Religion in Mother Courage sample essay

The themes of religion and motherhood are the ones that are most broadly used in classical literature and largely popular to be performed on the stage. In this paper I will be discussing a play and a book which are bright examples for proving the previous statement. The name of the play is “Endgame” written by Beckett and the book is called “Mother Courage”, written by a German writer Bertolt Brecht.

I will start the essay with the analysis of the book by Bertolt Brecht. For general information here is a short overview of his background. Brecht was born in a middle class family in Ausburg, Bavaria. After University he moved to Berlin and worked as assistant dramaturge in the Deutsche Theater. In was the place where his first success found him for his work Threepenny Opera. However in 1933 he was forced to escape from Germany due to his Marxist and anti-fascist beliefs, which were persecuted by the Nazis which came in power at that time. For the next fifteen years he lived in Scandinavia and United States. In the US he also tried to find himself as a dramaturge, however, America did not accept him very well and in 1948 Bertolt Brecht returned to Eastern Berlin, where he lived till his death. His masterpiece “Mother Courage” was written in 1941 during writer’s stay in Sweden. The work was inspired by the invasion of Poland and was completed within five month.

Motherhood is one of the leading themes of the play. The character of Mother Courage herself, from my perception is rather controversial. From one side – she constantly attempts to run her business in the canteen wagon in order to support herself and the children during the hard times of war. From the other – she is portrayed as a person, perceiving a coldhearted business sense. Even though she is often referred to as “untragic heroine”, she is also shown as the mother who has failed to protect her children, even though she is often described as a woman who possessed Solomon wisdom.

All children of Courage die one by one according to the scenario which she had unconsciously predicted in the beginning of the play: Swiss Cheese dies because of his honesty and is the first one to pass away; Efill dies due to the bravery of his; and Kattrin is departing this life owing to her kindness. The character of Kattrin is also very broad and diverse.

From one side – she is a child. Moreover, she is a child who needs to receive the majority of attention and care from her family, since she is dumb. She is portrayed as the person, who experienced the most traumas from the war. However she also is shown as the person who in addition possesses mother instincts toward the children of Halle. In the end she is actually the one who managed to save them, however having to sacrifice the life. The other theme that is touched by this heroine is the topic of religion, the critiques and analysts find that she is a parallel to martyr St. Martine. It is quite unexpected, since this martyr was known not only for the generosity, but also for the intellect. Maybe, there is another parallel that Kattrin was, as many prophets considered insane, however possessed a great knowledge. It is very symbolic that she received her death from the arms of the Catholic Soldiers, during the time when the whole village was in the process of praying. The theme of religion in the play has several negative insights: first of all wars at the times described in the play were often based on religion, and people died for religion, figuratively speaking during the prayer.

The play “Endgame”, as well as the “Mother Courage” has four main characters. All of them are at the edge of morality, as we often find with the characters of the previous play. The play is often referred to as an absurd one; however it is obvious that there is a deeper meaning of it. Due to the seeming absurd and the abuse of the tricks of the trade, “Beckett has created an engrossing dramatic event, a mystery play for our times”. The author often hosts the Shakespearean allusions, like the Dante’s or biblical ones. During the play Endgame, Hamm moves in his chair, Nagg and Nell pop in and out of their ashbins and Clov moves as well. These moves show that the name of the play is not occasional and that its essence is referring to the allegory that life is often viewed as the chess game, like in the play by Brecht there is a hint that person’s life is often a game played in the name of religion.

Bibliography

1. Hayman, David. Endgame: Overview. English Literature, 2nd ed., edited by D. L. Kirkpatrick, St. James Press,

1991. Sept. 2nd, 2005 retrieved from: http://ftp.ccccd.edu/andrade/britlit/beckett/notesb.html

2. Tan, Michael. SparkNote on Mother Courage. 2 Sep. 2005 http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/mothercourage/.
Order custom essay now!