The Works of Bertolt Brecht

 

 

Garrett Higa

Amanda Krogh

 

Saugus High School AP Literature Author Comparison Project

 

 

 Bertolt Brecht

 

Mother Courage and Her Children

And

The Threepenny Opera

 

 

Table of Contents

 

I.                    Biography: Life of Brecht

II.                 Overview of Mother Courage and Her Children

III.               Overview of The Threepenny Opera

IV.              In The Style of Brecht

V.                 The Archetypes of Bertolt Brecht by Garrett Higa; PhD

VI.              Feminism and Brecht by Amanda Krogh; PhD

VII.            A Reader’s Response of Bertolt Brecht’s Works

VIII.         Historical Points of Interest

IX.              Bertolt and His Books; Biographical Analysis Highlights

X.                 How Well Do You Know Brecht?

XI.              Works Cited

XII.            Interesting Sites to Visit

 

 

Biography

Life of Brecht

 

            Born in Germany in 1898 Bertolt Brecht was loved reading and writing poetry as a child.  It was during this time that he became influenced by the works of writers like Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and François Villon.  Known as a horrible child in secondary school Brecht went on to study medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.  During World War One he served in an army hospital as an orderly.  Though he returned to his studies after the war he soon abandoned medicine.

            Until the rise of the Nazis Brecht was an extremely active communist activist in Germany.  It was during this time that he wrote The Threepenny Opera, an attack on the capitalist societies and the bourgeois.  When Hitler and the Nazis came to power they rounded up many of the communist writers and stripped the citizens of many civil liberties Brecht decided it was time he left Germany, first moving Austria, then Denmark, and finally in Sweden. 

            Following Germany’s invasion of Poland Brecht wrote Mother Courage and her Children.  This attack inspired Brecht and many of the moods and themes in Mother Courage are similar to those of this time.  He and his family relocated to Santa Monica, California, where he struggled to find a career in Hollywood and Broadway.  During the infamous HUAC trials Brecht was called in due to his communist leanings, though his answers to their questions were vague.  The following day he returned to East Germany where he and Helen Weigel founded the Berliner Ensemble and produced what many believe to be his most famous plays.  After receiving a Stalin Peace Prize in Moscow in 1955, he died of coronary thrombosis on August 14, 1956.

 

 

*Information gleaned from Books and Writers website and GradeSaver website.

 

 

Overview

Mother Courage and Her Children

 

Mother Courage and Her Children takes place in Dalarna during the Thirty Years War.  The play focuses on Mother Courage, a notorious war-profiteer who sells supplies to the soldiers, and her children: Kattrin, Eilif, and Swiss Cheese.  Mother Courage is selling supplies to the Swedish soldiers fighting in Poland when she is approached by officers seeking to recruit her sons.  It is then that Mother Courage foreshadows her children’s fate, outlying the story in broad details: Eilif will die due to his bravery, Swiss Cheese will die due to his honesty, and Kattrin will die due to her kindness.

As the years pass and the war continues, Courage’s predictions come true.  Eilif becomes a brave soldier in the war but is killed when his superiors turn against him.  Swiss Cheese is killed when he chooses not to let his mother use stolen money to free him from the military prison.  And finally Kattrin is killed when she sounds the alarm during a surprise attack, saving the town.  Broken by the loss of her children, Courage follows the regiment after saying, "I hope I can pull the wagon by myself. Yes, I'll manage, there's not much in it now. I must get back into business (Scene 12, Page 82).”

 

 

 

Overview

The Threepenny Opera

 

 

Act1

In the streets of London, Mr. Peachum, king of the beggars, sings his morning hymn about his “sinful employment” while opening his outfitting shop for beggars. Meanwhile, his only daughter Polly just married the notorious thief Macheath, also known as Mac the Knife, who Peachum sees as his enemy and threat to his business. Peachum, fueled by self interest, and his wife Celia plot to have Macheath arrested and hanged. They enlist in the help of Tiger Brown, London’s chief police who has a corrupt business friendship with Macheath where they warn each other of possible arrests and crime, and Jenny, a prostitute and Macheath’s former lover. Jenny agreed to give up Macheath’s hideout for ten schiliings, and told Peachum that even when Macheath is hiding from the law, he never gives up his Thurdays visits to the brothel, due to his immoral weakness. Peachum blackmails Brown into helping him by threatening to set his beggars loose on Buckingham Palace before the Queen’s coronation. Brown chooses his obligation over his friendship with Macheath, and he agrees to help Peachum.

