Saint Joan is different in content from many of Shaw's other plays because it is about historical figures, but the style is cerebral and witty, just like his other work. The characters are always having philosophical exchanges that are punctuated with irony and biting remarks. For example, in Scene 3, Dunois and Joan discuss each of their relationships to war:
DUNOIS [recognizing her mettle, and clapping her heartily on the shoulder]. Good. You have the makings of a soldier in you. You are in love with war.
JOAN [startled]. Oh! And the Archbishop said I was in love with religion.
DUNOIS. I, God forgive me, am a little in love with war myself, the ugly devil! I am like a man with two wives. Do you want to be like a woman with two husbands?
JOAN [matter-of-fact]. I will never take a husband.
When Dunois tells Joan that she is "in love with war," he brings up the philosophical idea that being a soldier gives a person dual loyalties that are sometimes in conflict with one another. There is a lot of meaning packed into what he says. He uses a simile to describe himself as "like a man with two wives." The comparison is meant to be humorous, evoking the image of a stressed-out man trying to maintain two marriages, likely without being found out. Despite the stress, this clichéd situation is also frequently seen as enviable. Maintaining it gives a man a certain kind of social capital among some circles of men. Dunois is not necessarily describing himself as a man who is married to a woman and also to war, but rather as a man who is married to war and also to peace. Being a soldier means that he always wants to be fighting for peace, not actually be at peace.
As the audience is mulling over this contradiction, Joan is responding with witty comebacks Dunois doesn't notice at first. "Oh! And the Archbishop said I was in love with religion," she says after Dunois tells her she is in love with war. Joan often comes across as naive, but there are moments when she shows herself to be more self-aware than people give her credit for. Here, for instance, she seems to be commenting on the fact that men keep telling her what her motivations are. As she goes on to tell Dunois, none of them really understand her position. "I will never take a husband," she tells him. This "matter-of-fact" response about Joan's intentions toward literal marriage (not figurative, as Dunois has been discussing) kicks off a speech about how being a soldier in the social environment where they live requires Joan to renounce her femininity. Dunois can joke about how being a soldier makes him "like a man with two wives," but the simile does not have anything to do with her. In this way, a moment of witty banter opens up a deep philosophical discussion about gender.
