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Mother Courage and Her Children

present-day Czech Republic, when the devout, intolerant
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION Catholic Ferdinand II was appointed as king. Protestant nobles
revolted and established an opposition government, and other
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF BERTOLT BRECHT leaders from around Europe began pouring money and soldiers
The son of a Protestant mother and Catholic father, Brecht was into the conflict, forming complex alliances based on a
born and raised in Augsburg, a small city near Munich, combination of religion, family relationships, and—above
Germany. Distraught to see his classmates drafted into World all—political and financial opportunism. After the Catholic
War I, he signed up for medical school to avoid the draft. But he alliance secured control of Bohemia and surrounding regions
fell in love with his theater classes instead and decided to by 1625, Christian IV of Denmark joined the conflict to protect
dedicate himself to the artform. He befriended many of Protestants—and when his intervention failed, King Gustavus
Germany’s major directors and performers, then started Adolphus of Sweden followed him in 1630. The Swedish
writing plays, which won him the prestigious Kleist Prize for intervention turned the war in the Protestants’ favor, but at
young writers in 1922. He moved to Berlin in 1925 to work as a great cost. Not only did King Gustavus die in battle in 1632, but
dramaturge for the renowned director Max Reinhardt. For the the 1630s were one of the most miserable periods in history
next eight years, he collaborated with a wide variety of political for Europeans, with starvation, plague, and massacres ravaging
artists, actors, and activists while developing the hallmarks of modern-day Germany in particular. The second half of Brecht’s
his style of “epic theater,” including his preference for analysis play focuses on this period, as Mother Courage accompanies
over entertainment, his frequent use of historical settings as the Swedish army around Bavaria. But actually, the first part of
analogies to the present, and his consistent Marxist critiques of the play is set during the last five years of the Polish-Swedish
capitalism. He first achieved widespread recognition for The wars of 1600-1629. When the play begins, Mother Courage
Thr
Threepenn
eepennyy Oper
Operaa in 1928, and he married Helene Weigel, an has been running the Swedish army’s canteen for at least a
actress and frequent collaborator, in 1930. Brecht left decade; her children have known nothing but war, and when
Germany within weeks of Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, they move from Poland to Germany in 1630, very little
spending six years in Denmark before continuing on to Sweden, changes. (And when it ends, in 1636, there are still a dozen
Finland, and eventually the United States, where he briefly years left in the war.) Indeed, this is Brecht’s way of
worked in Hollywood before being blacklisted for his left-wing emphasizing that war is similar, regardless of the time, place,
views. His best-known works, including Mother Courage and Her and formal reason for the conflict. After all, he wrote this play
Children, are largely his political plays from this period of exile. directly after the Nazi invasion of Poland launched World War
But after the U.S. government called him to testify before the II.
House Un-American Activities Committees in 1947, he moved
back to Europe, where he briefly settled in Zürich and then RELATED LITERARY WORKS
finally returned to (East) Berlin and set up the Berliner
Bertolt Brecht is remembered as perhaps the most influential
Ensemble, the theater company he would direct for the rest of
playwright of the mid-20th century, and many of his plays are
his life. Although his art advocated for left-wing causes
still frequently produced around the world. His major early
throughout his life, he never joined the Communist Party and
work was The Thr Threepenn
eepennyy Oper
Operaa (1928), an adaptation of John
was deeply ambivalent about East Germany’s repressive,
authoritarian political tactics. He died of a chronic heart Gay’s 1728 ballad opera The Beggar’s OperOperaa and a critique of
condition in 1956, but as of 2023, his Berliner Ensemble is still capitalism set in the London criminal underground. But Brecht
alive and well. undoubtedly wrote his most influential plays during the middle
period of his life, particularly the years he spent in exile from
the Nazi regime in Scandinavia and the U.S. Besides Mother
HISTORICAL CONTEXT Courage and Her Children, these works include the biographical
Mother Courage and Her Children is set over twelve years in the Life of Galileo (1938), the antifascist satire The Resistible Rise of
middle of the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648, a devastating Arturo Ui (1941), and the ambiguous moral fables The Good
conflict that drew in all of Europe’s major powers and killed as Person of Szechwan (1941) and The Caucasian Chalk Cir Circle
cle
much as half of Central Europe’s population. The Holy Roman (1944). Brecht dedicated the last decade of his life mostly to
Empire, where the war started, was actually a knotty directing plays and mentoring younger dramatists; his most
assortment of smaller states, cities, and landholdings whose influential work from this period is actually the essay “A Short
individual rulers were allowed to set the official religion (either Organum for the Theatre” (1949), which describes Brecht’s
Catholicism or Lutheranism). The war began in Bohemia, the unique approach to the theater and is often considered his

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manifesto, along with “The Modern Theatre Is the Epic wagon, selling food, liquor, and supplies. But her quest fails, and
Theatre” (1930) and “On Experimental Theatre” (1940). In her three children (Eilif, Kattrin, and Swiss Cheese) all get
short, Brecht believed in “epic theater” that inspires audiences caught up in the war and die violent, early deaths. Like much of
to rational analysis and political transformation, rather than Bertolt Brecht’s work, this play is experimental and
just entertaining them. provocative, intended less to entertain audiences than to shape
their political consciousness. It is full of songs but not a musical,
KEY FACTS packed with metaphors but not an allegory, and set in the
distant past but intended specifically as a warning to Germany
• Full Title: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and the world on the eve of World War II.
and Her Children)
The play opens with “The Song of Mother Courage,” in which
• When Written: September 1939
Mother Courage sings that soldiers should come buy her food
• Where Written: Stockholm, Sweden and liquor before they go to die in battle. The first scene is set
• When Published: 1941 (first performance in Zürich) in rural Sweden in 1624. Two soldiers (Top Sergeant and
• Literary Period: Modernism Recruiting Officer) stop Mother Courage and her children and
demand to see their business license. The whole family
• Genre: Historical Play, Epic Theater, Political Theater, War
Play introduces itself, explaining that Mother Courage got her
nickname after pulling her wagon straight through the middle
• Setting: 1624–1636 in Sweden (Dalarna), Poland-Lithuania
of a raging battle and that the children’s fathers are various
(Walmozja), and the Holy Roman Empire (Leipzig, Ingolstadt,
Fichtel Mountains, Halle)
men she encountered during her travels around Europe. The
soldiers convince Eilif to join the war by promising him wealth
• Climax: Kattrin is shot and killed while beating on a drum to
and glory, and then Mother Courage foretells the Sergeant’s
warn the residents of Halle about the invading Catholic
death—and all three of her children’s—by drawing lots.
army.
• Antagonist: Soldiers (both the Protestant and Catholic Mother Courage and Eilif reunite by accident two years later in
armies), the war, hunger, cold Poland. Mother Courage sells the Swedish Commander’s
personal Cook a capon at a greatly inflated price, and then the
EXTRA CREDIT Commander returns to his tent with Eilif, who boasts about
outsmarting and slaughtering a group of peasants. Together,
Authorship Controversy. Brecht wrote most of his plays Eilif and Mother Courage sing “The Fishwife and the Soldier,”
through intense collaboration with associates in the theater which is about an idealistic young man who dreams of
world, including prominent actors, songwriters, and even his becoming a war hero, runs out into the sea, and drowns.
lovers. Mother Courage and Her Children was no exception. The
The third scene takes place three years later. An Ordinance
composers Paul Burkhard and Paul Dessau wrote the music,
Officer sells Mother Courage his last bullets for liquor money
and the actress, translator, and writer Margarete Steffin—who
and a young sex worker named Yvette Pottier recounts how her
was also Brecht’s secretary and lover—made major
one great love, the Cook from the last scene, betrayed and
contributions to the script. Although it’s impossible to say
abandoned her. Shortly thereafter, the Cook arrives with the
exactly how much of it was her work, many 21st-century
Chaplain and asks for Swiss Cheese—who is now the Swedish
scholars argue that she should be listed alongside Brecht as a
army’s paymaster. But Swiss Cheese and Yvette have both
coauthor.
already left. The Chaplain praises Sweden’s King Gustavus for
fighting a holy war to liberate Poland from Catholicism, but the
From Stage to Film. In 1961, to honor Brecht’s life and legacy,
Cook and Mother Courage argue that he’s really after money
East Germany commissioned the directors of Brecht’s Berliner
and power. Suddenly, the Catholics attack. The Cook leaves,
Ensemble to film their performance of Mother Courage and Her
and then Kattrin struts past wearing Yvette’s flashy hat and red
Children. Brecht’s widow Helene Weigel starred as Mother boots, which Mother Courage takes and hides. Swiss Cheese
Courage in this movie version of the play. returns and makes a plan to hide his cashbox, and Mother
Courage takes down her Protestant flag. They all hide for three
days.
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY
Two Catholic soldiers (Sergeant and One Eye) confront
Mother Courage and Her Children explores the horror and futility Kattrin—they want Swiss Cheese’s cashbox. But Kattrin never
of war by following Mother Courage on a 12-year odyssey speaks: she can only communicate through grunts and
around Europe during the famously brutal Thirty Years’ War of gestures. Swiss Cheese doesn’t understand her warning and
1618–1648. Stoic, savvy, and enterprising, Mother Courage quickly gets captured, but he manages to throw his cashbox in
hopes to make a fortune by following the Swedish army in her the river first. Mother Courage gets a loan from one of Yvette’s

