Brecht, Mother Courage
Bertolt Brecht: Mother Courage and Her ChildrenBrechts intensions when writing Mother Courage and her children were to communicate his beliefs and make people aware of two issues facing society: war and capitalism. According to Brecht, people deserve the wars they get if they subscribe to a political system which is unfair and favours a specific sector of society, namely capitalism. In other words, if the system is unjust in any way, war and conflict is inevitable. For this to be understood, it was important and essential that the audience sees the play and nothing more. To do this Brecht jolted audiences out of their expectations and deliberately avoided theatrical techniques that would make appearances realistic. By using this dramatic technique, people were forced to confront the issues at hand and see the real issues behind what they were being shown. Brecht incorporated alienation techniques in the methods of staging used in performances of Mother Courage, firstly through lighting. Brecht focuses on a very bright white light trained evenly upon the set throughout. This was done to eliminate any opportunities for creating
Parody & IronyBrecht uses the tool of parody in the opening scene of the play. Spectators were not intended to become involved, thus the reminder that is was merely a play was constantly enforced. Mother Courage never learnt this lesson, even though she looses all of her children to the army by the end. Scene ChangesScene Changes were made in full view of the audience, reminding them of its existence as a play, again alienating them from the impression of a "true life" tale. Mother Courage's song "Come an Buy" is quickly transformed in the fainatingly ironic "Come and die". Her brothers both do in separate ways. Kattrin represents an alternative and idealised world that cannot yet exist in our own world. MusicSongs are frequently used in this play, and interpret the story in an objective tone. However Kattrin represents the opposite. Mother Courage first appearance on stage is initiated by song, ensuring the audience is not empathetic, and drawing attention to it as a play from the beginning. She is willing to risk her own life to save a poor baby. Brecht, however, dispensed with this. Scene 5 provides a great deal of insight into both Kattrin and Mother Courage.
Common topics in this essay:
Mother Courage,
KATTRI Kattrin,
According Brecht,
Scene Changes,
Mother Courage's,
Instead Brecht,
Acting Actors,
mother courage,
Techniques Brecht,
Music Songs,
COURAGE Brecht,
kattrin represents,
throughout play,
mother courage children,
scene play,
difficult audience,
audience realize,
alienation techniques,
courage children,
scene changes,
kattrin scene,
|
Acceptance Essays
