BERTOLT

BRECHT
Bertolt Brecht
(1898-1956)
Born in Augsburg
Bavaria to middle
class parents.

BERTOLT BRECHT
Went to Medical school where he was
drafted into the German army near the end
of the first World War.
He was stationed in a clinic, but was still
affected by the images he was exposed to.
This experience would greatly influence his
writing throughout his life and lead him to
adopting a pacifist philosophy.

BERTOLT BRECHT
Found work as assistant dramaturge at
the Deustches Theater in 1924.
There, he achieved his first great
success in 1928 with the production of
hisThreepenny Opera,the most
famous of his many collaborations with
composer Kurt Weill.

BERTOLT BRECHT
Because of his Marxist and anti-fascist
beliefs, Brecht would be forced to flee
Germany with the rise of the Nazis in
1933, living in exile in Scandinavia and
the United States for the next fifteen
years.

BERTOLT BRECHT
Brecht had little success with American
audiences and was at one point event
brought before the House Committee
on Un-American Activities.
His encounter with HUAC left him
deeply disturbed with America, and
Brecht moved back to East Berlin in
1948, living there until his death.

BERTOLT BRECHT
Brecht produced his first major play,Baal,in
1922, launching it as a critique against
traditional, de-politicizing notions of the artist as
genius and visionary.

His conversion to Marxism resulted in a

number of anti-capitalist works,
includingThe Measures Taken(1930), a
"learning play" aimed didactically at the
education of its spectator, andSaint Joan of
the Stockyards(1932).

BERTOLT BRECHT
Brecht began to elaborate his theory of
the epic theater, an avant-garde form
that aimed at unhinging a dramatic
establishment Brecht understood as
complicit with the oppression of its
audiences.

BRECHT EPIC THEATRE

The epic theater challenged the notion of:
spectatorship as grounded in identification
seeing the identification between the
viewer and character in the conventional
theater as insidious
removing both (viewer and character) from
their political and historical contexts

BRECHT EPIC THEATRE

The epic form's primary innovation was
theVerfremdungseffekt
generally translated as the "alienation"
or "distanciation" effect.

Verfremdungseffekt:
Alienation effect
Acting in the third person (traffic accident).
Presentational as opposed to Representational.
Actors and audience are encouraged to not, at any
point, feel that they are the character they are
portraying.
Characters are not representative of individuals, but of
social groups or types.
Attempts to create a space between audience and
actors.

THE MOTHER COURAGE

THE MOTHER COURAGE

CAPSULE SUMMARY
The play follows the adventures of Anna Fierling,
a.k.a. Mother Courage, who runs a canteen
business during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
She tours Europe with a covered wagon of wares
for sale, booze for soldiers and her three children in
tow. Though determined to make money off the
war and keep her children out of harm's way, she
ends up alone and penniless before the whole thing
is over.

Writing Style
In
The Mother Courage and her
children

Writing Style
Mother Courageis among Brecht's most famous
plays, and has been considered by some to be the
greatest play of the 20th century.His work attempts
to show the dreadfulness of war and the idea that
virtues are not rewarded in corrupt times.
He used an epic structure so that the audience
focuses on the issues being displayed rather than
getting involved with the characters and emotions.

Writing Style
Epic plays are of a very distinct genre and are
typical of Brecht; a strong case could be made
that he invented the form.
Mother Courageis an example of Brecht's
concepts ofEpic Theatre.
through the use of placards which reveal the
events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors
changing characters and costume on stage, the
use of narration, simple props and scenery.

Writing Style
For instance, a single tree would be used
to convey a whole forest, and the stage
is usually flooded with bright white light
whether it's a winter's night or a
summer's day. Several songs,
interspersed throughout the play, are
used to underscore the themes of the
play, while making the audience think
about what the playwright is saying.

Writing Style
"Epic Theater" was Brecht's term for the
form of theater he hoped would achieve
this goal .
Its basic aim was to educate its audience by
forcing them to view the action of the play
critically, from a detached, "alienated,"
point of view, rather than allow them to
become emotionally involved.

Writing Style
Brecht devised several very famous
techniques through which he could
achieve a high level of critical
detachment. These included placards
that summarized the plot of the scene
before the scene itself was played out.
This technique decreases anticipation
and tension, and it renders the plot .

Writing Style
The songs were sung half in character
and half out of character, which helps to
comment dryly on the events of the
play .
The purpose of the theater thus was not
to imitate life but to educate the
audience

Characters in
MOTHER COURAGE

Mother courage
Her real name is Anna Fierling.
She earned her name in Riga when she ran
through a bombardment in order to sell her
loaves of bread.
She follows the armies of thirty years war,
supporting herself and her children with
canteen wagon.
She looses all three children.
Mother courage is deeply contradictory
character: courageous and intelligent

Eilif.

He is eldest and favorite son of Mother

courage.
He dies for his bravery.

Kattrin
Mother courage`s dumb daughter.
Kattrin distinguishes as a character who most
obviously suffers from the traumas of war.
She dies for her kindness.

Swiss Cheese
Mother courage`s younger son.
He is too honest according to her mother.
He is the first Mother courage`s children to die.
Swiss cheese suffers from an excessive sense of
duty and honesty and ultimately dies because
of it.
He basically dies for his honesty.

Other Characters
Cook and Yvette Pottier: Cook fell in love with
Yvette, and Yvette was a prostitute.