 

Act 2

Polly and Macheath are in Macheath’s stable hideout. Polly tries to warn Macheath that her father is planning to have him arrested and hung. Macheath leaves London, but before he goes, he visits the brothel and runs into his ex lover Jenny. Jenny reads his palm and tells him that he is going to be betrayed by someone whose name begins with the letter J. Then Brown comes and arrests Macheath and throws him in jail. Polly visits Macheath in jail, at the same time that Macheath’s other girlfriend Lucy, the daughter of Brown, appears. Polly and Lucy have a nasty argument about who is the rightful wife of Macheath. Lucy then reveals that she is pregnant with Macheaths child, which she lied about and stuck a pillow in her stomach. Polly runs out upset, and Lucy helps Macheath escape. Peachum finds out about the escapes and threatens Brown that if he doesn’t capture Macheath, he will unleash his beggars at the Queen’s coronation, costing Brown his job.

 

Act 3

Jenny goes to the Peachum’s to claim her 10 schillings, but Mrs. Peachum refuses to give it to her because Macheath escaped. Jenny tells her that Macheath is hiding out at the prostitute Suky Tawdry’s house. Brown tries to arrest Peachum for blackmail, but finds that the beggars are already at Buckingham Palace, and the only one who can stop them is Peachum. Brown concedes to Peachum’s threat, and arrests Macheath. Macheath tries to raise money to bribe his way out of jail for the second time, but Polly and his gang cant raise enough money, so Macheath prepares to be hung. As Macheath heads for the gallows, his death sentence has just been pardoned by the Queen and he is given a castle and pension. At the end the cast sings a finale number that says wrongdoing shouldn’t be punished too harshly.

 

 

 

In The Style of Brecht

 

Styles Used by Brecht

  • Symbols
    • Swanky Red Boots symbolize Feminine Sexuality in Mother Courage.
    • Mac’s Kid Gloves symbolize the Masks individuals and society wears to hide their Inner Brutality in Threepenny Opera
    • The Moon as the symbol of Love in Threepenny Opera
    • Mother Courage’s Children symbolize various Virtues that die during war in Mother Courage
  • Alienation of Audience
    • By alienating his audience Brecht allows the audience to analyze the play and come to their own beliefs and conclusions.
  • Music
    • Brecht uses music to convey various messages as well as add characterization to specific characters
    • The prostitute in The Threepenny Opera sings a song called “Fraternizing With The Boys.
  • Allusions
    • Brecht uses Biblical allusions like:
    • In The Threepenny Opera Act 1 Scene 1, Peachum has signs of biblical proverbs such as: “do not turn a deaf ear to misery!” and “give and it shall be given unto you”
    • In The Threepenny Opera, Act 1 Scene 1, Peachum says “I expect my daughter to be as bread to the hungry. It even says so in the bible”
  • Role of Virtues and Values
    • Brecht uses the destruction and twisting of virtues and values that Bible holds dear to show the scheming side of Man and that there are many situations where these virtues will bring about one’s demise
  • Irony
    • Uses irony to amuse the audience and show the ruthlessness of people:

Ø      Macheath wishes to become a respectable middle-class man and live out his life in peace, but will rob and kill to get it.

Ø      Jonathan Peachum fancies himself a fancy aristocratic man, but can be essentially called the “Boss of the Beggars.”

Ø      Mother Courage uses the war as her means to money, yet in the end it takes everything of non-monetary value away from her.

