Mother Courage and Her Children

The focus for this play was the idea of profiting from war. Or better profiting from death. Mother Courage is that sort of swindler business woman. The kind of woman who could sell you your own shoe. Her voice is so distinct in the play. The way that she talks is aggressive, she’s constantly asserting her presence. It’s possible that her greatest flaw is her inability to be invisible. She’s just too visible. Mother Courage fights against the idea that women become invisible or second to men in times of war. She has a certain shamelessness  At times this comes across as fearlessness, and others a crude character trait. Her daughter contrasts her in two ways, one that she is silent and two that she is compassionate. The scene where she saves the children at the cost of her own life both gives her importance in the play as a hero but also that she highlights all of the things that Mother Courage isn’t. The sons ultimately acts as lessons for Mother Courage. They prove that she is neither immune or above the cost of war. Though she profits from it, she also has to feel the cost of it’s occurrence. She’s a very ugly character that Brecht never tries to redeem. He let’s her tireless pursuit of money be her folly.