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dates, an elderly Colonel, and tries to purchase Swiss Cheese’s him. Mother Courage and the Cook stand outside the local
freedom with it. But she tries to negotiate down the price, and Parson’s house and sing him “The Song of the Wise and Good,”
by the time she finally makes a deal, it’s too late: the Catholic which describes how wisdom, selflessness, and faith lead
army has already executed Swiss Cheese. Soldiers bring his people to ruin. The Parson invites them inside and gives them
body to Mother Courage and demand to know if she was soup. Having heard everything, Kattrin starts packing her
helping him hide out; she claims not to know him, and the things—but before she can go, Mother Courage returns, brings
soldiers send his body to the dump for burial. her soup, and explains that she wasn’t going to abandon her.
In the next scene, Mother Courage goes to the German Instead, Mother Courage and Kattrin leave the Cook behind
Captain’s tent to protest the fine she was charged for and trudge on with their wagon. They pass a large farmhouse
protecting Swiss Cheese. A furious Young Soldier approaches and hear one of its residents singing about how cozy and
the tent and promises to kill the Captain, who stole his reward comfortable it is to spend the winter inside by the fire.
for swimming in the river (and presumably recovering Swiss Two years later, Mother Courage and Kattrin have parked their
Cheese’s cashbox). Mother Courage sings the Young Soldier wagon in front of a peasant family’s house near the town of
“The Song of the Great Capitulation,” in which she explains how Halle. One night, while Mother Courage is doing business in
she gave up on expecting justice and learned to make town, a group of soldiers bangs on the peasant family’s door
compromises instead. She and the Young Soldier both leave and forces the son (Young Peasant) to guide them to town. The
instead of making their complaints. boy’s father (Old Peasant) climbs on the roof and sees a huge
Two years later, somewhere in Bavaria, the Chaplain begs army marching into Halle, then gets down and starts
Mother Courage to give him her unsold shirts so that he can desperately praying with his wife (Old Peasant Woman) and
tear them up, use them as bandages, and save a peasant family Kattrin. When the peasants mention that their grandchildren
dying of gunshot wounds. She refuses, so he steals them. live in town, Kattrin quietly pulls a drum out of the wagon and
Kattrin runs into the family’s farmhouse and saves their baby, climbs on the farmhouse roof. Then, she starts beating the
and Mother Courage gives liquor to the Catholic soldiers who drum furiously to warn the townspeople about the coming
massacred the town—and steals their fur coat for payment. army. The soldiers run back and tell her to stop, but she refuses.
She continues beating the drum zealously for several minutes,
The sixth scene takes place in the Catholic army’s canteen tent
defying the soldiers’ orders. She keeps playing even as the
during a prominent general’s funeral. But instead of attending
soldiers threaten to shoot her, find a musket, set it up, and fire,
the event, most of the soldiers are hanging out drinking.
killing her.
Mother Courage debates whether or not to stock up on more
supplies, and after the Chaplain sings about how the war will The play’s final scene shows Mother Courage sitting with
continue, she does. She looks forward to the day when she will Kattrin’s corpse and wondering if she is just sleeping. Mother
be rich, the war will end, and Kattrin will marry—but then, a Courage sings a lullaby about her children’s fate, naively
soldier attacks Kattrin, leaving a hideous scar over her eye and remarks that at least Eilif is alive, and asks the peasant couple
ruining her chances at marriage. to bury Kattrin. She marches on with her wagon and asks the
Catholic army—the same men who killed Kattrin—if she can
In the following scene, Mother Courage learns that King
accompany and trade with them. The play closes with the
Gustavus is dead, and the war is over. She responds by
soldiers singing the same number that appeared at the
panicking: she just bought new supplies and thinks that peace
beginning: “The Song of Mother Courage.”
will bankrupt her. The Cook visits and gets into a nasty personal
dispute with the Chaplain, and then Yvette Pottier returns,
realizes that the Cook is her long-lost lover, and starts a second CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
vicious argument. Mother Courage and Yvette leave, and then
two soldiers pass by with Eilif. They explain that he attacked an MAJOR CHARACTERS
innocent peasant family—which is a crime now that the war is
Mother Cour
Courage
age – The protagonist and title character is a
over—and lead him off to be executed. When Mother Courage
middle-aged woman who works alongside the Swedish army,
returns and excitedly announces that the war has restarted, it’s
selling the soldiers food, alcohol, and supplies out of her
too late. The Cook admits to seeing Eilif but doesn’t reveal his
wagon. Her real name is Anna Fierling, but everyone in the
fate.
army has known her as “Mother Courage” ever since she
The following winter is particularly harsh. The remaining famously drove her wagon through the middle of a fierce battle
characters (Mother Courage, the Cook, and Kattrin) are out of in Riga (modern-day Latvia) in 1621. She is dedicated and
merchandise, stranded in a Bavarian mountain village, and enterprising but also greedy and unempathetic. Her three
reduced to begging. The Cook receives a letter explaining that children (Eilif, Kattrin, and Swiss Cheese) all follow her on her
his mother has died and that he will inherit her inn, and he travels and die violent deaths during the play, in part because of
excitedly invites Mother Courage—but not Kattrin—to follow

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her actions. Notably, they all have different fathers, whom she and Swiss Cheese’s half-sister. She is mute: she only
met on her various tours around Europe with the army. (It’s communicates through gestures, actions, and grunts, so the
entirely possible that some or all of her children were the audience must guess at her intentions by interpreting a
product of rape.) Still, her family is a cross-section of all Europe, combination of her behavior and Mother Courage’s comments
which may be Brecht’s way of suggesting that the continent’s about her. Nevertheless, Kattrin keenly observes everything
people are all kin and that World War II—like the Thirty Years’ that happens around her and arguably turns out to be the most
War—would needlessly tear them apart. Over the course of the insightful and ethical character in the whole play by the end.
play, Mother Courage demonstrates that she will do almost Specifically, she gives the play its haunting, bombastic climax
anything to increase her profits, even when this means when she beats on a drum to warn the people of Halle that the
abandoning people who have proven loyal to her or putting her Catholic army is coming to massacre them—and sacrifices her
children in danger. She even despairs when the war ends and life in the process. This echoes an earlier scene in which she
rejoices when it restarts because she thinks her commercial rushed into a besieged peasant family’s farmhouse to save a
prospects improve when the fighting gets worse. Worse still, baby, and it shows that her overriding concern is her desire to
she refuses to help a family of dying peasants because they save innocent people (especially children) from the trauma of
cannot afford to pay, and at the end of the play, she even joins the war. This makes sense in light of Mother Courage’s
up with the Catholic soldiers who just killed her beloved comment that Kattrin’s muteness began when a soldier
daughter, Kattrin, because she sees this as her best commercial traumatized her (probably by sexually assaulting her) when she
opportunity. In a nutshell, Mother Courage represents the was a child. At the same time, Kattrin clearly dreams of
spirit of capitalism, which Brecht saw as one and the same as escaping the war, living a free and ordinary life, and, above all,
the spirit of war and imperial expansion. falling in love. (She expresses this dream in part by strutting
Eilif – Eilif is Mother Courage’s oldest son and Swiss Cheese around in Yvette Pottier’s red boots.) In fact, Mother Courage
and Kattrin’s half-brother. Bold, proud, and impulsive, his declares that Kattrin’s greatest aspiration is to get married
personality is fitting for a soldier, and the Recruiting Officer and after the war ends. Yet this also becomes all but impossible
Top Sergeant exploit this fact to manipulate him into joining the after soldiers attack her in the sixth scene, leaving her with a
Swedish army. Eilif’s passion for “skinning peasants” wins him disfiguring facial scar. Kattrin thus represents war’s horrifying
accolades during the war—the Swedish Commander even calls toll on the innocent. Of course, her final, fateful warning about
him a hero in the second scene. But his greed and audacity also the horrors to come is really intended for a different audience
lead to his demise, as he continues robbing and murdering altogether: the people of Europe in 1939.
innocent peasants even after the war (temporarily) ends. (The The Chaplain – The Chaplain is a Protestant minister who
stage directions ironically call this “one heroic deed too many.”) works for the Swedish army, then joins Mother Courage and
In the song “The Fishwife and the Soldier,” he points out that his her family on their odyssey around Europe after his unit gets
father was also a solider, yet he recognizes that his gusto will captured in the third scene. His job is to provide a religious
prove to be his fatal flaw. Notably, his last wish before he goes justification for the war by telling the soldiers that their mission
to his execution is to have some brandy. While he is nonchalant is really to save the Catholics from damnation. However, the
about taking others’ lives, it seems, he is a coward when it war shakes his faith, until it becomes clear that he no longer
comes to losing his own. Just like his mother does with courage, believes in what he preaches. Perhaps he never did—in fact,
his brother with honesty, and his sister with love, he represents nobody else seems to. After all, his heavy drinking and sexual
how war corrupts the virtue of fortitude, turning it into an advances on Kattrin and Mother Courage suggest that he
engine of violence and destruction. probably joined the church for personal gain rather than out of
Swiss Cheese – Swiss Cheese (“Schweizerkas”) is Mother religious conviction. He’s even willing to replace the Protestant
Courage’s younger son, Eilif and Kattrin’s half-brother, and the flag with the Catholic one after getting captured, which makes
first of Mother Courage’s children to die in the play. Honest and it clear that he’s more afraid of dying in the war than going to
loyal, he becomes the paymaster for a regiment in the Swedish Hell. Nevertheless, he’s still a caring humanitarian—for
army. But his virtues also lead to his demise: after the Catholic instance, he goes to great lengths to save a dying peasant
army defeats the Swedes in the third scene, Mother Courage family in the fifth scene. He has a love-hate relationship with
suggests that the family pocket the money in Swiss Cheese’s the Cook, and at different times, he both agrees with and
cashbox, but Swiss Cheese tries to hide it instead (so that he condemns Mother Courage’s desire for the war to continue (so
can eventually return it to his commanders). He gets caught she can profit). In the eighth scene, he follows Eilif to his
and executed; Mother Courage tries to buy his freedom but execution, presumably to perform his last rites, and then
fails because she wastes too much time trying to bargain down disappears for the rest of the play. For Brecht, the Chaplain’s
the price. corruption is a metaphor for all religion, which is more about
social control than morality.
Kattrin – Kattrin is Mother Courage’s only daughter and Eilif

