Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children shapes audiences' perspectives on war and capitalism by exploring the interactions of one individual (the eponymous Mother Courage ) with and in war. The presentation of war as an entity capable of destroying everything, even those who seek to profit from it, expresses an anti-war ideology. The depiction of attempts to exploit war for profit can also be interpreted as an anti-capitalist statement. In Mother Courage, Brecht uses the death of Mother Courage's children to highlight the harmful effects of war, and also uses music, silence and sound, as well as verfremdungseffekt, or "defamiliarization effect". Before discussing the methods Brecht used to convey his message, it is necessary to discuss his ideology and the message he intended to convey. He states that an individual cannot benefit from war and that it makes him suffer, regardless of his position in society. Mother Courage's message was to indicate that no effort is enough to fight war and that everything must be done to stop it. Brecht also criticizes capitalist society, identifying it as a reason for additional suffering in war. It can be concluded that Mother Courage is inherently anti-war and anti-capitalist, as she opposes the manipulation of war for profit. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayBrecht criticizes war and capitalism through the death of Mother Courage's children (Anna). In the play, his suffering is solely caused by his strong preoccupation with business and profit. Anna, a canteen worker, is "another manifestation of the capitalist businessman", and Brecht intended to portray her actions as reprehensible, but simply motivated by history and society. The losses that Anna faces in her life are mainly due to the deaths of her three children, Eilif, Swiss Cheese and Kattrin. Their deaths all occur while Anna is involved in business transactions. In the third scene, she tries to bribe a colonel in order to save Swiss Cheese. However, she spends a lot of time haggling over the price and ultimately fails. She also directly states, "Perhaps I haggled too long" (Brecht 45), indicating that she knew that her worry about money could have potentially cost her Swiss Cheese his life, and that in the end Ultimately, his focus on money and profit led to his execution. Similarly, when Eilif is arrested and executed, she is off trying to sell goods, and when Kattrin is shot in scene 11, she is buying goods and is described as being "in business" (Brecht 84). All three scenes are a critique of capitalism, as they imply that Anna's priorities lie not in her family, but in her business (even though she is unaware of what happened, if she were present in scene 11 and if she avoided bargaining with the colonel). , Kattrin and Swiss Cheese would probably have survived). Indirectly, she could also have prevented Eilif's death. If she hadn't tried to sell a loop in scene 1, she wouldn't have been distracted when Eilif left with the recruiting officer, and Eilif wouldn't have become a soldier, which means he wouldn't have not plundered the farm, which he thought was justified. in war as a soldier. Additionally, their deaths also criticize the war, as if Eilif and Swiss Cheese were involved in the military and Kattrin rebelled, they all died because of the war. The spectatorplays an important role in transmitting Brecht's messages. Mother Courage, by nature, sought to promote social change by criticizing war and capitalism, which required an active audience, as it is not possible to promote social change with a passive audience. During a performance, spectators form their own understanding of the meaning of the play by interpreting what is presented to them, regardless of the authors' intentions (Leach 178-179). In Brechttheatre, the emphasis is on the experience of the spectator, because it is necessary for him to learn from the events on stage (Bennett 680. The use of theater for political and ideological reasons has disrupted the use of theater to manipulate an audience into compliance, just as the Nazis used theater to convince Germans to agree with them. By perpetuating anti-capitalist and anti-war sentiments in Mother Courage, Brecht takes issue with the use of. theater by a capitalist system that glorifies war, "robbing it of its validity". which is familiar to the audience, with an inherently political objective The audience is forced to realize that it is observing the fiction (Bennett 57). to realize that individuals' reactions were the product of society and not universal, so that similar circumstances elsewhere would provoke equally undesirable actions in society. . It is crucial that the audience interprets Mother Courage as anti-war and anti-capitalist for Brecht's message to be conveyed. The episodic narrative of Mother Courage creates verfremdungseffekt. There are large time gaps between scenes. The first two scenes take place two years apart, in Poland and Sweden respectively. In scene 1, Eilif leaves with a recruitment agent, and in scene 2, Swiss Cheese also leaves. The relationship