Mid Term Assignment

For they can get from Mother Courage/Boots they will march in till they die!”

Name of Research Scholar Introduction of Supervisor

Ayesha Zaman Prof. Dr. Shaffaat Yaar

Roll No: 41

M.Phil English Literature Department: English

Semester: 2nd Institute: Minhaj University

Department of English

Faculty of English Literature

Minhaj University Lahore

Title: Explain the significance of the lines: “For they can get from Mother Courage/Boots
they will march in till they die!” (Scene 1) and relate them to the theme of the play.

“Mother Courage and Her Children” is an anti-war play written by Bertolt Brecht. He used
“Thirty Years' War” as historical background of the play and is opposed to the rise of Fascism
and Nazism and as a response to the invasion of Poland by Hitler's army in 1939. Above
mentioned lines are taken from song in Scene 1 of the play, forecasting what type of events are
going to take place later, it also introduces us to Mother Courage and her occupation. These lines
also expose the capitalistic mindset of Mother Courage who will supply provisions to soldiers
and will earn from war. This song can also be served as a warning to soldiers or as a prediction
of the expected end of brave, strong and passionate soldiers.

Brecht regarded the songs of “Mother Courage and her Three Children” as “musical
insertions‟. He used them as a device to highlight the themes of the play and songs are full of
ironic dialogues that reader can interpret individually. The central idea presented in these lines is
that there is no heroism in war, only a series of casualties and killings,

"War leaves no victors, only victims."

And Brecht's play portrays a similar reality; Mother Courage is not a hero but a victim of war.
Although she tries her best to preserve her family, but her kids die in front of her. She is the
victim of a world order in which war and the need for profit threaten to destroy all human values.
This song in scene 1 also shows the attitude of Mother Courage in a war situation, she is active
and brave and is calling soldiers to get up and fight. But she also forecasts that they will have a
pathetic end. Lines that I am explaining can be correlated with the lines that she speaks in the
same song later,

“But it's to death they're marching for you

And so they need good boots to wear!”(Scene1, page 15)

Mother Courage delineates the picture about predicament of soldiers in the battle front with lice
in their hair and boots, luggage on their backs, in a terrified situation where they can die instantly
when faced by a bullet from opposite army, cannot sleep enough and cannot eat enough but they
are still constantly advancing ahead. All the writers before WW1 and WW2 used to dignify
soldiers who fight for their homeland and sacrifice their lands, but writers like Bertolt Brecht are
truthful and write about situations of war in a hideous way because they witnessed disasters of
these two big wars. The people who had a testimony of these horrors of war would never call a
soldier hero, because heroes are never victims or those who are always in fear of death, they are
humans like us whom politicians use for their purpose and then they are forgotten and their
families lose a family member, a mother loses a son, a wife her husband and a son loses his
father, what will happen to these broken families who will always be waiting for their strong and
valiant sons to return home. Despite of all these torments and hardships they have, they are not
still acknowledged by people in power. Writer once stated,

“Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality but a hammer with which to shape it”

Brecht started composing this work on the day the Nazi armed force involved Warsaw. He had
looked as totalitarianism grabbed hold of expansive areas of the German people, and Hitler's
fundamentalists arranged for war. Brecht observed all these happenings and he puts emphasis on
the casualties of war, the soldiers, the ranchers, cooks and sergeants. Bertolt Brecht’s focus is on
common man and the way a common man or a soldier of lower rank suffers in a war. He wrote
for a change in thinking patterns of the society i.e wars only result in devastation and wreckage.
One can never achieve peace through massacres and large scale destruction.

“War does not determine who is right — only who is left.”

“Mother Courage and Her Children” is a story of twelve years journey of a woman who ends up
losing her kids in the years from 1624-1636. Mother Courage is seen pulling her wagon with
soldiers in Europe, passing through Darlana, Poland, Bavaria, Fichtelgebirge, central Germany,
and Halle. In the start of play, we do not see any officer or high ranked person communicating
with Mother Courage, a reader interprets that writer is presenting problems of humans and starts
from below to have a realistic look. There are politicians who wage wars on commoners and then
there are soldiers who sacrifice their lives but there is no loss of those in authority, they are
always in benefit. Mother courage observed a lot of soldiers around her who made huge plans to
have more power and more money. We see Commander Tilly who had a huge list of places to
occupy and was confident about his victory but died by a small mistake. These lines can also be
explained in reference to persistence of war and transience of human life, how war continues
even if there is no Mother Courage, no commander, millions soldiers are murdered daily, but old
is replaced by new and war commences once again. As Plato said,

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

Now I will talk about materialistic approach of Mother Courage evident from these words, “For
they can get from Mother Courage”, it represents the writer's criticism of war and capitalism.
Mother courage is like small workers who wish to bring change but authoritative forces never let
them do so because they are the ones who are exploited by capitalists, politicians and
businessmen. Wars are initiated in the name of religion like Thirty Years War began in 1618 as
a dispute over the kingship of Bohemia and lasted thirty years. Mother courage, a victim of
capitalism was forced to do things that were inappropriate in order to protect her family and
business. We can say through these lines of the play Brecht wanted to say that if you try to do
business with the army, you lose everything ultimately. Mother courage’s words in the play,
especially songs are full of ridicule and satire. When she calls soldiers to buy things from her, eat
and feel alive then get shot by cannons of opposite side, she compares war and its proceedings to
a hell and greets soldiers for being damned, she does not uses the words of being blessed as it is
thought that to die in a battlefield is a blessing. She says,

Then let them go and find where hell is

And give my greetings to the damned! (Scene1, page 15)

Brecht points out that war is hell or people act irrationally during war time. Soldiers are capable
of acting bravely or heroically but all this is outward, inwardly they have a heart that fears death,
a heart that waits for returning to beloved, they have a body that aches with pain and a mind
which is tired of listening to shrieks of innocents killed in a war. Mother Courage asks Soldiers
to arouse as passive are those only who are dead and are sleeping under earth. It’s time to return
to war because they are confronted with a situation, where either they should die by sitting or
sleeping in their trenches or should come forward and struggle like Mother courage who is given
the name of hyena of battlefield because of her bravery or may be for her taking advantage of
war situation to earn profit.

The snows depart! Dead men sleep on!

 Let all of you who still survive Get out of bed and look alive! (Scene1, page 15)

We can relate these words of first song with last song sung by soldiers when Mother Courage is
leaving deprived of everything she possessed. Soldiers sing,

“With all its luck, with all its danger,

The war moves on, but will not quit. And even if it lasts forever,

We shall get nothing out of it. Starvation, filth, and cold enslave us” (Scene12, page 116)

Soldiers are now admitting that war brings poverty, hunger and starvation. It robs them of their
possessions and leaves them empty handed, innumerable soldiers are slaughtered by war and all
humans like Mother Courage are struggling hard only to feed their children. As long as there are
authorities who want power and control the war will never end.

To conclude, these lines have a significant role in the play as they illustrate the pivotal ideas of
“Mother Courage and her Children” i.e capitalism, destruction, impoverishment, poverty and
cynicism of War. These wars and conflicts are frequently dangerous and life-devouring. The way
that there are still wars going on in different spots across the globe is a declaration that humanity
has not taken in a single thing from past calamities. Thus Bertolt Brecht played an outstanding
role in educating his readers about war and its effects on humanity. I would end up my argument
with these words,

“Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.”

References

1-Ruma M, Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children as a critique of War and Religion,
Department of English and French Umaru Musa Yar’adua University.