Mother courage

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

• Born in Augsburg, Bavaria
• After graduating, he went to Berlin
• Left Germany due to rise on the Nazis
• Exiled in Scandinavia and in America
• Made "Mother Courage" in Sweden

Epic The Epic Theater

Verfremdungseffekt

To make the audience analyze the play, do something to change the world

Mother courage

• Mother Courage And Her Children
• Drama, Epic Theater
• Written during Brecht's exile in Sweden
• Date of 1st publication: 1941
• Setting: Throughout Europe

Mother courage

• No narrative figure
• Tense: the play unfolds in the time of the present
• Foreshadowing: evident in the 1st scene
• Tone: tragi-comic

Mother courage

• Dalarna, in the midst of the 30 years war
• Seeking soldiers for the Swedish campaign in Poland
• Courage, Kattrin, Eilif, and Swiss Cheese
• Recruitment officer attempts to get Eilif
• Eilif wants to join them, Courage disapproves

courage Fortells Their fate

• Eilif : Will die for his bravery
• Swiss Cheese: Will die for his honesty
• Kattrin: Will die for her kindness
• In the end, they are able to fool Courage
• Eilif is recruited

Mother courage argues

• Argues w/ the Cook over the sale of a capon
• The commander applauds Eilif for raiding local peasants
• Courage remarks that trouble must be afoot

Three years later

• Courage and Kattrin fold clothes atop a cannon
• Swiss Cheese is now a paymaster
• Yvette Pottier recounts the story of her lost beau
• "Peter Piper"

Untitled Slide

• Chaplain and the cook talk about politics
• Cook: King is luck his campaign is justified by God
• Otherwise, accused of seeking profit alone
• Catholics have launched a surprise attack
• Swiss hides his regiment's cash box in the wagon

Untitled Slide

• Swiss return the cash box
• Enemies lurking about to arrest him
• Courage and Chaplain return
• Mother Courage and Swiss pretend to be strangers

That evening

• Courage knows how to buy Swiss' freedom
• Yvette picked up an old colonel who will buy the canteen
• Pawn and reclaim it after 2 weeks
• Using money from the cash box
• Courage sends Yvette to bribe One Eye w/ 200 guilders 

Death of swiss

• Yvette reports that the enemy has agreed
• But Swiss has thrown the cash box in the river
• They will not be able to reclaim the wagon
• Offers new deal: 120 guilders
• Rejected. Swiss' execution in imminent

TWO YEARS PASS

• The wagon stands in a war-ravaged village
• The canteen sits before the funeral of Commander Tilly
• Courage & Kattrin take inventory
• Courage sends Kattrin to town, returns w/gashes
• Courage celebrates war as her breadwinner

A year later

• Peace has been declared
• Cook arrives, penniless and bedraggled
• Chaplain & Cook fight for a feedbag, Courage defends Cook
• Yvette (fatter&older) arrives & unmasks Cook as Peter Piper
• Courage calms Yvette and takes her to town

death of eilif

• Eilif faces execution for his raids
• Comes to see his mother one last time
• He is taken away as cannons thunder
• The war resumed 3 days ago, they must flee 
• She invites Cook & hopes to see Eilif soon

autumn of 1684

• A hard winter has come early
• Courage&Cook appear in rags before a parsonage
• Cook receives a letter from Utrecht: his mother died
• She left him the family inn. He invites Courage to come
• They must leave Kattrin behind, she overhears them

Untitled Slide

• Courage can't leave Kattrin behind
• Kattrin climbs out of the wagon
• Courage stops her from leaving
• Cook and Courage part ways

January 1636

• Kattrin is inside the wagon while Courage buys supplies
• Out of the woods come a Catholic Lieutenent
• The Catholic regiment readies for a surprise attack 
• Helpless, the peasants begin to pray

Death of kattrin

• Kattrin climbs up & begins to beat a drum
• The soldiers shoot Kattrin. She has saved the town
• In the morning, Courage sits beside the body
• Her and thye peasants bury the body
• Courage resolves and moves after the regiment

characters

mother courage

• The play's wise woman
• Delivers shrewd commentary on realities of war

kattrin

• Courage's dumb daughter
• Undergoes a lot of trauma during war
• Ends up disfigured
• Died for her kindness

Eilif

• 1st child of Mother Courage loses to army
• Warlike, eager to carry out brutal business
• Fatal Virtue: Caesar like "bravery"
• Driven by the need to feed his hungry men
• Accolades due to raids and murders

swiss cheese

• 1st son to die
• Excessively dutiful and honest
• His virtues during the war cost him his life
• Not particularly bright

Cook

• The Chaplains rival
• Fights for Courage's affections and bread
• Unmasks the military campaign's profit scheme
• Bears no loyalty to rulers who exploit him

chaplain

• Depends on Courage as his "feedbag"
• Remains loyal to the Swedish monarchy
• Reveals his sympathy to the local peasants
• Understands himself as someone oppressed by war
• His life as a tramp: impossible to return to priesthood

Yvette pottier

• Initially appears as a camp prostitute
• She will make her fortune through the war
• Married the colonel and inherited his estate
• She mourns for her lost love
• Becomes obese and grotesque after years of marriage

THEMES

war as a business

virtue in war time

the end