Ana Maria Mendes Menezes

N° USP: 11283783
Matéria: Introdução ao teatro

Dramatic and Epic drama: analysis of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee

Williams and Mother Courage and her Children by Bertolt Brecht

São Paulo

2021
It is known that the dramatic theater and the epic theater have differences between
each other. The goal of this analysis is to put into perspective the formal divergent
aspects of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and Mother Courage
and her Children by Bertolt Brecht.

The first aspect which can be put into consideration is the tragedy shown in both
plays. And by tragedy it does not mean the tragic element, but the aspects of life
which are described from the beginning of society as tragic: death, delusion, tragic
cluelessness (as in Edipo cluelessness - not knowing what the future reserves). This
last particular aspect is present in both plays, however, displayed with different
purposes.

When it comes to A Streetcar Named Desire, the ill behaviour of clueless is obvious.
Mitch, the character interested in Blanche, is clueless regarding her lack of
character, as it’s seen in the play. Everytime he sees her, she’s wearing either white
or light colored clothes, as to show her as pure. However, as the spectator can prove
in scene five when Blanche is talking to the young man who went to her sister’s
house to collect for The Evening Star, “without waiting for him to accept, she crosses
quickly to him and presses her lips to his”, Blanche is not who Mitch thinks she is. In
the next scene, Mitch comes to her right after this. The audience knows a secret that
Mitch does not know of – the presentation of the scenes is lineal, there is no time to
absorb what happened or to digest it.

The same behavior can be analysed in Mother Courage and her Children. Eilif, the
son of Mother Courage, is shot by the end of the play. However, Mother Courage is
not aware of the fact – actually, she never gets to know what truly happened to her
son. The audience, in the meantime, is perfectly conscious of it. There is a game of
time and place here, the compounding thread of the epic drama, as it is shown
below.

Similarities aside, one of the contrasts between those two plays is the formal aspect
which unfolds the facts. Peter Szondi presents the following characteristic of the
modern drama:
 “O entorno espacial deve (assim como os elementos temporais) ser
eliminado da consciência do espectador. Só assim surge uma cena
absoluta, isto é, dramática. Quanto mais frequentes são as mudanças
de cena, tanto mais difícil é esse trabalho. Ademais a descontinuidade
espacial (como a temporal) pressupõe o eu-épico”. (SZONDI, 1963)

By this, considering the whole excerpt from Szondi’s proposition, A Streetcar Named
Desire represents a widely aspect of the dramatic in the modern drama: it is all
based on dialogue. The representation of the scenes need to be done all amongst
the time of the scene. Characters cannot recur to another time of scene or to any
divine force as to why those actions happened.

As an example, the public finally understands the reason why Blanche moved to
Stella’s house only because she had a dialogue with Stanley, as well did Stanley and
Stella, Blanche and Mitch at last. There was no possible way for the audience to
understand the true motive behind Blanche’s character development if it were not for
the dialogue. The only voice in the play comes from the characters themselves.

“O dramaturgo está ausente no drama. Ele não fala; ele institui a

conversação. O drama não é escrito, mas posto. As palavras
pronunciadas no drama são todas elas decisões [Ent-sch/üsse]; são
pronunciadas a partir da situação e persistem nela; de forma alguma
devem ser concebidas como provenientes do autor. O drama pertence
ao autor só como um todo, e essa relação não é parte essencial de
seu caráter de obra.” (SZONDI, 1963)

And for this feature, another one is necessary: the time unity.

“A descontinuidade temporal das cenas vai contra o princípio da

seqüência de presentes absolutos, uma vez que toda cena possuiria
sua pré-história e sua continuação (passado e futuro) fora da
representação. Assim, cada cena seria relativizada. Além do mais,
somente quando, na sequência, cada cena produz a próxima (ou seja,
a cena necessária ao drama), é que não se torna implícita a presença
do montador.” (SZONDI, 1963)
Nevertheless the epic feature has a different way of dealing with how the narrative is
presented. Intrusive aspects can interfere along the way of the play. An example of
this is the presence of an outsider force right from the beginning in Mother Courage
and her Children.

“Já está durando dezessete anos a grande guerra religiosa. A

Alemanha perdeu mais da metade dos seus habitantes. Violentas
epidemias exterminaram os que sobrevivem à morte nas batalhas. (...)
No outono de 1634, encontra-se Mãe Coragem na montanha alemã
Fitchel (...). Nesse ano, o inverno veio cedo e com rigor.”

If this were to be seen as well in A Streetcar Named Desire, it would not occur on
such terms. To be fair, it would not happen at all, for the modern drama, in contrast
to the epic drama, does not take place outside the play itself.

Anatol Rosenfeld brings the characteristics of this play, contrasting to what is

presented by Szondi.

“É necessário dissolver o encadeamento causal da ação linear,

integrando-a num contexto maior. (...) A nossa própria situação, época
e sociedade devem ser apresentadas como se estivessem
distanciadas de nós pelo tempo histórico ou geográfico.’’

This specific formal feature is displayed by the time of the play. As Tennessee
William’s play has the time of days (and it is all lineal), Brecht’s play goes on as
scene one (Spring 1624), scene two: (1625 and 1626) and scene three: (three years
later).

For the timelines are different, the development is also different in both epic and
dramatic dramas.

Taking into consideration all the information above, one can clearly see the features
of each play, how they are similar and different from each other (specifically the
difference between formal features). The contrast between the actions and how it is
presented to the audience was pointed out and specified by Anatol Rosenfeld and
Peter Szondi, the two theories brought to this paper. Even though Mother Courage
and her Children and A Streetcar Named Desire can differ so much as to formal
procedures, one cannot but admire the beauty of it and how both of them impacted
the dramatic scene in such a diverse way - or, to better put it, diverse form.
REFERENCES

ANATOL, Rosenfeld. O teatro épico. 6ª edição. São Paulo: Perspectiva. 2006.

BRECHT, Bertolt. Mother Courage and her Children. 1939.

SZONDI, Peter. Teoria do drama moderno (1880-1950). São Paulo: Cosac &
Naify. 1963.

WILLIAMS, Tennesse. The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 1: Battle of

Angels / The Glass Menagerie / A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New
Directions; Third Printing edition, 1947.