Bertolt Brecht: Mother Courage and Her Children
origin:
1939, premiered in 1941 in Zurich
Description:
chronicle of the 30-year war (1618-1648)
Consisting of 12 scenes (image sequences)
The covered wagon is the Mother Courage as a binding agent between the characters and the war.
The focus is on Anna Fierling, aka Mother Courage to make the attempt in the shadow of the 30-year war profits and sihc and feed their children.
Telling Time / Location:
spring of 1624 to January 1636th
parades, Central Swedish Dalerna Poland, Moravia, Bavaria, Italy, Magdeburg, Ingolstadt, Fichtelgebirge and Halle.
Language:
based / intertextuality to Hasleks novel: The Adventures of the brave soldiers Schweijk.
dialketgefärbte and populist language, and frequent use of the accusative dative.
"where" often used as relative pronouns. Other terms of the South German and the foreign language area.
wit and eloquence in some dialogs (Mother Courage and Country Preacher) available.
bluntness, but also the accuracy of the structures of consciousness come through reciprocity and argument strength the language to express.
The war:
central theme of the piece. Fundamental aspects of the war, in the sense of dialectical / analytical / epic theater are revealed to the reader.
The war is waged for religious reasons, but strictly speaking not itself a religious war. For religion is abused by those in power to legitimize the war that is out for material reasons. The belief is used as an excuse to evade their own responsibility.
It shows itself in the reckless behavior of the military leaders with further implications for the decisions of the Involved.
The powerlessness of children but also their fellow travelers.
The fear of death is reflected in almost all the figures, even and especially when anxiety is ignored.
The development shows that the little people are not in a position to obtain actual profit from the war (see Mother Courage)
time references:
30 years of war parallels the 2nd WK, and topical to any war.
allusions to the ideology and politics of fascism.
Mother Courage:
She is in her thinking and behavior to determine ambiguous. It shows both protective, courageous and decisive, and defending, honourableness and moral traits on the one hand, and on the other side features of neglect, greed, material preference, selfishness, pure self-preservation and the immoral.
It has a direct and existetielles relation to the war that feeds them.
Her children, she has a relationship not always clear, although the good qualities of the children in the foreground rather than their language-handicapped daughter Kattrin.
Mother Courage has a consistently two rollers that come in some places "in the way." The native and its role as negotiator. The role as a woman it takes in terms of a bohemian lifestyle, non-religion, love to cook and the rescue of the chaplain.
The question of guilt:
At the end of the play is not clearly disclosed, whether Mother Courage is guilty or not. The two extremes of condemnation and justification left to the reader who has to deal again critical of the figure and its practice.
There are opposite:
-criminal inconsistency
-a world in which there is no objection to the individual
-uniqueness, filled from the many contradictions
-the Emazipiertheit and the excessive demand due to the double burden.