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The Cook – The Cook is an opportunistic, womanizing, pipe- Pottier’s help, and then the Sergeant brings her Swiss Cheese’s
smoking Dutchman who works for the Swedish Commander as body at the end of the scene to determine if she knows him.
a private chef in the second and third scenes. Like Mother The YYoung
oung Soldier – In the fourth scene, the Young Soldier
Courage, his primary interest is profiting off the war. He also furiously approaches the Captain’s tent to demand his
has a salacious backstory with Yvette Pottier, whom he once monetary reward. (The play strongly implies that he retrieved
seduced and then cheated on, and who knows him as “Peter Swiss Cheese’s cashbox from the river.) Feeling that he has
Piper.” (She confronts him when they reunite in the eighth been treated unjustly, the Young Soldier even threatens to kill
scene.) He has difficult relationships with both the Chaplain, the Captain—until Mother Courage convinces him to lower his
who drinks with him but also knows that he is an immoral letch, expectations with “The Song of the Great Capitulation.”
and Mother Courage, who price-gouges him over a capon in the
The Captain – The Captain is the Catholic officer to whom
second scene but is delighted to see him in the eighth scene
Mother Courage and the Young Soldier try to complain in the
(even though he has only visited her in search of alcohol). He
fourth scene. The Young Soldier alleges that the Captain stole
follows Mother Courage through Bavaria in the ninth scene,
his reward money and spent it partying. But both Mother
then decides to return to Utrecht to run his late mother’s inn
Courage and the Young Solider give up before they can meet
and invites her (but not Kattrin). Mother Courage and Kattrin
the Captain, who never appears onstage.
leave him behind, and his fate is left uncertain at the end of the
play. The PParson
arson – The Parson is a local religious leader in a small
town in Bavaria’s Fichtel Mountains. Unlike the rest of his town,
Yvette PPottier
ottier – Yvette Pottier is a sex worker who
he finds soup even in the war’s meanest days, which speaks to
accompanies the Swedish army on its campaigns around
the church’s corruption. However, he shares his soup with
Europe, hoping to make a living in the short term and
Mother Courage and the Cook after they sing him a song about
eventually strike it rich in the long term by marrying one of the
how religious virtue is useless (“The Song of the Wise and
soldiers. Her saga began when the Dutch Cook seduced her in
Good”). It’s unclear whether the Parson invites them inside
her hometown, and she agreed to start following him around
because he agrees with their pessimistic views, because he
Europe; he ended up cheating on and abandoning her, which
doesn’t understand their song, or just because he pities them.
led her to sex work. When the audience first meets her in the
third scene, the soldiers have been avoiding and spreading The Lieutenant – In the penultimate scene, the Lieutenant
rumors about her, but she manages to seduce the Colonel and leads the group of soldiers who terrorize the peasant family
help Mother Courage pawn her wagon in an effort to save (Old Peasant, Old Peasant Woman, and Young Peasant) on
Swiss Cheese. When Yvette returns years later in the eighth their way to attack the town of Halle. He murders the Young
scene, she is older, heavyset, and presumably wealthy—she Peasant and Kattrin, who warns the townspeople of the
married the Colonel’s brother, who since died. She reunites pending attack with her drum. His penchant for senseless
with the Cook. Her story shows how war makes a mockery out violence reflects the cruelty of the war as a whole.
of love, turning it into little more than a transaction. In this way,
she serves as a foil for both Mother Courage—who also sees a MINOR CHARACTERS
great business opportunity in the war—and Kattrin, who The Recruiting Officer – The Recruiting Officer manipulates
dreams that a man will save her from her dreadful life through Eilif into joining the war effort in Sweden in the first scene. He
marriage, but who could also easily end up exploited or drawn remarks that his job is incredibly difficult, as most young
into sex work if she idealistically tried to pursue that dream Swedish men know that the war is essentially a death sentence.
during the war. The red boots that Yvette wears on her dates
are also an important symbol of Kattrin’s femininity and desire The Swedish Commander – The Swedish Commander is the
for freedom throughout the play. leader of Eilif’s regiment, and he effusively praises Eilif for
slaughtering a crowd of peasants in the second scene.
Top Sergeant – The Top Sergeant is one of the soldiers who
recruit Eilif into the war in the first scene. (The other is the The Ordnance Officer – The Ordnance Officer is a soldier with
Recruiting Officer.) The Sergeant boasts about his success in the Swedish army who is in charge of supplies like weapons and
the military and makes fun of Eilif’s reservations about fighting, ammunition. In the third scene, he sells Mother Courage his
but when Mother Courage foretells that he will die, he grows last bullets in exchange for liquor, which underlines how
terrified, which shows that he was lying about his bravery all desperate and weary soldiers become during the Thirty Years’
along. War.

The Sergeant and One Ey Eyee – The Sergeant and One Eye (who The Colonel – The Colonel is the elderly but high-ranking
wears an eye patch) are the Catholic soldiers who capture soldier whom Yvette Pottier convinces to buy Mother
Swiss Cheese during the third scene. Mother Courage tries and Courage’s wagon in the third scene. (Actually, he gives her a
fails to buy Swiss Cheese’ freedom from One Eye with Yvette loan for 200 guilders and takes the wagon as collateral.) Yvette

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ends up marrying his brother. WAR, FAILURE, AND DESPAIR
The Regimental Clerk – The Regimental Clerk is an apathetic, Mother Courage and Her Children is above all an
cynical bureaucrat in the Catholic army. emphatic condemnation of war. The play takes
Old PPeasant
easant – The father of the peasant family in Halle, the old place during the Thirty Years’ War, a brutal conflict
peasant collaborates with the Lieutenant out of fear and between Catholics and Protestants that devastated Europe in
grieves with Mother Courage after they both lose their the 1600s, killing as much as half the population of what is now
children (Young Peasant and Kattrin). Germany through violence, starvation, and disease. In the play,
Mother Courage and her children Eilif, Swiss Cheese, and
Old P
Peasant
easant WWoman
oman – The mother of the peasant family in
Kattrin make a living operating a canteen for the Swedish army
Halle, the old peasant woman prays for God to save the
out of their wagon. They follow the army around Europe for
townspeople and later promises Mother Courage to give
over a decade, turning a meager profit by selling food, alcohol,
Kattrin a dignified burial.
and supplies while they watch the soldiers around them face
Young PPeasant
easant – The Old Peasant and Old Peasant Woman’s the harsh realities of combat and scarcity, abandon their faith
son, the young peasant does the Lieutenant’s bidding at and dreams, and then die pointless, miserable deaths. After all,
gunpoint until Kattrin inspires him to stand up for the there is no true winner in the Thirty Years’ War: even the
townspeople by beating her drum. He yells out in support of victors starve, suffer horrible atrocities, and lose track of why
her, and in response, the Lieutenant immediately murders him. they’re fighting in the first place. The protagonists are no
King Gusta
Gustavus
vus Adolphus – The King of Sweden and a talented exception: at first they dream that the war will bring them glory
military commander, Gustavus leads the Swedish intervention (Eilif), an honest job (Swiss Cheese), marriage (Kattrin), and
in the Thirty Years’ War, turning the conflict in the Protestants’ riches (Mother Courage), but they are all wrong. The children
favor. However, he dies at the Battle of Lützen in 1632, during instead die horrific deaths in the war, leaving Mother Courage
scene eight of the play. penniless, desperate, and completely alone at the end of the
play. In fact, the play suggests that even the powerful people
who start and lead wars—like the Swedish Commander and
TERMS King Gustav—often do so in pursuit of childish fantasies of
power and prosperity, only to lead their peoples into nothing
Guilder – Guilders were gold coins frequently used throughout but division and despair.
Europe (particularly in the Holy Roman Empire) from the 13th
through 18th centuries. Brecht’s message is clear: war is self-destructive folly. It
destroys its participants’ humanity by rewarding them for
Heller – Hellers were small, low-value silver coins commonly brutality and destruction while stamping out their capacity for
used throughout central Europe from the 1300s to the 1800s. honesty and compassion. Plenty of propaganda—including
Thaler – Thalers were several kinds of large, high-value silver much classical literature—teaches people to associate war with
coins used between the 1500s and the 1800s in central honor, prosperity, and strength. But Brecht suggests that this is
Europe. At the time of the Thirty Years’ War, a Reichsthaler was a naïve fantasy at best and a cynical manipulation at worst.
technically worth 576 heller, although in practice, the exchange Because of such propaganda, millions of idealistic young people
rate fluctuated significantly due to differences in currency sign up for wars that turn them into corpses and immoral
systems, coin debasement, and changes in the supply of monsters. Written during the fateful year of 1939 and in the
precious metals. Notably, “dollar” is just the Anglicized version first month following the Nazi invasion of Poland (which
of the German word “thaler.” formally set off World War II), this play is first and foremost a
Paymaster – An army paymaster is the officer in charge of warning cry to Europe about the perils and folly of war.
paying soldiers and other employees their salaries.
Capon – A capon is a castrated male chicken. PROFIT, VIOLENCE, AND POWER
Mother Courage’s most distinctive (and most
jarring) attribute is that she views the war primarily
THEMES as a business opportunity. She cares far more about
profit than about supporting the troops, making a name for
In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color-
herself, or even who lives and dies. Indeed, she makes her
coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes
priorities clear when she tells Swiss Cheese, “Nothing must
occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
come, not even the seasons. Only your books must balance.”
a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
Mother Courage despairs when the war ends before she can
black and white.
sell off all her inventory, but she then rejoices when the war
resumes; she refuses to give the Chaplain unsold shirts to use

