Mother Courage Blog (for next week)

I found the Sergeant’s first monologue was interesting. I liked how he mentioned that peacetime was a mess and war restores order. I set the tone for the play, and how war as a necessity drove it. Mother Courage needs the war in order to make a living. Without it, she is lost. It was a depressing sentiment that I do not know if I agree with, but it did point out its importance in this context. I obviously found Swiss Cheese’s name to be very bizarre. I think that his name is so ridiculous because it reminds the audience that this is a nonrealistic play, as Brecht intended. Although I know Mother Courage is kind of a swindler and not really a loveable character, I admired her for being so (I want to say courageous) self-righteous and confidant. She just talks right back to everyone who tells her she is wrong, and even pulls a knife on the Sergeant.

            I was sad for Mother Courage that her children kept leaving her, and she couldn’t be made happy by good things. She always saw the negative. For example; her son was being honored as a brave soldier, which to her meant that something was wrong and they were not winning the war, and when the war ended, it meant that she was out of business. The only other character we meet that benefits directly from the war is Yvette the prostitute. In Act 4 she sings a song about a soldier who was proud and went to war and just followed direction and lost his strength, which was also depressing. The Chaplain even compares war and love.

            There is a lot of foreshadowing in this play that signals her children’s eminent deaths. She says why she thinks all her children will die during the first act. In the second act, the soldiers sing the song about the brave soldier who went to war and died, and left nothing behind but brave acts. Eilif is taken away to war while she makes a business deal, and because she is trying to keep her business going, Swiss Cheese dies and is buried unrecognized. Then poor Kattrin gets raped, disfigured, and KILLED?? That’s messed up.

            This is kind of random to add at the end, but I was very confused by the Cook being Yvette’s lover?