  • Metaphor
    • In the Prologue of The Threepenny Opera, the ballad singer refers to Macheath as a “shark” 

 

 

The Archetypes of Bertolt Brecht

By: Garrett Higa PhD

 

            The use of archetypes has be prevalent in literature since the first tales were recorded.  After all, the first characters created the framework and requirements of their respective archetypes; Beowulf setting the Hero archetype for example.  And although language and form has changed, the archetypes remain as the mold for characters.  Bertolt Brecht recognized this and altered the archetypes slightly to portray the duality of humanity in his plays.  Brecht’s two most famous plays, “Mother Courage and Her Children” and “The Threepenny Opera” portray modified versions of the most popular archetypes – the Great Mother, the Virgin, and the Hero – to create more believable and human characters.

 

            The archetype of the Great Mother is deeply rooted in humanity, especially Christian stories.  Modeled after the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, the Great Mother is wise and matronly, the ideal mother of the Hero or Virgin archetype.  At first glance Mother Courage, the titular character of “Mother Courage and Her Children” seems to fit this mold perfectly.  She tries to keep her sons out of the war that grips the country, and dispenses worldly advice to her daughter.  However her occupation and her past undermine this virtuous appearance.  She is a war profiteer, selling cheap goods to the soldiers for inflated prices.  She warns her daughter about fraternizing with the soldiers after a prostitute sings a bawdy song in the soldier camp; ironically she has been with many men in the past to the extent that her children are not of the same father and may not have even met their respective sperm donators.  Her Hippocratic practices and greed bring the Great Mother off her alter, besides being traits one would not expect to find the in matron of the Virgin.

 

            The purity and innocence of the Virgin have also been deeply rooted in literature.  Bertolt Brecht uses this as a launch point to create two very different versions of the Virgin in “Mother Courage and Her Children” and “The Threepenny Opera.”  Kattrin, the only daughter of Mother Courage, initially seems to be the perfect Virgin; she does not rebel against her mother and does not flirt with the soldiers.  However, she is this way not because she chooses to be but because she is in some way mentally infirm.  She is described as “dumb” by her mother and never speaks throughout the play, communicating through the body language of a child – as if to say that such an extreme version of the Virgin could not naturally occur.  Conversely, the Virgin in “The Threepenny Opera” is taken to the opposite extreme, though not so far as to become the Whore archetype.  Polly Peachum is seductive and provocative, her father calls her a “lump of sensuality” in the first scene of Act One.  Neither are her thoughts entirely pure – she feels pity for the slaying of innocents, but at the same time imagines herself an amoral pirate queen. 

 

            And who better to be wed to this Corrupted Virgin than a deviation of the most sacred and time-honored archetype in literature: the hero.  The original version of the Hero is a strong and intelligent character like Beowulf or Odysseus.  Brecht’s Macheath is a combination of the classic Hero and Trickster archetypes – the wit and the braun mixed with the greed and the deception.  Macheath, better known as Mac the Knife, is an infamous Highwayman, a bourgeois Robin Hood.  Though a thief and adulterer, he feels the true criminals are those that exploit the poor, similar to the tyrants of old.  Though not necessarily new or original, Brecht uses this spliced archetype because it would be more popular and understandable to his twentieth century audience than a modern rendition of Hercules.

 

            As literature has changed, so too have many devices used by writers.  However the archetypes have always remained unchanged, only modified to help the writer convey the intended message.  Bertolt Brecht did not re-invent or create new archetypes when he wrote “Mother Courage and Her Children” and “The Threepenny Opera” – he instead altered the molds to create more human characters while maintaining the virtue attached to the original form.  Through splicing types together and bringing others to far extremes he is able to create human characters born from the fallen forms of the Archetypes.

 

 

Feminism and Brecht

By: Amanda Krogh PhD

 

In Bertolt Brecht’s works, themes of alienation, anti-capitalism, and self interest over love have been prominently conveyed. Though feminism isn’t one of his major themes, there is still a strong underlying message of feminism in Brecht’s works, including The Three Penny Opera and Mother Courage.

 

One of the biggest feminine influences Brecht had is his mother. His mother was a strong Protestant who taught Brecht lessons from the bible throughout his childhood, which would impact his writing. His mother’s care for him inspired a “dangerous image of the self-denying woman", which is often a quality that his female characters posses in his works (Thomson). This image of a “self denying woman” is seen in his character Kattrin from Mother Courage in Scene 11 where she beats the drum, which warned her village of the enemy’s attack. By doing this, Kattrin saved her village at the cost of her life, and the enemy shot her for her courageous act. By giving his female characters this quality, Brecht shows his audiences the virtue of the woman’s kindness and sacrifice in a cruel masculine war.