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as bandages to save a dying peasant family, leaving him with no her loss—she instead sings a lullaby to Kattrin’s corpse and
choice but to steal them. In this sense, like successful arms remarks that maybe she is just sleeping. This reflects how, in
dealers, military contractors, and commodity speculators today, her ill-fated attempt to save her children through the war
she acts like an ideal capitalist, making business decisions effort, Mother Courage has actually sacrificed the personal
purely based on her balance sheet while ignoring everything qualities that make deep human connection possible. In
that lacks monetary value, including justice and human life. contrast, Kattrin demonstrates that people can hold onto their
Even when her profit-seeking bankrupts her and leads to her capacity for love and nurture even in the darkest of
children’s deaths, she stoically pulls her wagon on; she never situations—so long as they do not stoop to the level of
doubts her dedication to commerce. committing atrocities themselves.
But Mother Courage is not a deranged, greedy fanatic. Rather,
she is merely a pragmatist who understands the truth about FAITH AND IDENTITY
war far better than the other characters—and takes it to heart. The Thirty Years’ War was technically a conflict
She sees that war is a moneymaking scheme for rich and between Catholics and Protestants, but Mother
powerful men like King Gustavus, who seek to profit by Courage and Her Children makes it clear that the war
mutilating, exploiting, and robbing the masses. And she sees was really about power, not God. While the competing empires
doing exactly the same thing as her only chance to rise up in the used religion to forge alliances and justify violence, Brecht
world—she knows that, if she isn’t willing to play dirty and suggests that their faith was never sincere. For instance, the
accept brutality, she will lose out to competitors who are willing Chaplain initially preaches that death in battle is really holy
to do this. Thus, through the character of Mother Courage, martyrdom on behalf of the Protestant cause, but by the play’s
Brecht shows his audiences that profit and violence are two halfway point, he has started pretending to be Catholic so that
sides of the same coin. In fact, he suggests that war and the German army will spare him, and he has even started
capitalism share the same fundamental spirit: they are just begging Mother Courage to sleep with him. Perhaps even the
elaborate forms of robbery. most dedicated believers can lose their faith amidst the perils
of war, or perhaps the Chaplain was never particularly devout
LOVE AND NURTURE and actually joined the church out of self-interest. In contrast,
In theory, Mother Courage’s war profiteering is an ordinary people seem to actually believe that God cares about
expression of motherly love: she wants to make the war: in the penultimate scene, the Old Peasant and Old
enough money to give her children a secure, Peasant Woman desperately pray for God to save their village,
comfortable life. But in practice, her work requires moral only for Kattrin to actually save the town by banging on her
compromises that make it all but impossible for her to show drum and waking everybody up. Brecht’s implication is clear:
true motherly love. She might feel responsible for her children, only humans can save humans from atrocities; religion is far
but she also exposes them to the trauma and violence of more likely to cause violence than prevent it. This is because it’s
war—which leads to their deaths—and loses the compassion, a straightforward way to divide people who would not
empathy, and sense of justice that real nurture requires. For otherwise see themselves as different. For example, because
instance, she constantly berates Kattrin, and she indirectly gets the war’s combatants are all Europeans who share the same
Swiss Cheese killed by trying to bargain down the bounty on his languages and cultural heritage, it is often difficult for the
life in the moments before his execution. audience (and even the characters) to tell which side any given
army belongs to. But as a left-wing artist and avowed atheist
Crucially, Kattrin does preserve the maternal instinct that
who had recently fled Nazi Germany, Brecht knew all too well
Mother Courage loses. But this is hard to notice at first
how oppressive regimes can use religion to draw a sharp
because Kattrin doesn’t speak: she has not spoken a word since
distinction between friends and foes. Through his depiction of
a soldier attacked her when she was a young girl. Still, she
the futile conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the
demonstrates her nurturing qualities in the fifth scene, when
Thirty Years’ War, he aimed to remind his fellow Germans that
Mother Courage wants to leave a peasant family’s baby for
they were being manipulated into turning against ethnic and
dead and Kattrin runs into the family’s home to save it instead.
religious minorities. Thus, Brecht presents religion as not just a
Thus, even though Kattrin communicates primarily through
useless lie, but actually as a form of social control that turns
grunts and gestures, it becomes clear that she deeply yearns to
people against one another.
give other children the maternal love that she never received.
This dynamic is the key to understanding the play’s climax, in
which Kattrin sacrifices her own life to warn the people of a THEATER, PERFORMANCE, AND
local town that soldiers are coming to massacre them—but only HISTORY
once she learns that there are children there. Notably, after More than any individual work, Bertolt Brecht is
Kattrin’s death, Mother Courage fails to confront the depth of best remembered today for his revolutionary

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approach to theater, which he saw less as a form of leads her to a lifetime of violence and instability. But she
entertainment than a political tool, a means to shape public accepts that her lot in life is to keep pulling it, and she never
opinion and eventually change the world. A conventional drama considers leaving it behind. After all, she has always lived from
or comedy is supposed to give audiences a sense of connection it and she has no alternative—in a way, it is her very identity.
with the characters throughout and a feeling of resolution at Notably, Brecht is not praising her perseverance and namesake
the end. But Brecht sought to do the opposite. By filling his courage. In fact, he famously wished for audiences to see the
plays with inconsistent and unexpected elements, like stage fault in her ways rather than empathizing with her. Perhaps, like
directions that give away what will happen in a scene and Germans on the eve of World War II, Mother Courage should
cheery-sounding songs about the brutality of war, Brecht have left her wagon behind and chosen a different life, rather
hoped to leave his audiences uneasy and force them to think. than simply resigning herself to facing certain death and
(He called this the “estrangement effect” and his overall facilitating the destruction of Europe.
approach dialectical or epic theater.) Specifically, Brecht wanted
audiences to connect the dots between his plays and the
political, economic, and historical factors that shape their lives. ALCOHOL
This is why he addressed the urgent perils of Nazism and Alcohol represents the futility and indignity of war.
World War II by writing Mother Courage and Her Children, which Throughout the play, soldiers go and risk their lives
focuses on a seemingly unrelated war in the 1600s. Namely, he for a meager salary, then waste that whole salary on Mother
wanted Germans to make the connection between a familiar, Courage’s brandy in an effort to forget the horrors they have
dark episode from their past and the clear and present danger witnessed. When they actually experience war, they realize that
the Nazi regime posed to Europe in 1939. Like Kattrin, who war is not worth it—but it is already too late to leave, so they
sacrifices her life to warn villagers of a coming massacre even drink instead. This is clear from the play’s first lines, in which
though she cannot speak in a conventional way, Brecht uses Mother Courage sings to an imaginary army captain, offering
unconventional tools—estrangement and historical analogy—to his men the opportunity to “drink before they die.” She points
warn Germans of the devastation that they will both cause and out that, if the captain gets his men drunk, they might be willing
suffer from during World War II. to do what is asked of them in war—which presumably includes
taking on dangerous tasks or even losing their lives. In this way,
Mother Courage describes alcohol as a trick to grease the
SYMBOLS wheels of war: not only does it get smart men to do stupid
things in a pointless war that does not benefit them, but it also
Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and helps them forget what they have done and seen. By the end of
Analysis sections of this LitChart. their service, most of the soldiers are either dead or broke, and
alcohol has helped with both. So it’s little surprise that, from the
THE WAGON play’s events, alcohol seems to be Mother Courage’s best-
selling product. And yet she lives out the same futile cycle,
Mother Courage’s wagon is the overriding symbol profiting in the short term but losing out both financially and
at the center of the play; Brecht’s audiences, personally in the long term, and she also ends the play
readers, and performers will rightly interpret it in countless penniless and desperate.
different ways, but one of its clearest functions is as a
metaphor for the burden of fate. In short, Mother Courage’s
attachment to her wagon represents the inescapable fact that RED BOOTS
our lives are determined by forces beyond our control, and we Yvette Pottier’s provocative red boots represent
have to make the best of the circumstances in which we find Kattrin’s desire for love and freedom. In the third
ourselves. scene, Kattrin tries them on and Mother Courage responds by
The wagon serves as Mother Courage’s home and business, but comparing her to a sex worker (like Yvette), taking them away,
it’s also her vehicle for traveling around Europe and her shield and making plans to sell them. In a later scene, after soldiers
during battles along the way. The first line in the play is a stage attack Kattrin, Mother Courage tries to gift Kattrin the boots
direction describing the wagon, which remains onstage as a token of goodwill, but Kattrin refuses them.
throughout nearly the whole performance, and Mother Since Kattrin doesn’t speak, moments like these offer rare and
Courage’s last action in the final scene is to hitch herself to it, valuable insight into her true desires, complicated feelings
alone and resolute, and trudge onward into an uncertain future. about men, and her relationship with her mother. When she
The wagon burdens her physically because she has to pull it, first takes Yvette’s boots, she acts out a fantasy of feminine
economically because all her wealth gets locked up in it, and beauty—which will presumably help her find the man whose
spiritually because it leads her children to their deaths and love can save her from the brutality of war. Such desires are

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perfectly natural for a young woman coming of age, and yet
Mother Courage recognizes that the only way for Kattrin to
Related Symbols:
seek love during war would be as a sex worker. In fact, Mother
Courage explains that Kattrin’s greatest desire in life is to get Page Number: 22
married, but this is impossible until the war ends. This is why
she takes the boots away. But she also can’t resist the Explanation and Analysis
temptation to sell them and turn a profit—even if it would mean The play opens with the actors singing this overture, “The
turning the symbol of Kattrin’s dream into just another Song of Mother Courage,” while traveling on the wagon.
commodity. When Mother Courage later repents and tries to This song recurs throughout the play (most memorably in
return the boots, it is already too late: the attack has left the closing scene) as a motif representing Mother
Kattrin with a scar that means no man will ever marry her. Courage’s role in the war. And it’s a bombastic, theatrical
Perhaps Kattrin refuses to take the boots because she now way for Brecht to introduce his play. But it shouldn’t be
knows that men will not offer her salvation from her life with mistaken for a part of the play itself, because it’s not really
Mother Courage, or perhaps she does so because she does not the characters singing—specifically, the lines the actors are
want Mother Courage to dictate when and how she can feel singing are not continuous with what the characters they
free and independent. portray do and believe. This is true of all the play’s songs: far
from being lighthearted entertainment, they are actually a
form of serious commentary on the characters and their
QUO
QUOTES
TES decisions. This is part and parcel of Brecht’s “distancing
Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the Grove effect”—he encourages his audience to actively analyze his
Press edition of Mother Courage and Her Children published work and look for meaning instead of simply observing and
in 1991. enjoying it.
“The Song of Mother Courage” describes how Mother
Prologue Quotes Courage’s canteen contributes to the war effort: she keeps
the soldiers fed (and drunk) so that they can fight. But the
HERE’S MOTHER COURAGE AND HER WAGON! song presents this in the darkest possible terms,
HEY, CAPTAIN, LET THEM COME AND BUY! emphasizing how she sustains an enterprise that
BEER BY THE KEG! WINE BY THE FLAGON! systematically maims and slaughters young men—and
LET YOUR MEN DRINK BEFORE THEY DIE! suggesting that, if she didn’t keep the men full and let them
SABERS AND SWORDS ARE HARD TO SWALLOW: drink themselves in a stupor, perhaps they wouldn’t
FIRST YOU MUST GIVE THEM BEER TO DRINK. volunteer to be maimed and slaughtered. The middle verse
THEN THEY CAN FACE WHAT IS TO FOLLOW— in this passage, which is the song’s chorus, reflects the
BUT LET ‘EM SWIM BEFORE THEY SINK! brutal ethos at the heart of the war: men march through the
CHRISTIANS, AWAKE! THE WINTER’S GONE! harsh winter to certain death for no discernible purpose
THE SNOWS DEPART, THE DEAD SLEEP ON. except to help the King get slightly more land and money.
AND THOUGH YOU MAY NOT LONG SURVIVE,
GET OUT OF BED AND LOOK ALIVE!
YOUR MEN WILL MARCH TILL THEY ARE DEAD, SIR, Scene 1 Quotes
BUT CANNOT FIGHT UNLESS THEY EAT. What they could use around here is a good war. What else
THE BLOOD THEY SPILL FOR YOU IS RED, SIR, can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You
WHAT FIRES THAT BLOOD IS MY RED MEAT. know what the trouble with peace is? No organization. And
FOR MEAT AND SOUP AND JAM AND JELLY when do you get organization? In a war. Peace is one big waste
IN THIS OLD CART OF MINE ARE FOUND: of equipment. Anything goes, no one gives a damn. See the way
SO FILL THE HOLE UP IN YOUR BELLY they eat? Cheese on rye, bacon on the cheese? Disgusting!
BEFORE YOU FILL ONE UNDERGROUND. How many horses they got in this town? How many young men?
Nobody knows! They haven’t bothered to count ’em! That’s
Related Characters: Mother Courage, Eilif, Swiss Cheese peace for you!!
(speaker)
Related Characters: Top Sergeant (speaker), The
Related Themes: Recruiting Officer

