Mother Courage

is not to be emphasized with, but judged, for, in accepting the war as inevitable, as Natural, she is blind to the fact that things, including herself, could be different. By distancing (alienating) the audience from his character, Brecht encourages the audience to do more than identify or sympathize; he encourages his audience to judge critically and thus to recognize its own potentially creative role in the making of history.

In Brecht’s play the audience witnesses Mother Courage’s struggles during the Thirty Years’ War. Instead of simply sympathizing with her 0 loss of children and the difficulties of eking out an existence during such troubled times, however, the audience is encouraged to recognize Mother Courage’s own blindness; she is ‘blind’ in her own acceptance of and participation in the war (CE: 34). Simply to identify and sympathize with Mother Courage would be to participate in her own blindness: Mother Courage accepts the war as inevitable, as Natural. She is blind to the fact that things, including herself, could be different. By distancing (alienating) the audience from his character, Brecht encourages the audience to do more than identify or sympathize; he encourages his audience to judge critically and thus to recognize its own potentially creative role in the making of history. p.29

mother courage, n.All

mother courage