 

Not all of his female characters are “self denying”, some are strong characters and some are weak and flawed characters. Brecht wrote contrasting female characters to give different arguments. In Mother Courage, the character Mother Courage is the story’s wise woman, and a very strong woman in the face of war. She works tirelessly on earning money to survive the war, even at the cost of her children’s lives. By making this woman hardened, he shows the evils of war are strong enough to corrupt even a virtuous wise woman, which is showcased by Mother Courage’s “shrewd commentary on the war throughout the play” (Sparknotes). The virtues of women aren’t just affected by war, but in the Three Penny Opera, women are also affected by the corruption of a capitalist society. The female characters in The Three Penny Opera are either weak followers of their criminal husbands like Cecilia and Polly Peachum, or they are prostitutes like Jenny.  The weakness of these women shows how women are viewed in the capitalistic society as nothing but weak and dependent or sexual objects.

 

 

 

A Reader’s Response

Mother Courage and Her Children

  • The use of singing helps characterize the characters as well as allow for educated analogies from characters that would otherwise never say such a thing.
  •  

 

The Threepenny Opera

  • Music and singing helps to characterize the inner drive of characters that the audience would not have access to otherwise.

 

 

Historical Points of Interest

 

Mother Courage and Her Children

  • The play was written during the rise of the Nazis, leading to its anti-war messages:
    • War as business:  His protagonist is a greedy war profiteer who ultimately losses everything in the attempt to profit from the fighting.
    • Virtue in War leads to the downfall of people:  Mother Courage’s children are each a symbol: Eilif-Bravery, Swiss Cheese-Honesty, Kattrin-Kindness.  All three ultimately find their ends due to these virtues.
    • Cruelty of the Military:  Similar to the Jews and the public submitting to the Nazi Party’s rule over Germany the peasants in Mother Courage submit to the military’s authority.

 

The Threepenny Opera

  • Written following the devastation of Germany after World War One, The Threepenny Opera has major themes of communism due to Brecht’s studying of Marx’s Das Kapital.
    • The Setting:  The play is set in a capitalist country where there is a great deal of competition amongst the lower classes.
    • The Character:  The protagonists are mostly lower-class where as the antagonist is the “Boss” of the beggars.  This shows the unfairness of the capitalist system on the lower and working classes.

 

 

Playwright Bertolt and His Books

Biographical Analysis Highlights

 

·        Brecht’s mother was a faithful Protestant who taught him lessons from the Bible throughout his childhood, which impacted his writing.

·        His mother’s qualities influenced many of his female characters, and Brecht took from her the “dangerous image of the self-denying woman” (Thompson)

·        An example of a self-denying woman is Kattrin from Mother Courage, where she beats the drum to warn her town of an attack, and is killed by the enemy for it (Scene 11)

 

 

How Well Do You Know Brecht?

A Little Knowledge Quiz

 

 

