If this drama by G. B. Shaw convinces us of anything, it is that the saint is the freest of human beings. All others appear bound by their fears. Joan also fears the stake, but it is a perfectly natural fear that she soon overcomes, precisely when she sees her freedom threatened.
Once again, she is the figure of the righteous whom others cannot endure because her smallness is revealed in contrast. "Oh, world! When will you be ready to receive your saints?" exclaims Joan, already in the afterlife, with a question that is really a denial. The world also rejected her because she did not belong to it.
Shaw perfectly highlights Joan's sanctity, which is especially remarkable considering the author’s socialist faith. Not only is he respectful of her human figure, but we also see her standing up to kings and powerful men as only a chosen one of God can.
It matters little that, in the preface and in some allusions within the work, she is presented as a precursor of Protestantism: this is clearly refuted in the work itself when Joan repeatedly acknowledges the Church’s authority to speak in God’s name. Moreover, her familiarity with nobles and clergy, along with her frequent touches of humor, make her figure more approachable and distance it from the image of the saint favored by the lax and the pagans: hysterical and misanthropic.