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 that has the ability to destroy anything, even those who seek to profit from it, expresses an anti-war ideology. The depiction of attempts to exploit the war for profit can also be interpreted as an anti-capitalist statement. In Mother Courage, Brecht uses the deaths of Mother Courage's children to highlight the harmful effects of war, and also uses music, silence and sound, and the 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. He states that an individual cannot profit from war and that it causes suffering, regardless of his position in society. Mother Courage's message was to indicate that no amount of effort is enough to fight the war and that everything should be done to stop it. Brecht also criticizes capitalist society, identifying it as the reason for further suffering during the war. It can be concluded that Mother Courage is inherently anti-war, as well as anti-capitalist, as it opposes the manipulation of war for profit. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayBrecht criticizes war and capitalism through the death of Mother Courage's (Anna) children. In the play, his suffering is caused solely by his strong concerns about business and profit. Anna, a soup kitchen worker, is “another manifestation of the capitalist businessman,” and Brecht intended to portray her actions as reprehensible, but only historically and socially motivated. The losses that Anna faces in her life are mainly due to the deaths of her three children, Eilif, Swiss Cheese and Kattrin. All of their deaths occur while Anna takes part in business transactions. In scene three, he tries to bribe a colonel to save Swiss Cheese. However, he spends a lot of time haggling over the price and ultimately fails. She also directly states, “Perhaps I haggled too long” (Brecht 45), indicating her awareness that her focus on money could potentially cost her Swiss Cheese's life and, ultimately, her prioritization of money and profit led to its execution. Likewise, when Eilif is arrested and executed, she has left to attempt to sell goods, and when Kattrin is killed in scene 11, she is purchasing goods and is described as "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 (although she is unaware of what happened, whether she was present in scene 11, and whether she avoided bargaining with the Colonel, Kattrin and Swiss Cheese would probably have survived). Indirectly he could also have prevented Eilif's death. If she hadn't tried to sell a buckle 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 she wouldn't have looted the farm, which he thought it was justified. during the war as a soldier. Furthermore, their deaths also criticize the war, as if Eilif and Swiss Cheese were involved in the army and Kattrin rebelled, they would all die because of the war. The viewer plays a significant role in the transmission of Brecht's messages. Mother Courage,intrinsically, he sought to promote social change by criticizing war and capitalism, requiring an active audience, since it is not possible to promote social change with a passive audience. During a performance, viewers form their own understanding of the meaning of the work by interpreting what is presented to them, regardless of the authors' intentions (Leach 178-179). In Brechttheatre, the focus is on the experience of the spectator, as it is necessary for him to learn from the events on the stage (Bennett 680. The use of theater for political and ideological reasons has subverted the use of theater to manipulate the audience into conformity , such as the Nazis' use of theater to convince the Germans to agree with them. In perpetuating anti-capitalist and anti-war sentiments in Mother Courage, Brecht challenges the a capitalist system that glorifies war, “robbing it of its validity.” The participatory nature of Brecht's audience provoked critical thinking and analysis through the use of the verfremdungseffekt (defamiliarization effect), which makes the familiar foreign to them. audience, with an intrinsically political purpose to realize that they are observing fiction (Bennett 57 Brecht also uses the Thirty Years' War as a backdrop, but attempts to force the audience to realize that the reactions of individuals were a product of society and not universal circumstances, therefore similar). elsewhere it would cause equally undesirable actions in society. It is vital that the audience interprets Mother Courage as anti-war and anti-capitalist for Brecht's message to be conveyed. Mother Courage's episodic narrative creates verfremdungseffekt. There are large gaps of time between scenes. The first two scenes are set two years apart, in Poland and Sweden respectively. In scene 1, Eilif leaves with a recruiting officer and in scene 2 Swiss Cheese also leaves. The relationship between Anna and her children has changed drastically 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 profit, is angry at Kattrin's injury and is frustrated by the war (Brecht 62), while in scene 7 she celebrates the war , as it happened. it benefited his business (Brecht 63). The mood 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 work, preventing the audience from blindly consuming it (Barnett 71). Brecht only allows enough emotion to question the reasons for the emotion (Blau 8). This aligns with verfremdung (defamiliarization), moving away from typical dramatic styles. The structure of the play, which juxtaposes 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 helps her profit, she celebrates it . The abrupt shifts in emotion between scenes also disrupt the potential for audience members to empathize too much with Anna. Brecht found that viewers empathized with both characters who had good values ​​and those with poor values, and feared that they would find unwanted behavior acceptable because of this and, in the case of Mother Courage, would find 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 opera, but do not delve into the plot or explicitly delve furthercharacterizations. The move away from dialogue separates narrative elements, interrupting the flow of the plot, contributing to defamiliarization. In scene 4, Anna sings about the transition of her attitudes towards the world. The song's lyrics do not serve to advance the plot, but Anna uses them as a commentary on the need to adapt to circumstances, attempting to convince a Young Soldier to keep his sword. The song comments on his adaptation of his attitude towards war through the show. It is also sung in the scene immediately following Swiss Cheese's death, a particularly emotional scene. It is used to alienate the audience from the emotion of the previous scene. The use of music as a distancing tool contrasts with its use to heighten emotion in typical dramatic theater. Silence highlights the destructive effects and suffering caused by war. A poignant example is Kattrin's characterization and symbolism. Kattrin's mutism originates from a traumatic experience related to war, where “a soldier put something in her mouth” when she was a child (Brecht 62). The reference is brief, and the lack of detail Anna provides to the chaplain implies that what happened was too horrific to discuss in detail. The audience can imagine the possibilities of the trauma suffered. Kattrin is the only witness, yet she has been literally and metaphorically silenced, so the audience is forced to experience a censorship of the incident (Vork 38). His physical silence represents the underlying characteristics of the physical violence that occurs due to war: the word becomes irrelevant in the representation of suffering (Vork 38), so the silence becomes representative of the destructive capabilities of war. . Forced and traumatic silence dissociates spectators from their role as mere observers because they are alienated from the narrative. This dissociation allows viewers to play an interactive role, sharing and thus realizing the traumatic impacts of war on society. On the other hand, sound is used as a tool to indicate rebellion, evident in scene 11, where Kattrin beats a drum, in direct defiance against the soldiers, an explicit act of rebellion (Brecht 87). The creation of sound is contrasted with the fact that Kattrin was forced to spend the show in silence, due to the trauma she experienced as a young girl. The creation of sound to save a civilized city from the trauma of war was a rebellion directed against the potential destruction of war and against the forces of war (Vork 49). This act leading 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), further expressing the anti-war ideology. The living nature of theater is fundamental to expressing Brecht's message. He stated that “there is always something missing” before plays are 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 show (Barnett 70). Brecht subverts expectations of total theater, where instead of contributing to a single emotion or atmosphere, elements present contrasting moods, creating dissonance within the semiotics of performance (Barnett 73). In the Berlin production of Mother Courage, the names of the scene settings were hung above the stage and uniform white light was used (Brecht 185). The visual cues resulting from seeing the names of.