The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht
The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht uses epic theatre to bring forth an idea ormeaning for the audience to consider while entertaining the audience. Epic theatreinvolves the use of alienation techniques to distance the viewer from the story but stillconcentrate on the overall meaning. The person who just views the story would likelytake it as fantasy and not reach the true depth of the play. Brecht shocks the viewer bymaking the events and actions in the play "strange and abstract" this contrasts withdramatic plays where the audience sympathises and relates to the characters of theplay. The theme throughout the play is natural justice versus class justice. The title has links to other parables and stories before it. The Chalk Circle, a Chineseplay involved a legal action where the false claimant was granted custody due a bribeto claim her dead husbands estate. This however was overturned by the emperor, theguarantor of the law, in a retrial as the emperor was the father. This particular story isa whisper to the result of Grusha's trial. The emperor is portrayed as the epitome ofjustice and gives a true verdict. The trial scene is also adapted from the parable of
He swindles them into giving him money for a bribe thenturns about and gives a contradicting verdict against the upper classes. Then through shear chance just before hisexecution the Duke redeems him and makes him judge, finally making him the arbiterof justice between Natasha Abashvilli and Grusha. By Michael McAuliffe, Western Australia, email: aussiemmc@icqmail. Azdak is so disgusted by the odours the upperclasses emit that he occasionally "before passing judgement, I went out and sniffed theroses. The singer sums up the meaning of the entire play, linking the prologue with the storiesof Azdak and Grusha. The play seeks to emphasise that within this class justice the poor can onlygain justice under exceptional circumstances. In these two whispers the law is shown to beequated with justice, however Brecht seeks to highlight that within Grusinia this is notthe case and it takes a greedy Azdak who despises the upper classes to give a justverdict. Azdak although seen as the arbiter of justice between Natasha Abashvilli and Grushais shown throughout the play as greedy and corrupt when dealing with the upperclasses. "That what there is shall belong to those who are good for it,thus the children to the maternal, that they thrive; the carriages to good drivers, thatthey are driven well; and the valley to the waterers, that it shall bear fruit. The class justice presented in the novel has close links to the Marxist view of the law,with the law serving all, but in reality it protects and secures the interests of the rulingclasses. Solomon the paragon of justice and truth oversees the trial of twomothers, one child is dead the other alive, they seek custody of the alive child.
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