Mother Courage - Scene Structure

Layne Bolden

            Oftentimes when a work of art or literature deviates from the established conventions of the genre, the creator does so purposefully to create a specific reaction in the audience. In drama, such conventions include interconnected scenes, chronology, and sympathetic and relatable, if not likeable, characters. Many audiences and casual readers would agree that a play should flow cohesively and, most of all, make us sympathetic to the plight of the characters. Mother Courage and Her Children challenges this conception because it doesn’t have a precise, linear story, but rather provides its audience with vignettes of the characters’ lives. In turn, this is simply one of the techniques Brecht employs to lessen our sympathy for the cruel, capitalist Mother Courage.

            Reading Mother Courage feels different from reading a traditional play, even at first glance. Rather than composing his play with acts divided into scenes that more or less flow into one another, Brecht chooses a different route. His play is made up of a series of longer scenes that do not precisely connect. Though they each involve the title characters in some way, side characters appear and disappear from these scenes without much explanation. Character such as Yvette who are present in one scene do not appear again, with no explanation, which would very likely be given in a more traditional play. Additionally, this format results in the lack of developed sup-plots that are often utilized in traditional plays to make them feel richer and more fleshed out. For example, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream feels more real and exciting because of the numerous, interconnecting subplots, while the few subplots in Mother Courage do not last much longer than a scene. However, instead of making the play feel incomplete and fragmented, this technique simply emphasizes the transitory life that Mother Courage and her family are forced to live during wartime.

            Perhaps the most significant impact of this choice, though, is the one it has on the audience’s view of the main characters. Though reactions to characters are certainly unique to every person, it is fairly obvious that the lack of direct chronology between scenes makes it harder to relate to the characters. Brecht presents the story in such a way that the audience only receives photographs of the characters’ lives as opposed to an entire movie. Instead of showing minute details about a story spanning a short period of time, Mother Courage gives a broad picture of a longer story. The audience only sees the parts of the characters’ lives that the author wants them to see, specifically in regards to Mother Courage. Undoubtedly, Brecht intends for the audience to dislike his protagonist, who he portrays as selfish and unfeeling, even toward her own children. Throughout the scenes, Mother Courage has few, if any at all, redeeming moments. Brecht’s use of vignette-style scenes, then, is purposeful because it facilitates this. By portraying the life of Mother Courage in a broad way, the audience only sees the pivotal and cruel things she does, and eventually the repercussions. The audience does not watch her develop; they only see the results, leaving little opportunity to mourn for what has been lost.  

            Brecht likely chose his scene structure in order to cover a large amount of time, but he also made use of this stylistic choice in a larger way. The broad, almost disconnected scenes help to put the audience at a distance from characters such as Mother Courage, who is supposed to be hated. Through his choice of scene structure, Brecht subtly creates an atmosphere in which audiences are less likely to support Mother Courage, and instead feel disconnected enough to judge her for who she really is.