Bertolt Brecht’s Message in 'Mother Courage and Her Children'

Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children shapes the audience’s perspectives on war and capitalism by exploring the interactions of an individual (the eponymous Mother Courage) with and in war. The presentation of war as an entity that has the capability to destroy anything, even those who seek to profit from it, expresses an anti-war ideology. The portrayal of attempts to exploit war for profit can also be interpreted as an anti-capitalist statement. In Mother Courage, Brecht uses the deaths of Mother Courage’s children to highlight the detrimental effects of war, and also uses music, silence and sound, and verfremdungseffekt, or the ‘defamiliarization effect’. Before discussing the methods that Brecht used to convey his message, his ideology and intended message must be discussed. He states that an individual cannot profit from war, and that it makes one suffer, no matter what position in society they hold. The message of Mother Courage was to indicate that no amount of effort is sufficient to combat war, and that one should do anything to stop it. Brecht also critiques capitalist society, identifying it as a reason for further suffering during wartime. It can be concluded that Mother Courage is inherently anti-war, as well as anti-capitalist, as it opposes the manipulation of war for profit.

Brecht critiques war and capitalism through the deaths of Mother Courage (Anna)’s children. In the play, her suffering is solely brought about by her strong preoccupations with business and profit. Anna, a canteen woman is “another manifestation of the capitalist businessman”, and Brecht intended to portray her actions as reprehensible, yet merely historically and socially motivated. The losses that Anna faces in her life are mainly due to the deaths of her three children, Eilif, Swiss Cheese, and Kattrin. Their deaths all occur while Anna is taking part in business transactions. In scene three, she tries to bribe a colonel in order to save Swiss Cheese. However, she spends a significant amount of time haggling down the price, and eventually, she fails. She also directly states: “Maybe I haggled too long” (Brecht 45), indicating her knowledge that her money-mindedness could have potentially cost her Swiss Cheese’s life, and in the end, her prioritisation of money and profit led to his execution. Similarly, when Eilif is arrested and executed, she has left to attempt to sell goods, and when Kattrin is shot in scene 11, she is buying goods and is described as being “in business” (Brecht 84). All three scenes are a critique of capitalism, as it implies that Anna’s priorities lie not with her family, but with her business (though she is unconscious of what had occurred, if she were present in scene 11 and if she avoided haggling with the colonel, Kattrin and Swiss Cheese would likely have survived). Indirectly, she could also have prevented Eilif’s death. If she were not trying to sell a buckle in scene 1, she would not have been distracted when Eilif left with the Recruiting Officer, and Eilif would not have become a soldier, meaning he would not have pillaged the farm, something he thought was justified during wartime as a soldier. Furthermore, their deaths also critique war, as though Eilif and Swiss Cheese were involved with the military, and Kattrin rebelled, they all died because of war.

The spectator plays a significant role in the conveying of Brecht’s messages. Mother Courage, inherently, sought to promote social change in critiquing war and capitalism, necessitating active audience, as it is not possible to promote social change with a passive audience. During a performance, spectators form their own understanding of the play’s meaning by interpreting what is presented to them, regardless of the authors’ intentions (Leach 178-179). In Brecht’s theatre, focus is placed on the experience of the spectator, as it is necessary for them to learn from the events on stage (Bennett 680. The use of theatre for political and ideological reasons subverted the use of theatre to manipulate an audience to conform, like the Nazis use of theatre to convince Germans to agree with them. In perpetuating anti-capitalist and anti-war sentiments in Mother Courage, Brecht challenges the use of theatre by a capitalist system that glorifies war, “robbing it of its validity”. The participatory nature of Brecht’s audience provoked critical thought and analysis through the use of the verfremdungseffekt (defamiliarization effect), which makes what is the familiar to the audience foreign to them, with an inherently political purpose. The audience is forced to realise that they are observing fiction (Bennett 57). Brecht also uses the Thirty Years War as a backdrop, but attempts to force the audience to realise that individuals’ reactions were a product of society and not universal, so similar circumstances elsewhere would provoke similarly undesirable actions in society. It is crucial, for the audience to interpret Mother Courage as anti-war and anti-capitalist for Brecht’s message to be conveyed.

