Brecht, his aims, his plays
How did Brecht achieve his aims through his form of theatre? Discuss with reference to "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" and "The Threepenny Opera".Brecht's aim of promoting change through providing social and political instruction to his audience, rather than entertainment, and the techniques he used to achieve this are often referred to as epic theatre, a definition of epic theatre being "a narrative drama about the state of society". The difference between epic theatre and dramatic theatre is that epic theatre narrates events, where as dramatic theatre creates the illusion that the events are reality. Epic theatre is didactic in function and is concerned with creating change by distancing the audience so that they view the ideas and messages raised in the plays thoughtfully and objectively, rather than being entertained. In Brecht's epic plays "The Threepenny Opera" and "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" many dramatic forms and conventions are used in order to achieve Brecht's aims and present themes, issues and characters that are uniquely Brechtian. These dramatic forms and conventions include; use of song, the lowering of banners and placards onto the stage, narration and use of third person. The use of song in "The Threepen
Brecht often makes fun of religion in both this play and his other works. The combination of both emotional power and intellectual material and the play and its characters was a failure of Brecht's theories, but simultaneously a triumph in Brecht's aims. While Brecht failed his theories in the character Grusha, showing the way Brecht in theory and Brecht in practise differentiates, there is still the question of whether this failure affected "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" in achieving Brecht's aim to socially and politically instruct and provoke societal change. Brecht attempts to distance the audience from Grusha and ensure she is not a sympathetic character, so as not to detract attention from the play's themes and to promote societal change, through use of dramatic conventions such as the inclusion of a narrator and use of song; combined in the presence of the singer, and the use of third person between the characters Grusha and Simon in the love scene, to avoid intimacy and remind audiences that what they are witnessing is fake, for example Simon's following dialogue is in third person: "Is the young lady impatient? Does she want cherries in winter?" However Brecht fails to distance Grusha from the audience, she is a tragic character, one to which audiences direct sympathy. The way that these songs compete with the plot for the audience's attention, combined with the fact that breaking into song is not a natural form of theatre, reminds the audience that the action taking place onstage is false and distances them from it, obtaining Brecht's goal through forcing the audience to consider the themes of his play rather than empathise with his characters. Through the character Grusha in "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" Brecht presents the theme that to be humane is to ignore your personal or class interests and expose yourself to danger. Jenny and Mac sing of their past as though it was idyllic, even though it clearly wasn't as they lived in a whorehouse and Mac was violent towards Jenny. The combination of the actual issue, the way it is presented and the aim behind presenting it makes this issue uniquely Brechtian. This use of signs can be seen in "The Threepenny Opera" in Peachum's house when a sign is lowered reading: "It is more blessed to give than to receive". These signs often display themes, comment on the action or name scenes, distancing the audience through reminding them that what they are seeing is not reality. "That was the time, now so very far away, he was so sweet and bashed me where it hurt. This attacks religion by ironically juxta positioning the crassly commercial Peachum with a passage from the bible, presenting the theme of religion as being commercial. The dramatic convention of song is also used to explore and present themes and issues. The success and failure of these techniques can be seen in "The Threepenny Opera" and "The Caucasian Chalk Circle".
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