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sons to it. While she opposes the war in this narrow sense,
Related Themes:
Mother Courage seems to think that she is different—more
noble and peaceful, and therefore safe from the war’s worst
Page Number: 23-24
effects—because she does not get directly involved in the
Explanation and Analysis fighting. In other words, she thinks that, even if the war is
The play opens with the Top Sergeant and Recruiting immoral, profiting from the war is perfectly fine. But this
Officer lamenting the sorry state of the Swedish war effort. attitude is just as self-serving as her ironic insistence that
In particular, they complain that they’re struggling to recruit her family is “peaceful”—all while she pulls a knife on
because Swedish men simply don’t want to sacrifice their someone. When considered in the context of the play as a
lives to go fight far away in Germany. After all, King whole, this passage makes Brecht’s broader message clear:
Gustavus has ostensibly joined the war to protect German Mother Courage’s job is not morally neutral or
Protestants—not his own people—and many, including “peaceful”—rather, she is just as much a cog in the war
Mother Courage, suspect that he’s really in it for personal machine as the soldiers, and thus partially responsible for
gain. the destruction from which she profits.
But as they observe the village of Dalarna, the soldiers
frame the local people’s opposition in different terms. They
view the locals as lazy and disorganized because they Well, there’s yours, Eilif, my boy! (As EILIF takes the slip, she
haven’t had “a good war” to force them to use all their snatches it and holds it up.) See? A cross!
resources. In other words, the soldiers think, the town has […]
abundance when it really needs efficiency, and nothing
Take yours, Swiss Cheese. You should be a better bet—you’re
would be better for efficiency than military discipline. Of
my good boy. (SWISS CHEESE draws.) Don’t tell me it’s a cross?
course, audiences will probably realize that what the
Is there no saving you either? Just look, Sergeant—a black
soldiers are really thinking is that they’d like to capture
cross!
some of the town’s abundance for themselves and their
higher-ups—they are using the language of efficiency and […]
unity as excuses for plunder. Brecht opens with this (to KATTRIN) Now all I have left is you. You’re a cross in
conversation because he sees this obsession with efficiency, yourself but you have a kind heart. (She holds the helmet up but
surplus, and order as the kind of thinking at the heart of war, takes the slip herself.) Oh dear, there must be some mistake!
fascism, and capitalism. Don’t be too kind, Kattrin, don’t be too kind—there’s a black
cross in your path! So now you all know: be careful! Be very
careful! (MOTHER COURAGE climbs on her wagon preparing to
(She draws a knife.) Yes, just you try, and I’ll cut you down leave.)
like dogs! We sell cloth, we sell ham, we are peaceful
people! Related Characters: Mother Courage (speaker), Eilif, Swiss
Cheese, Kattrin, Top Sergeant
Related Characters: Mother Courage (speaker), Eilif, Top
Sergeant, The Recruiting Officer Related Themes:

Related Themes: Related Symbols:

Page Number: 29 Page Number: 31-32

Explanation and Analysis Explanation and Analysis

When the soldiers try to recruit Eilif into the Swedish army, Partway into the first scene, Swiss Cheese makes the
this is Mother Courage’s response. She refuses to let her surprising (and entirely unexplained) announcement that
sons fight in the war; they will merely sell goods to the Mother Courage can see the future. Mother Courage then
people who fight in the war. Needless to say, Mother draws lots, selecting pieces of paper that represent the fate
Courage has seen the danger and suffering involved in the of the Top Sergeant and her three children. All four have
fighting firsthand, and she knows better than to expose her black crosses on them, which means that all four people will

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die soon in the war. greater power is punishing warmongers for their
Audiences unfamiliar with Brecht’s work may find this plot actions—in fact, he certainly thinks there is no such higher
twist deeply confusing. Why would Brecht introduce a power, and injustice in war often doesn’t get punished.
random fortune-telling element, and why would his Rather, his point is that war is an uncontrollable storm of
protagonist give away the story’s ending? But actually, by violence and injustice, and anyone who touches it is likely to
making the audience ask these questions, Brecht is already get hurt. People largely base their expectations about war
fulfilling his artistic goals. Recall that he wanted his on stories they hear about it, but the reality is far more
audiences to analyze his work’s meaning and come out with cruel, senseless, and unrewarding.
a new understanding of their own lives.
Thus, in addition to foreshadowing the play’s tragic
Scene 2 Quotes
ending—and hammering home Brecht’s anti-war
message—this scene also encourages the audience to think MOTHER COURAGE. My eldest. It’s two years since I saw
critically about the relationship between fate, choice, and him. He must be high in favor—the Commander inviting him to
death. At this point, Mother Courage could choose to stay dinner! And what do you have to eat? Nothing. The
home and save her children’s lives, but she does not. Why? Commander’s guest wants meat! Take my advice: buy the
Perhaps she thinks that she has no choice but to follow the capon. The price is one hundred hellers.
war, as she has been doing nearly all her life. Or perhaps she (The COMMANDER has sat down with EILIF and the
cynically thinks that the profit would be worth the loss. CHAPLAIN.)
Regardless, what’s clear is that Brecht also wants to remind
COMMANDER. (roaring) Dinner, you pig! Or I’ll have your
his audiences of the perils in their future in 1939, as war
head!
breaks out in Europe and they are increasingly hurtling
toward a completely foreseeable, tragic fate of their own. COOK. This is blackmail. Give me the damn thing!

Related Characters: Mother Courage, The Cook, The

When a war gives you all you earn Swedish Commander (speaker), Eilif, The Chaplain
One day it may claim something in return!
Related Themes:

Related Characters: Top Sergeant (speaker), Mother Page Number: 36

Courage
Explanation and Analysis
Related Themes: The second scene begins with Mother Courage selling a
capon (a castrated rooster) to the Cook for the outlandishly
Page Number: 33 inflated price of 50 hellers. The Cook resists, but when Eilif
Explanation and Analysis and the Commander return to the tent and the Commander
angrily demands meat from the Cook, Mother Courage
The play’s first scene ends with this aphorism from the Top takes the opportunity to double her price and make a hefty
Sergeant. His meaning is clear: people who get involved in profit. A win for her son has become a win for her—but
the war might initially expect to benefit from it, but in Brecht forces the audience to ask, at what cost? Eilif is a war
reality, they tend to lose at least as much as they gain. Of criminal who massacres peasants, and Mother Courage is a
course, this is ironic because Mother Courage has just shameless war profiteer who takes advantage of scarcity
predicted that he will die, too. But the main purpose of this and desperation to raise prices. Through their self-interest,
line is to confirm that Mother Courage’s attempts to profit they not only harm others but also morally degrade
from the war will, indeed, cost her all three of her children. themselves. (Of course, the Commander is no better: he
In fact, she won’t get her profits either: she will end the play treats the Cook on whom he depends for survival like a
poorer than she began it. So her fantasies never come to subhuman animal.) Worst of all, Mother Courage’s first
fruition, and she pays a heavy cost for projecting them onto instinct upon seeing her son is not to meet and embrace
the war. him, but rather to manipulate the situation into a higher
It’s easy to describe her fate in terms of divine or cosmic profit margin. She shamelessly puts business above family,
punishment, but Brecht probably would have shied away and as a result, she will soon lose both.
from that kind of language. His point is not that some

