Critique of Economic Influence in War: Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children

In act five of Kushner's translation of Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children, Brecht's representation of the Siege of Magdeburg is one that is not commonly heard of. Brecht shows the individuals in the act such as Mother Courage, the Soldier, and the Farmers, as using economic attitudes, making the war into a business, and self-interest, using the war to show how people are using it and each other to achieve their own goals, as a way of responding to the acts of war and legitimizing them. He portrays it through capitalism, showing how it makes people act in ways they would not if it was not for the money they want to have. He spares his audience of all the gruesome and terrifying details and gives a different outlook on the war by using the economic attitudes, money, and self interest to achieve the alienation affect; therefore, compelling his audience to not have an emotional connection with the Siege. Moreover, Brecht uses capitalism and the alienation effect to achieve epic theater, to teach his audience that if people use economic attitudes and self interest to respond and legitimize the war, by doing business with the army they will either die trying or lose everything they have.

Act five begins with Mother Courage and the Soldier, both of them only thinking in economic terms in response to the “victory” they have had in Magdeburg, right from the beginning of the act capitalism and the alienation effect on the war are seen. The intro to scene five provides background information on the Siege of Magdeburg and Brecht right away displays capitalism showing how Mother Courage is doing business during the war stating that her “little wagon” travels through many towns showing how her economic attitude is her basically supp...

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...st such as making the war into a business, making it about money, and only thinking about how they could gain from it to achieve their own goals was how the individuals responded to the acts of war and how they legitimized it. The capitalism shown and the alienation effect being present demonstrated through epic theater, show how Brecht's economic representation of the Siege of Magdeburg was significant in showing how no one in the act learns that they should not do business with the war. The individuals all act in ways that show the war is controlling them not showing compassion and getting greedy, the audience gets to see that in the end if they do business with war like Mother Courage did, they will lose, they will never win.

Works Cited

Brecht, Bertolt , and Tony Kushner. Mother Courage and Her Children. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, print.