Chaplain: He is totally Hypocrite, switching religious

allegiance with a twirl of a clerical robe.

Recruiting officer: A man who recruits Eilif in scene

1.
Sergeant: The man who distracts Mother courage so
that her son Eilif recruited into the army

PLOT OVERVIEW.
The play is set in Europe during the thirty years war. Mother courage, a canteen
woman, pulls her cart with her three children in the wake of the army, trading
with the soldiers and attempting to make profit from war.
* We are first introduced to aRecruiting Officerand aSergeant,
who complain about the difficulty of recruiting soldiers for the war. Mother
Courage's cart is pulled on and, distracting her with the promise of a transaction,
the Recruiting Officer leads Eilif off. One of her children is now gone.
Two years later, we find Mother Courage haggling with the General'sCookover a
capon. On the other side of the stage, Eilif is praised by the General for
heroically slaughtering some peasants and stealing their cattle. Eilif sings "The
Song of the Girl and the Soldier," and his mother joins in. She then berates him
for risking his life so stupidly.

 Three years later, Swiss Cheese has taken a job as a regiment paymaster.
Yvette Pottier, the camp prostitute, sings The song of Fraternization to
warn Kattrin about the horrors of a relationship with a soldier.
There is suddenly a catholic attack.
Chaplain discards his robes, and Swiss Cheese hides the regiment`s pay
box.
When he came to return pay box to his general. He is captured, and soldiers
shot him.

 The next scene finds Mother Courage waiting to complain outside the
Captain's tent. She sings the "Song of the Great Capitulation" to a
young soldier who also has come to complain to the Captain. The song,
which has the moral "everyone gives in sooner or later," leads to the
soldier's storming out, and Courage herself ends up deciding that she
doesn't want to complain.
On the day of the funeral of General Tilly, Mother Courage undertakes a
stock check, and she talks at length with the Chaplain about whether or
not the war will continue. He convinces her that it will, so she decides to
invest in more stock for her cart. The Chaplain suggests that Mother
Courage could marry him, but he is rejected. Kattrin appears and
returns to her mother, severely disfigured, having collected some
merchandise. Mother Courage thus curses the war.

 In the following brief scene, Courage sings a song that praises the war as a good
provider. Business is good for now.
Two peasants wake up Mother Courage, trying to sell her some bedding, shortly
before the news breaks that peace has broken out. The Cook returns, unpaid by
the regiment, and he instigates an argument between Mother Courage and the
Chaplain. Yvette makes her second appearance, now a rich widow, much older
and fatter, and reveals that the Cook was once her lover. Mother Courage leaves
for the town, and Eilif is dragged along by soldiers. Again he has slaughtered
some peasants and stolen their cattle, but it is now peacetime. He is executed
for it, but his mother never finds out. She returns with the news that the war is
back on again, and she now returns to business with the Cook in town.

 The seventeenth year of the war finds the world in a bleak condition, with nothing
to trade and nothing to eat. The Cook invites Mother Courage to run it with him, but
he refuses to take Kattrin. Mother Courage is forced to turn him down, so the two
go their separate ways. Pulling the wagon by themselves, Mother Courage and
Kattrin hear an anonymous voice singing about the pleasure of having plenty.
The Catholics are besieging the Protestant town of Halle, and Mother Courage is
away in the town, trading. Sleeping outside a peasant family's house, Kattrin is
woken by their search party, who take one of the peasants with them as a guide.
The peasant couple prays for the safety of those in the town, but Kattrin, unseen,
gets a drum from the cart and climbs onto the roof. She beats the drum to try to
awake the townspeople so that the siege can be anticipated. The soldiers return
and shoot her, but before she dies, she is successful in awakening the town.
The next morning, Mother Courage sings a lullaby over her daughter's corpse, pays
the peasants to bury her, and harnesses herself, alone, to the cart. The cart rolls
back into action, but it is easier to pull now, since there is so little left in it to sell.

Critical Analysis
with reference to
Modern and
Contemporary era
Mother Courage and her Children

Critical Analysis of the Title

Mother :
Life Giver
Protector

LIFE FORCE

Courage:
Strength

LIFE FORCE

Power

Children:
Nurtured
Mirror Image

LIFE FORCE

How Life Force Acts in the Play

Life Force:
Mother
Survival
War
Odds
Money
Enemy
Hunger
Children

Lessons taught by the

writer through this play
1. Survival of the Fittest

Darwin

Early phases of Modern age

Its always Survival of the fittest

2. Selfishness:

During war period

Blood relations change their colors

Selfish

Lessons taught by the

writer through this play
3. Materialistic Approach:

Can be seen within the characters

Materialistic outlook towards blood relations

4. Meaninglessness / Absurdity:

Mothers attitude towards Children

Meaningless existence of Modern and Contemporary Man

Lessons taught by the writer through

this play
6. Epic Theatre:
Brechts Concept
Advocates Estrangement Effect
Which vividly depicts

Mood

Atmosphere

Modern and Contemporary Man

Modern and Contemporary Age

Modern Age

Contemporary Age

T.S Elliots Poem The

WasteLand

Brechts Mother Courage and

her Children

Hurry please, its Time

Urgency

Calmness, Aloof, Meaningless

State

Burning burning burning

Chaos

Moving in between war zones

Planted a corpse in garden

Death of mothers children

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