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EILIF. I laughed. And so we got to talking. I came right Scene 3 Quotes
down to business and said: “Twenty guilders an ox is too
I’m letting you have the bullets for two guilders. Dirt
much, I bid fifteen.” Like I wanted to buy. That foxed ’em. So
cheap. ’Cause I need the money. The Colonel’s been drinking
while they were scratching their heads. I reached for my good
for three days and we’re out of liquor.
sword and cut ’em to ribbons. Necessity knows no law, huh?
COMMANDER. What do you say, keeper of souls?
Related Characters: The Ordnance Officer (speaker),
CHAPLAIN. Strictly speaking, that saying is not in the Bible.
Mother Courage
Our Lord made five hundred loaves out of five so that no
necessity should arise. So when he told men to love their Related Themes:
neighbors, their bellies were full. Things have changed since his
day. Related Symbols:
COMMANDER. (laughing) Things have changed!
Page Number: 42
Related Characters: Eilif, The Chaplain, The Swedish Explanation and Analysis
Commander (speaker)
The third scene begins with a particularly dark and
Related Themes: despicable scene: an Ordinance Officer, the soldier in
charge of guarding arms and ammunition, tries to sell
Page Number: 37-38 Mother Courage bullets in exchange for alcohol. Not only is
he shirking his duties, but he’s also putting his and his
Explanation and Analysis comrades’ lives at risk. But he doesn’t seem to care, whether
Eilif tells the Commander how he managed to massacre a because he assumes that he will die anyway or because he
group of peasants and steal their oxen. He used a trick he knows that the army is so corrupt that nobody will stop him.
clearly learned from his mother—haggling prices—and then Mother Courage initially refuses his offer, not on the
took the opportunity to murder the peasants in cold blood. grounds of morality but rather because she would prefer
Not only are his actions reprehensible, but Brecht draws a not to get in trouble with the army—but then she gladly
clear link between them and Mother Courage’s business, accepts when he agrees to lower the price. Clearly, she has
which is based on the same principle: greed, self-interest, no more qualms than he does, and she thinks she can resell
and accumulation at any cost. Worse still, Brecht shows the bullets for a higher price (even if it ends up being to the
how war rewards such viciousness, ultimately handing Swedes’ enemies). This exchange neatly captures the depth
power to the most immoral and sadistic people. of the corruption, cruelty, and despair in the war—and it
makes it even clearer that Mother Courage is in no way
Eilif justifies his actions with the famous adage, “Necessity
morally innocent just because she isn’t carrying arms.
knows no law,” which he falsely assumes to be a quote from
the Bible. Of course, his argument is absurd: he wasn’t
motivated by necessity at all. He didn’t need the peasants’
oxen any more than the peasants did, and he certainly didn’t CHAPLAIN. My dear Cook, you talk as if dying for one’s
need to murder anyone to get to them. But he will use any beliefs were a misfortune—it is the highest privilege! This
explanation he can to justify his actions. Of course, the real is not just any war, remember, it is a religious war, and therefore
problem is not necessity but the war, which rewards pleasing unto God.
lawlessness. This is a metaphor for religion’s role in war COOK. I see that. In one sense it’s a war because of all the
more broadly: powerful people use misleading, self-serving cheating, plunder, rape, and so forth, but it’s different from all
interpretations of scripture to justify whatever they happen other wars because it’s a religious war and therefore pleasing
to want. And this makes the Chaplain’s comments unto God. At that it does make you thirsty.
particularly amusing, as he all but admits that God has
forsaken them. This is precisely the opposite of what he is
supposed to say—that they are fighting a holy war for a Related Characters: The Chaplain, The Cook (speaker)
noble cause.
Related Themes:

Page Number: 46

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Explanation and Analysis other selfish, exploitative men who populate the play.

The Chaplain and Cook come to Mother Courage with news But the Chaplain’s meta-narration is far more surprising
from Eilif, and the Cook takes the opportunity to ask her for than his hypocrisy. Regardless of whether he is narrating his
a drink. The Chaplain responds with these brief lines about internal monologue, reminding himself of his line, or briefly
the war’s true, holy purpose—although it’s unclear whether taking on the director’s role, he clearly breaks character,
he’s being serious or sarcastic. Regardless, Brecht certainly mentions himself in the third person, and tells the audience
wants the audience to see the irony here: there is nothing exactly what he’s going to do before he does it. This is
holy about this war, neither in its motivations nor its another key example of Brecht’s alienation technique: by
conduct. The Cook’s sarcastic response shows that he shifting the audience’s perspective, if even for just a
doesn’t believe this at all; if anything, his comments suggest, moment, the Chaplain reminds the audience that they are
the religious justification gives soldiers leeway to act even watching a work of art and that the actors are real people
more immorally. And over the course of the play, it will portraying fictional ones. He interrupts the flow of the
audience members’ attention, forcing them to briefly
become clear that nobody believes in the war’s religious
analyze the play instead of just experiencing it uncritically.
justification, not even the Chaplain himself. In reality, the
King hires men like the Chaplain not because he believes in
holy war, but rather because religion is a powerful tool to
control people: if he can convince his soldiers that this is a COOK. And King Gustavus liberated Poland from the
holy war, perhaps they will fight with some zeal. Germans. Who could deny it? Then his appetite grew with
eating, and he liberated Germany from the Germans. Made
quite a profit on the deal, I’m told.
MOTHER COURAGE. I must get you two something to CHAPLAIN. That is a calumny! The Swedish king puts religion
drink, or you’ll be making improper advances out of sheer first!
boredom. MOTHER COURAGE. What’s more, you eat his bread.
CHAPLAIN. That is indeed a temptation—said the Court COOK. I don’t eat his bread: I bake his bread.
Chaplain as he gave way to it. And who is this captivating young
MOTHER COURAGE. He’ll never be conquered, that man, and
person?
you know why? We all back him up—the little fellows like you
and me. Oh yes, to hear the big fellows talk, they ‘re fighting for
Related Characters: Mother Courage, The Chaplain their beliefs and so on, but if you look into it, you find they’re
(speaker), Kattrin, The Cook not that silly: they do want to make a profit on the deal. So you
and I back them up!
Related Themes:
Related Characters: Mother Courage, The Chaplain, The
Related Symbols:
Cook (speaker), King Gustavus Adolphus
Page Number: 47
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis
Page Number: 48
The Chaplain and Cook approach Mother Courage to ask
for brandy—which is the main reason the play’s male Explanation and Analysis
characters start conversations with her at all. Then, she When the Cook points out the absurdity in King Gustavus
makes this offhand comment about the men “making Adolphus’s war, both the Chaplain and Mother Courage are
improper advances,” and the Chaplain offers this strange scandalized. The Cook asks why the King of Sweden would
response, in which he first announces that he’s going to bother to invade Poland and Germany and suggests that his
make such advances and then does exactly that. (The real reason was his “appetite” and thirst for profit. But the
“captivating young person” is Mother Courage’s daughter, Chaplain insists that the King’s real motive is religion—even
Kattrin.) The Chaplain is supposed to be pious and celibate, though everyone else seems to agree that the King is just
but he has already made it clear that he only preaches using religion as an excuse for getting what he wants.
religious values—he doesn’t live up to him. His blatant lust is Mother Courage offers a different take: of course the King
just another example of how he proves no better than the is in the war for profit, she argues, but this is precisely why

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they should trust him. People who follow profit act destruction, and when people become so obsessed with
rationally and predictably in search of it, and the people who profit and self-interest that they lose track of the value of
support them can share in the spoils, too. human life, they end up destroying that life. Mother
In this way, Mother Courage succinctly explains why so Courage is at least partially responsible for Swiss Cheese’s
many people chose to join King Gustavus’s war—and, death, and her profit-seeking means that she was not able
Brecht suggests, the other wars that have plagued Europe to give him the maternal love he deserved. While it’s clear
throughout history, including World War II. Her comments that she suffers for her actions, it’s just as clear that she
also capture the basic worldview of modern capitalism: doesn’t truly take responsibility or consider changing her
everything in the world is based on self-interest, and anyone ways.
who appears to act for the sake of anything else (like
religion) is just making excuses—probably to manipulate
people into doing what they want. Brecht’s response to SERGEANT. There’s a man here we don’t know the name
these ideas is nuanced but clear: while he shows that people of, but he has to be registered to keep the records straight.
certainly act ruthlessly for the sake of self-interest during He bought a meal from you. Look at him. See if you know him.
the war, he also suggests that they end up undermining (He draws back the sheet.) You know him? (MOTHER COURAGE
their own self-interest in the process. Mother Courage’s shakes her head.) What? You never saw him before he bought
model may describe war, but it doesn’t describe humanity. that meal? (MOTHER COURAGE shakes her head.) Lift him up.
And needless to say, the noblest characters in the Throw him on the garbage dump. He has no one that knows
play—most of all Kattrin—are heroes precisely because they him.
are not selfish.
(They carry him off.)

Related Characters: The Sergeant and One Eye (speaker),

YVETTE (re-enters, pale). You’ve done it—with your
Mother Courage, Swiss Cheese
haggling. You can keep your wagon now. He got eleven
bullets in him. I don’t know why I still bother about you, you
Related Themes:
don’t deserve it, but I just happened to hear they don’t think the
cash-box is really in the river. They think it’s here. And they Page Number: 64
think you were in with him.
Explanation and Analysis
Related Characters: Yvette Pottier (speaker), Mother The Catholic Sergeant who executed Swiss Cheese brings
Courage, Swiss Cheese, Kattrin his body to Mother Courage, ostensibly as a record-keeping
exercise, but really because he suspects that she has his
Related Themes: cashbox. (His plan is to seize the box and punish her for
hiding it—perhaps by executing her, too.) But Yvette has
Related Symbols: warned Mother Courage in advance, so she is aware that
she cannot admit to knowing Swiss Cheese. This tragic
Page Number: 64 scene ensues: Mother Courage confronts the body of the
son she failed to save, but must avoid showing any kind of
Explanation and Analysis grief, lest she give away her relationship to him. But with her
Mother Courage’s plot to save Swiss Cheese backfires: characteristically stoic attitude, she doesn’t find this so
using Yvette as an intermediary, she tries to bargain down difficult.
the price for his freedom and wastes time; the soldiers Unlike most other scenes in the play, in this scene Brecht
execute him before she can strike a deal. Perhaps worst of actually does want emotional reactions from his audience:
all, they do agree to a new price—but only once it’s too late. he wants them to share in Mother Courage’s grief as a way
He’s already dead, and his death was both unnecessary and to see the folly in her ways. He shows the human cost of
senseless. Mother Courage’s haggling convinces the war’s cruel, senseless violence, which Mother Courage also
soldiers that she still has Swiss Cheese’s cashbox, so they participates in by making a living from the war. The irony in
come for her next. Swiss Cheese’s death also shows how war twists virtue into
Brecht’s message is clear: war is a game of meaningless its opposite: the Sergeant assumes Mother Courage has the
cashbox because he assumes that Swiss Cheese was

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dishonest, but in reality, the problem is that Swiss Cheese is Related Characters: The Chaplain (speaker)
honest and actually did get rid of the cashbox.
Related Themes:

Scene 4 Quotes Page Number: 76

MOTHER COURAGE. You’re hungry. You’re angry. I Explanation and Analysis

understand. Mother Courage considers going to stock up on supplies,
YOUNG SOLDIER. Talking’ll get you nowhere. I won’t stand for but she can’t decide whether it’s really necessary; even
injustice! though the war has been going for years, she doesn’t know
MOTHER COURAGE. How long? How long won’t you stand for how long it will continue. The Chaplain responds with “The
injustice? One hour? Or two? It’s a misery to sit in the stocks: Army Chaplain’s Song,” in which he praises the glory of war.
especially if you leave it till then to realize you do stand for In fact, he describes war as the foundation for everything
injustice. else in the world (“like love”). Perhaps the most egregious
part of his song is his proud declaration that war brings
“Christian souls” to “their eternal resting place.” He means
Related Characters: Mother Courage, The Young Soldier that they die and go to heaven—and the more, apparently,
(speaker) the merrier.