between Anna and her sons has changed dramatically, and the emotions in the two scenes also contrast. Likewise, the atmospheres of scenes 6 and 7 contrast significantly: in scene 6, Anna struggles to make profit, is angry at Kattrin's injury, and is frustrated by the war (Brecht 62), while in scene 7 , she celebrates the war, as she did. benefited his business (Brecht 63). The atmosphere of scene 7 is one of celebration and joy, in direct contrast to that of scene 6, which is one of anger and frustration. This creates a sense of discontinuity within the piece, preventing the audience from mindlessly consuming it (Barnett 71). Brecht only allows enough emotion to call into question the reasons for the emotion (Blau 8). This corresponds to verfremdung (defamiliarization), moving away from typical dramatic styles. The structure of the play, juxtaposing these scenes, draws attention to the fact that Anna acts in contradictory ways depending on her social situation: when the war makes her suffer, she hates it, but when it allows her to benefit, she famous. The abrupt shifts in emotion between scenes also disrupt the potential for audience members to sympathize too much with Anna. Brecht found that audiences sympathized with both characters who had good values ​​and those with bad values, and feared finding undesirable behavior acceptable because of this and, in the case of Mother Courage, finding the manipulation of war for profit. The structure and reduction of empathy are therefore essential to understanding Brecht's message.Music also contributed to the “verfremdungseffekt”. Songs are sung throughout the play, but do not develop the plot or explicitly further characterization. The break with dialogue separates narrative elements, disrupting the flow of the plot and contributing to defamiliarization. In scene 4, Anna sings about the transition of everyone's attitude towards the world. The lyrics of the song do not serve to advance the plot, but Anna uses them as a commentary on the need to adapt to circumstances, in an attempt to convince a young soldier to keep his sword. The song comments on his adaptation of his attitudes towards the war through the play. It is also sung in the scene immediately following Swiss Cheese's death, a particularly moving scene. It is used to distance the audience from the emotion of the previous scene. The use of music as a means of distancing contrasts with sound used to heighten emotion in typical dramatic theater. The silence highlights the destructive effects and suffering caused by war. A poignant example is Kattrin's characterization and symbolism. Kattrin's muteness has its origins in a traumatic war-related experience, where “a soldier shoved something in her mouth” when she was a child (Brecht 62). The mention is brief, and the lack of detail Anna gives the chaplain implies that what happened was too horrible to discuss in detail. The audience must imagine the possibilities of the trauma suffered. Kattrin is the sole witness – but she has been silenced, literally and metaphorically, so that the public is forced to endure censorship of the incident (Vork 38). Its physical silence represents the underlying characteristics of the physical violence caused by war – speech no longer has importance in the representation of suffering (Vork 38), so the silence becomes representative of the destructive capacities of the war. . The forced and traumatic silence dissociates spectators from their role as simple observers because they are alienated from the story. This dissociation allows spectators to play an interactive, sharing role and therefore to become aware of the traumatic impacts of war on society. On the other hand, sound is used as a tool to indicate rebellion, as evidenced in scene 11, where Kattrin beats a drum, in direct challenge to the soldiers, an explicit act of rebellion (Brecht 87). The sound creation contrasts with the fact that Kattrin was forced to sit through the piece in silence, due to the trauma she suffered in her youth. Creating sound in order to save a civilian town from the trauma of war was a direct rebellion against the potential destruction of war and against the forces of war (Vork 49). This act that led to Kattrin's death to save a city contributes to the idea that no sacrifice is too great in the fight against war, one of Brecht's goals (Brecht 187-188), expressing thus the anti-war ideology. is essential to express Brecht's message. He stated that there is “always something missing” before a play is staged, indicating that live performance is crucial in presenting messages (Hasche 187). Total theater involves all aspects of a theatrical performance (Barnett 70). Typically, these elements harmonize with each other, allowing the audience to passively watch the performance (Barnett 70). Brecht subverts expectations of total theater, where instead of contributing to a single emotion or atmosphere, elements present contradictory moods, creating dissonance within the semiotics of performance (Barnett 73). In the Berlin production of Mother Courage, the names of the.