Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2002 21:48:27 -0800 From: Michael Perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu> Subject: Re: Mother Courage
Brecht wrote her as a symbol of capitalism -- a war profiteer, but audiences sympathized with her as a person who was trying to make the best of a bad situation -- the ambiguity that you mentioned.
{snip}
I suspect Brecht meant the ambiguity intentionally. Yoshie comments that --
"In the last scene Weigel's Courage seemed to be eighty years old. And she understands nothing. She reacts only to remarks connected with the war, such as that she mustn't be left behind, and takes no notice when the peasants brutally accuse her of being to blame for Kattrin's death."
Yes. Maybe this means that capitalism is something which, if one accepts it as a given, prevents one from knowing its meaning.
Christophr Rhoades Dÿkema