Related Themes: In his song, the Chaplain is being partly honest, partly
facetious. He clearly sees the absurdity and brutality of the
Page Number: 66 war, but he also knows that his job depends on it. So he tells
Mother Courage what he always preaches—the war is a
Explanation and Analysis holy crusade that must go on—even though he clearly
In the fourth scene, Mother Courage approaches the doesn’t believe it. Beyond his twisted, cynical valorization of
Catholic Captain to make a complaint. The Catholic army death in war, his portrait of war as “what the world is
has just destroyed her wagon and assessed her a hefty fine, founded on” is very significant, too. The classic religious
in theory for her involvement with Swiss Cheese, but in notion that the world is founded on God’s love implies that
reality just because they knew they could get away with it. human love, too, is the force that holds the species together;
Desperate and penniless, Mother Courage tries to plead in short, giving and receiving love is a central motivation in
her case, but the Captain isn’t in yet, so she has to wait for our lives. (The Chaplain offers a new take on this when he
him. She ends up in conversation with a Young Soldier who, suggests that soldiers should have more children to keep
she soon learns, was the one to recover Swiss Cheese’s the war going.)
cashbox from the river—but never got compensated for it. But if the world is founded on war, as the Chaplain suggests,
The Young Soldier furiously demands justice. But Mother then the drive to destroy the other is fundamental—not the
Courage knows better: she has spent her whole life waiting desire to unite with them through love. This cynical
for justice, and she knows that it never arrives. In times of perspective fits cleanly with the Chaplain, Mother Courage,
war, Brecht warns, appealing to justice is as futile as and all the other characters’ fundamentally self-interested
appealing to God: the people with power have that power motivations and worldview.
because they obey no higher law, so the people without
power have no option but to put up or shut up.
She’s finished. How would she ever get a husband now?
And she’s crazy for children. Even her dumbness comes
Scene 6 Quotes
from the war. A soldier stuck something in her mouth when she
IN WAR MORE CHRISTIAN SOULS THAN EVER was little. I’ll never see Swiss Cheese again, and where my Eilif
REACH THEIR ETERNAL RESTING PLACE. is the Good Lord knows. Curse the war!
[…]
AND WHAT IS WAR? THIS IS MY THESIS: Related Characters: Mother Courage, The Chaplain
IT’S WHAT THE WORLD IS FOUNDED ON. (speaker), Eilif, Swiss Cheese, Kattrin
War is like love: it’ll always find a way. Why should it end?
Related Themes:

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Page Number: 81 Page Number: 84

Explanation and Analysis Explanation and Analysis

Mother Courage sends Kattrin out for supplies, but when Mother Courage buys more supplies at the Chaplain’s
she returns, she has a huge gash above her eye. In a pattern encouragement in the sixth scene, only for the war to end
that recurs throughout the play, as though to highlight that shortly after in this scene, leaving her with a vast stock of
the violence of war and the violence of capitalism are one surplus merchandise. She is furious: this is the worst
and the same, violence occurs at the same time as Mother possible timing for peace; it is undermining her business. So,
Courage makes her profits. A soldier has attacked Kattrin, like the Top Sergeant and Recruiting Officer in the first
and while it’s not clear exactly what she has suffered, it is scene, she curses peace as a waste of time and resources.
clear that she will spend the rest of her life with a massive Her rather unsympathetic position shows the moral
scar. Mother Courage immediately realizes that no man will compromise involved in profiting from war: since she puts
marry Kattrin with her scar—and Kattrin presumably also her financial self-interest above everything else, she prefers
knows this. It’s significant that Kattrin’s scar will pose a for death and destruction to continue—even as it swallows
problem for her marriage, whereas her muteness would up her children. Ironically, she announced, “Curse the war!”
not—this shows how women were valued for their just a few moments earlier, at the end of the same scene in
appearances in the 1600s, not their personalities. (It also which she bought supplies, when Kattrin returned from
suggests that Mother Courage is an exception to the norm, fetching them with a scar. But that fury has clearly passed,
as a strong single mother who makes a living on her own.) and now she cares more about her profit margins than
Mother Courage also mentions another crucial detail: Kattrin’s scar or marriage prospects.
Kattrin’s “dumbness” (muteness) is also the result of trauma
she experienced in the war. In fact, she strongly implies that
the soldier raped Kattrin when she was a child. This brings a CHAPLAIN. Your intentions are only too transparent! (to
whole new meaning to Kattrin’s role in the play: the violence MOTHER COURAGE:) But when I see you take peace
of war has silenced her, although that does not mean that between finger and thumb like a snotty old handkerchief, the
she does not understand or protest against it. She humanity in me rebels! You want war, do you? Well, don’t you
represents the living legacy of the war’s cruelty and trauma forget the proverb: who sups with the devil must use a long
in a way that Mother Courage’s sons, who die, cannot. And spoon!
now, she has lost the last thing that mattered to her: the
MOTHER COURAGE. Remember what one fox said to another
chance of marrying.
that was caught in a trap? “If you stay there, you’re just asking
Kattrin’s suffering also represents Mother Courage’s guilt for trouble.” I’m not in love with war, Mr. Army Chaplain, and
and failure as a parent. After all, it is Mother Courage who when it comes to calling people hyenas, you and I part
put her own children in harm’s way—even though they are company!
children of the war, she could have raised them safely at
CHAPLAIN. Then why all this grumbling about the peace? Is it
home in Sweden instead of on the battlefield. This is one of
just for the junk in your wagon?
the few times in the play when Mother Courage turns sour
about the war: she seems to recognize her mistake and MOTHER COURAGE. My goods are not junk. I live off them.
“curse the war” for bringing her all the tragedy she feared CHAPLAIN. You live off war. Exactly!
but none of the riches she dreamed about.
Related Characters: Mother Courage, The Chaplain
(speaker)
Scene 8 Quotes
Don’t tell me peace has broken out—I’ve gone and bought Related Themes:
all these supplies!
Related Symbols:
Related Characters: Mother Courage (speaker)
Page Number: 87-88
Related Themes: Explanation and Analysis

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When the war (very temporarily) ends, conflict breaks out villain, in other words, is not what they do but when they do
between Mother Courage and the Chaplain instead. (But it and whether those around them reward them for it. In
it’s not just them: the Cook and Yvette Pottier soon show up times of war, ferocity, sadism, and remorselessness are
and get into a similar shouting match.) The Chaplain virtues; but in ordinary life, they are sins. This speaks to the
criticizes Mother Courage’s desire for the war to continue. brutality and inhumanity of war, which gives free license to
She cares only about her financial prospects, he alleges, and humanity’s darkest traits.
she shows a complete and utter indifference to the value of Eilif’s punishment will be death, and yet Mother Courage
human life that ending the war will save. Someone has will never learn what happens to him because she is away.
finally confronted her with the truth—which the audience The Chaplain takes the opportunity to leave, as
has seen all along. well—perhaps so he doesn’t have to admit to Mother
In response, Mother Courage protests that she doesn’t love Courage what he saw. In fact, Mother Courage’s absence
war itself—rather, the situation has “caught [her] in a trap” for Eilif’s death is also part of a pattern: she also misses
by leaving her with goods she cannot sell. She claims to be a Swiss Cheese and Kattrin’s deaths, all because she is busy
pragmatist, not a warmonger, but the Chaplain suggests trying to make money. This again underlines the sense in
that there’s really no difference. Of course, the deeper irony which her profit-seeking is responsible for her children’s
here is that exactly the same thing is true of the Chaplain, demise.
too: he also lives off the war, and he will also see his
prospects dwindle now that it has ended. He is no better
than her—in fact, perhaps he is criticizing her just so he can Scene 9 Quotes
feel better about himself.
MOTHER COURAGE. Kattrin! Where do you think you’re
going? (She examines the bundle.) Ah! So you were listening ? I
told him: nothing doing—he can have his lousy inn. (Now she
CHAPLAIN. What has he done? sees the skirt and pants.) Oh, you stupid girl! Now what if I’d seen
SOLDIER. He broke in on a peasant. The wife is dead. that, and you’d been gone! (KATTRIN tries to leave. Her mother
holds her.) And don’t imagine I sent him packing on your
CHAPLAIN. Eilif, how could you?
account. It was the wagon. They can’t part me from my wagon.
EILIF. It’s no different. It’s what I did before. Now we’ll put the cook’s things here where he’ll find ’em, that
COOK. That was in wartime. silly man. You and I are leaving. (She climbs upon the wagon and
EILIF. Shut your mouth. Can I sit down till she comes? throws the rest of the COOK’s few things down on to the pants.)
There! He’s fired! The last man I’ll ever take into this business!
SOLDIER. No.
Get into harness, Kattrin. This winter will pass like all the
CHAPLAIN. It’s true. In wartime they honored him for it. He sat others.
at the Commander’s right hand. It was bravery.

Related Characters: Mother Courage (speaker), Kattrin,

Related Characters: Eilif, The Chaplain (speaker), The The Cook
Swedish Commander
Related Themes:
Related Themes:
Related Symbols:
Page Number: 92

Explanation and Analysis Page Number: 101

While Mother Courage is away on business in town, a Explanation and Analysis
soldier marches Eilif by the camp, where the Cook and In the ninth scene, Mother Courage, the Cook, and Kattrin
Chaplain are waiting. They are surprised to learn that he has are stranded in the mountains during winter, but they
been disciplined for attacking a peasant family. But the part persuade the local Parson (minister) to give them soup by
that surprises them is less the attack than the discipline. The singing him a song. The Cook also tries to get Mother
war has ended, however briefly, and indiscriminately Courage to follow him back to Holland, where he has a job
massacring peasants is no longer tolerated. As the Chaplain waiting for him in Utrecht: his own mother has just died, and
points out here, the same traits that made Eilif a hero now he is inheriting her inn. Mother Courage is interested in the
make him a criminal; the difference between a hero and

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proposition, but there’s a catch: Kattrin can’t come. children’s lives: Kattrin’s martyrdom.
While Mother Courage and the Cook go inside to get their This scene is also the one and only time when the audience
soup, Kattrin furiously packs her things. But Mother encounters Kattrin alone, making decisions for herself
Courage comes outside with the soup, finds her, and without Mother Courage present. (The only possible
chastises her for thinking she was really going to leave exception is when she puts on Yvette Pottier’s boots in the
without her. While Mother Courage cruelly explains that third scene.) This makes the ensuing violence all the more
she actually came back for the wagon—not significant: Kattrin finally gets the opportunity to speak for
Kattrin—audiences may not agree. After all, Mother herself, as it were, and she takes it. Lastly, her actions also
Courage depends heavily on Kattrin, not just to pull the give the audience a chance to consider the significance of
wagon and help her with day-to-day tasks, but also for her her silence throughout the play. She has had countless
sense of self, hope, and emotional stability. Indeed, despite encounters with soldiers like this over the course of her life,
her cold attitude toward Kattrin, this is one of the few some harmless, others traumatic. The war is still in full
scenes in which Mother Courage’s humanity shines swing, and it’s doubtful that it will ever resolve; although her
through—even if it’s also a prelude to the play’s much darker perspective may be difficult to imagine, it’s clear
conclusion. that—unlike Mother Courage—she sees the war as an
ongoing nightmare and wants it to stop.

