. Joan often affiliates herself with the landscape of France, ascribing particular importance to the soil as divinely allotted to the French people. These natural coincidences imply that Joan may be more than simply an enthusiastic soldier and persuasive speaker; her sainthood might give her supernatural power over the world. However, Shaw intentionally leaves this uncertain, depicting Joan as deeply faithful, but more attentive to practical military tactics than mysticism. Joan’s purported supernatural abilities—whether real or not—serve a practical purpose in that they inspire others and lend legitimacy to the French fight for independence. Furthermore, Joan’s affiliation with the kingfisher serves to foreshadow her eventual death—choosing to die rather than live in captivity without access to the natural world.
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By George Bernard Shaw