  1. What virtue did Swiss Cheese represent and die because in Mother Courage and Her Children?
    1. Bravery
    2. Honesty
    3. Kindness
    4. Stinkyness
  2. What was Mother Courage’s occupation?
    1. Prostitute
    2. Cook
    3. Supplies Dealer
    4. House Wife
  3. What was Macheath’s pseudonym in The Threepenny Opera?
    1. Mac the Knife
    2. Tommy Two-Faced
    3. Jack the Ripper
    4. Scarface
  4. Who is Polly Peachum married to?
    1. Jonathan Peachum
    2. Eilif
    3. Swiss Cheese
    4. Macheath
  5. Kattrin can be considered the “Virgin” archetype, but what feature does she poses that makes her different than the usual Virgin?
    1. She isn’t really a virgin
    2. She is only a baby
    3. She is actually a man
    4. She is dumb or mute
  6. What two archetypes did Macheath combine?
    1. The Hero and the Trickster
    2. The Hero and the Wise Old Man
    3. The Hero and the Great Mother
    4. The Hero and the Virgin
  7. Where was Bertolt Brecth born?
    1. Germany
    2. Switzerland
    3. Hungary
    4. France
  8. What political party did Brecht associate with?
    1. The Nazi Party
    2. The Democratic Party
    3. The Communist Party
    4. The Green Party
  9. What does the Moon represent in The Threepenny Opera?
    1. Love
    2. Sickness
    3. Despair
    4. Vampires
  10. Why does Mother Courage not entirely fit the “Great Mother” archetype?
    1. She has no children and is a teenager
    2. She is greedy and impure
    3. She is dumb or mute
    4. She is too courageous on the battlefield
  11. What caused Brecht to leave Germany?
    1. The Potato Famine
    2. The Cold War
    3. The actions of the Nazis
    4. The Sauerkraut Shortage
  12. What did Brecht die from?
    1. Coronary Thrombosis
    2. Bubonic Plague
    3. Execution by Stalin
    4. A Broken Heart
  13. What did mother courage predict her children would die of?
    1. Cancer
    2. Car Crash
    3. Artillery Shells
    4. Situations cause by their good virtues
  14. Where is Macheath’s hideout?
    1. Alley
    2. Stable
    3. Sewer
    4. The Pentagon
  15. Who pardons Macheath in the end?
    1. Tiger Brown
    2. The Queen
    3. Peachum
    4. President Ford
  16. What business does Peachum run?
    1. Outfitting Shop For Beggars
    2. Stolen Goods Store
    3. A Bakery
    4. A Post Office
  17. Who is Jonathan Peachum’s daughter?
    1. Polly
    2. Susan
    3. Kattrin
    4. Jenny
  18. What is Jenny’s occupation?
    1. Banker
    2. Baker
    3. Health-Care Worker
    4. Prostitute
  19. What was Brecht’s mother’s religion
    1. Buddhist
    2. Hindu
    3. Protestant
    4. She Had None
  20. Who is an example of a self-denying woman?
    1. Kattrin
    2. Mother Courage
    3. Jenny
    4. The Queen
  21. How does Brecht show his beliefs on women in capitalist societies?
    1. By Making Them Weak or Sexual Objects
    2. By Making Them Strong Characters
    3. By Making Them Beautiful
    4. By Making Them “Glittery”
  22. Which war does Mother Courage take place in?
    1. American Civil War
    2. World War II
    3. The Thirty Years War
    4. The War of The Worlds
  23. How does Brecht think the war affects women?
    1. It makes them beautiful
    2. It hardens their character
    3. It makes them rich
    4. It doesn’t affect them at all
  24. Which women in Brecht’s life inspired the Self-denying woman image?
    1. His “Sugar Momma”
    2. His Mother
    3. His Sister
    4. A Nun
  25. Where did Brecht move to in America?
    1. New York
    2. Minnesota
    3. Virginia
    4. California

 

 

Works Cited

 

  • Books and Writers, 2002, 03/27/2008

<http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/brecht.htm>

 

  • International Brecht Society, 03/25/2008, 04/03/08

<http://german.lss.wisc.edu/brecht/>

 

  • Mother Courage and Her Children; Brecht, Bertolt; Eyre Methuen Ltd, Great Britian; 1980

 

  • The Threepenny Opera; Brecht, Bertolt; Eyre Methuen Ltd, Great Britian; 1980

 

  • GradeSaver, GradeSaver LLC; 1999-2008; 04/01/08

<http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/authors/about_bertolt_brecht.html>

 

  • SparkNotes, SparkNotes LLC; 2006; 04/09/08

<http://www.sparknotes.com>

 

  • Thompson, Peter. 1994. “Brecht’s Lives”. In Thomson and Sacks

 

  • Diamond, Elin. “Brechtian Theory/Feminist Theory; Toward a Gestic Feminist Criticism”

 

 

Interesting Sites to Visit

 

http://www.sauguscenturions.com/maghakian/authorprojects.html

 

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/brecht.htm

 

http://german.lss.wisc.edu/brecht/

 

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/authors/about_bertolt_brecht.html

 

http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~jamesf/goodwoman/brecht_bio.html