The episodic narrative of Mother Courage creates the verfremdungseffekt. There are large gaps of time between scenes. The first two scenes are set two years apart, in Poland and Sweden respectively. In scene 1, Eilif leaves with a Recruiting Officer, and by Scene 2, Swiss Cheese has left as well. The relationship between Anna and her sons has changed drastically, and the emotions of the two scenes contrast as well. Similarly, the atmospheres of scenes 6 and 7 contrast significantly – in scene 6 Anna struggles to make profit, is angry about Kattrin’s injury, and is frustrated with the war (Brecht 62), while in scene 7, she celebrates war, as it has benefitted her business (Brecht 63). The atmosphere of scene 7 is one of celebration and joy, in direct contrast with that of scene 6, which is of anger and frustration. This creates a sense of discontinuity within the play, preventing the audience from blindly consuming it (Barnett 71). Brecht only allows sufficient emotion to question the reasons for emotion (Blau 8). This aligns with verfremdung(defamiliarization), departing from typical dramatic styles. The structure of the play, juxtaposing these scenes, draws attention to the fact that Anna acts contradictorily according to her social situation – when the war makes her suffer, she hates it, but when it helps her profit, she celebrates it. The abrupt changes in emotion between scenes also disrupts the potential of audience members empathising too much with Anna. Brecht found that spectators empathised with both characters that had good values and those with poor values, and feared that they would find undesirable behaviour acceptable because of this, and in the case of Mother Courage, find the manipulation of war for profit acceptable. The structure and the reduction of empathy is therefore essential to the understanding of Brecht’s message.

Music also contributed to “verfremdungseffekt”. Songs are sung throughout the play, but do not elaborate on the plot or explicitly further characterisation. The departure from dialogue separates narrative elements, disrupting the flow of the plot, contributing to defamiliarization. In scene 4, Anna sings about the transition of one’s attitudes towards the world. The lyrics of the song do not serve to further the plot, but Anna uses the lyrics as a commentary on the necessity of adapting to circumstances, attempting to convince a Young Soldier to keep his sword. The song comments on her adapting attitudes towards war through the play. It is also sung in the scene immediately following Swiss Cheese’s death, an especially emotional scene. It is used to alienate the audience from the emotion of the previous scene. The use of music as a distancing device contrasts with its use to heighten emotion in typical dramatic theatre.

Silence highlights the destructive effects and suffering caused by war. A poignant example is the characterisation and symbolism of Kattrin. Kattrin’s muteness originates from a traumatic war-related experience, where “a soldier stuffed something in her mouth” when she was a child (Brecht 62). The mention is brief, and the lack of detail that Anna gives the Chaplain implies what happened was too horrific to discuss in detail. The audience is left to imagine the possibilities of the trauma suffered. Kattrin is the sole witness – yet she has been literally and metaphorically silenced, so the audience is forced to experience a censorship of the incident (Vork 38). Her physical silencing represents the underlying characteristics of the physical violence that occurs due to war – speech becomes irrelevant in the representation of suffering (Vork 38), so silence becomes representative of the destructive capabilities of war. . The forced, traumatic silence dissociates spectators from their role as mere observers because they are alienated from the narrative. This dissociation allows spectators to play an interactive role, sharing and therefore realising the traumatic impacts of war on society. On the other hand, sound is used as a tool to indicate rebellion, evident in scene 11, where Kattrin bangs a drum, in direct defiance against soldiers, an explicit act of rebellion (Brecht 87). The creation of sound is contrasted with the fact that Kattrin had been forced to spend the play in silence, due to the trauma she experienced when young. The creation of sound in order to save a civilian town from the trauma of war was a direct rebellion against the potential destruction of war and against the forces of war (Vork 49). This act leading to Kattrin’s death to save a town contributes to the idea that no sacrifice is too great in a struggle against war, one of Brecht’s aims (Brecht 187-188), further expressing the anti-war ideology.

The live nature of theatre is critical in expressing Brecht’s message. He stated that there is “always something missing” before plays are staged, indicating that the live performance is crucial in the presentation of messages (Hasche 187). Total theatre involves all aspects of a theatrical performance (Barnett 70). Typically, these elements harmonise with each other, allowing the audience to watch the performance passively (Barnett 70). Brecht subverts the expectations of total theatre, where instead of contributing to a single emotion or atmosphere, elements present conflicting moods, creating dissonance within the semiotics of the performance (Barnett 73). In the Berlin production of Mother Courage, the names of the settings of scenes were hung above the stage, and an even white light was used (Brecht 185). The visual cues of seeing the placenames remind spectators that they are not actually at the referenced locations. Even white light produces a neutral visual aesthetic, reducing chances of the audience attributing an atmosphere to the play based on lighting alone. The set design provided sufficient details of the fictional setting to maintain some realism. The grounding of the set in a realistic representation of society allows the audience to relate, facilitating the understanding of Mother Courage by a larger audience. In a theatre space, spectators can observe their surroundings, such as the visible draw wires in Mother Courage. The visibility of mechanisms of theatre remind the audience that the play is fictional. Such visibility is uncommon and atypical of other art forms, and is a unique perspective created by live theatre. Forcing spectators to acknowledge that the play is fictional dispels the suspension of disbelief, allowing them to view the incidents of the play from a critical standpoint, rather than one based on emotion and empathy towards characters. Ideally, this supports Brecht’s aims – the audience critically view war and the use of war for profit.

However, it must be acknowledged that Brecht was unsuccessful in fully achieving his intentions. After the Zurich production, he concluded that audiences’ understanding of Mother Courage became independent of his intentions, and made alterations for the Berlin production.