Scene 11 Quotes
LIEUTENANT (pointing to the wagon on which KATTRIN (KATTRIN, unperceived, has crept off to the wagon, has
has appeared). There’s another. (A SOLDIER pulls her out.) Is taken something out of it, put it under her skirt, and has
this everybody? climbed up the ladder to the roof.)
OLD PEASANT. That’s our son. PEASANT WOMAN. Be mindful of the children in danger,
PEASANT WOMAN. And that’s a girl that can’t talk. Her especially the little ones, be mindful of the old folk who cannot
mother’s in town buying up stocks because the shopkeepers move, and of all Christian souls, O Lord.
are running away and selling cheap.
OLD PEASANT. They’re canteen people. Related Characters: Old Peasant Woman (speaker),
Kattrin, Young Peasant
Related Characters: The Lieutenant, Old Peasant, Old Related Themes:
Peasant Woman (speaker), Mother Courage, Kattrin
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number: 106
Related Symbols:
Explanation and Analysis
Page Number: 103 After the soldiers force the Young Peasant to guide them
Explanation and Analysis into Halle, the Old Peasant Woman prays. She futilely asks
God to save the town’s people—something he has not done
The play’s climax takes place near the German city of Halle.
to any of the other millions of peasants who have died
A group of soldiers confronts the peasant family sheltering
horrible, senseless deaths in the Thirty Years’ War. And she
Mother Courage and Kattrin (by letting them park their
particularly focuses on the town’s children, including her
wagon outside). Kattrin is in the wagon, and the soldiers
own grandchildren.
drag her out, but Mother Courage is away in town. As the
Old Peasant Woman explains, the townspeople are worried At precisely this moment, Kattrin makes her decisive, heroic
about the coming violence, so Mother Courage is taking move, finally taking matters into her own hands. She hides a
advantage of the situation to buy shopkeepers’ remaining drum in her skirt and climbs up onto the family’s roof; from
wares at a discount. As always, her profits are closely tied to there, she will beat the drum to warn the people about the
the fate of the war—they rise roughly in proportion to the coming army. She will give up her life, but in the process, she
suffering of the people around her. This also means that she may save countless others—Brecht does not tell his
will yet again miss the most fateful moment in one of her audiences, and of course, this is part of the point. They must

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understand Kattrin’s sacrifice on its own terms, not as a hope: Brecht shows that people can maintain their sense of
calculation of lives saved versus lost, but as a protest humanity, their moral compass, and their sympathy for the
against the brutality of war and a leap of faith in the power weak, even in times of war. Indeed, Kattrin was conceived
of humanity. By centering the play’s climax on this and born during the war, then lived her whole life during
dilemma—prayer versus action, faith in God’s will versus it—she knows nothing else. But despite this, unlike her
faith in humanity’s—Brecht also sends his audiences a clear mother, she can see past her own self-interest—she is even
and powerful message about the dangers coming in World willing to die for the sake of solidarity. Above all, Kattrin’s
War II. Hopes and prayers will do nothing to stop the martyrdom is a metaphor for what Brecht aims to do with
violence, he warns: only human action, up to and including this play: offer a dire warning to Europe’s people about the
martyrdom, can make a difference. calamites to come under the Nazi regime.

(The soldiers arrive with the gun.) Scene 12 Quotes

LIEUTENANT. Set it up! (Calling while the gun is set up on LULLAY, LULLAY, WHAT’S THAT IN THE HAY?
forks:) Once and for all, stop that drumming! (Still crying, THE NEIGHBOR’S KIDS CRY BUT MINE ARE GAY.
KATTRIN is drumming as hard as she can.) Fire! THE NEIGHBOR’S KIDS ARE DRESSED IN DIRT:
YOUR SILKS WERE CUT FROM AN ANGEL’S SKIRT.
(The soldiers fire. KATTRIN is hit. She gives the drum another
THEY ARE ALL STARVING. YOU HAVE A CAKE
feeble beat or two, then collapses.)
IF IT’S TOO STALE, YOU NEED BUT SPEAK.
LIEUTENANT. So that ends the noise. LULLAY, LULLAY, WHAT’S RUSTLING THERE?
(But the last beats of the drum are lost in the din of cannon from the ONE LAD FELL IN POLAND. THE OTHER IS—WHERE?
town. Mingled with the thunder of cannon, alarm-bells are heard in
the distance.) Related Characters: Mother Courage (speaker), Eilif, Swiss
FIRST SOLDIER. She made it. Cheese, Kattrin

Related Themes:
Related Characters: The Lieutenant (speaker), Kattrin
Page Number: 110
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis
Page Number: 109
In the play’s final scene, Mother Courage returns to the
Explanation and Analysis peasant family’s house and encounters Kattrin’s body. Like
when she sees Swiss Cheese’s body, she must confront the
Kattrin defiantly keeps beating her drum, even after the
dreadful consequences of making a living at war. But she
soldiers return to the farmhouse, order her to stop, and
reacts with denial: she asks if Kattrin might just be sleeping,
threaten to kill her. Their threat is completely serious, but
and she sings this ambivalent lullaby, imagining the happy
so is she—clearly aware that it will cost her life, she
family she never had. She displays warmth and tenderness
continues beating her drum to warn the people of Halle
for one of the only times in the play, showing the audience
about the coming invasion. The soldiers kill her, completing
that she actually does feel some kind of maternal instinct
Mother Courage’s fateful prediction in the first scene that
and warmth. But she suppressed and sublimated that
she would lose all three of her children.
instinct to her commercial one, which led her to put her
But unlike Swiss Cheese and Eilif’s deaths, Kattrin’s death children in peril. With this scene, Brecht tries to evoke a
really means something. Just when the Lieutenant declares delicate balance between emotion and analysis in his
“the noise” over, the city defies him by erupting in audiences—he wants them to sympathize with Mother
resistance, showing that Kattrin succeeded in warning the Courage’s loss, to some extent, but also to recognize that
townspeople in time for them to defend themselves. (The she is responsible for it and, thus, condemn her actions.
other soldier even appears to be impressed: he declares
Mother Courage’s lullaby also shows that, even though her
that Kattrin “made it,” meaning that she achieved what she
relationship with Kattrin was full of spite and conflict, in a
hoped to.)
way it was also the most intimate. Mother Courage and
Kattrin’s violent death offers one final, bombastic reminder Kattrin deeply understood one another, relied on each
about the brutalities of war. But it also carries a message of

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other, and stuck together in a way that Mother Courage and Explanation and Analysis
her sons simply did not. Kattrin was also the last child
Mother Courage had left, so her death leaves Mother Readers and audiences won’t be surprised to learn that
Courage truly alone for the first time. Mother Courage and Her Children doesn’t have a happy
ending. In fact, it does end with Mother Courage feeling a
vague sense of optimism—she muses that at least her son
Eilif is alive and starts following a new regiment of soldiers,
OLD PEASANT. Have you no one left? pursuing the same fantasy of profit that has driven her to
MOTHER COURAGE. Yes, my son Eilif. follow the war her whole life. But her optimism is actually
OLD PEASANT. Find him then, leave her to us. what makes this scene so dark. As the audience already
knows, Eilif is dead, and the soldiers whom Mother Courage
PEASANT WOMAN. We’ll give her a proper burial, you needn’t
wishes to join are the same men who killed Kattrin. So
worry.
Mother Courage ends the play by allying with her
MOTHER COURAGE. Here’s a little money for the expenses. daughter’s murderers and going on in pursuit of an
(She harnesses herself to the wagon.) I hope I can pull the wagon impossible fantasy (reuniting with Eilif). So she trudges on,
by myself. Yes, I’ll manage. There’s not much in it now. (The last alone and desperate, into years more of war; her tireless,
regiment is heard passing.) Hey! Take me with you! delusional optimism about her canteen making her rich is
precisely the tragic flaw that has ruined her family, and she
Related Characters: Mother Courage, Old Peasant, Old can’t seem to let go of it. With this conclusion, Brecht
Peasant Woman (speaker), Eilif reiterates his fateful warning one final time: the danger is
not only war itself, but also our capacity to valorize and get
Related Themes: used to war. People make war more likely—and more
destructive—when they accept it as normal, inevitable, or
Related Symbols: glorious. And people delude themselves terribly when, like
Mother Courage, they see war as an opportunity.
Page Number: 110-111

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.

PROLOGUE
Mother Courage sits on her wagon with her daughter Kattrin Like with all of the play’s songs, this opening number’s jovial tone
while her sons Eilif and Swiss Cheese pull it. She sings “The sharply contrasts with its serious subject matter. Indeed, the play’s
Song Of Mother Courage” while Kattrin plays the harmonica, protagonists introduce Mother Courage’s morally dubious
and her sons join the refrains. The song describes how she sells profession, then underline the war’s senselessness and brutality by
soldiers beer and wine, which gives them the courage to face suggesting that her real purpose is to give soldiers the liquor they
sure death in battle. She sings to the troops that she will sell need to accept a meaningless death. In this way, this scene strongly
them food to “fill up the hole in your belly / Before you fill one exemplifies Brecht’s famous distancing (or alienation) effect—the
underground.” Winter is ending, she sings to them in the characters directly tell the audience the message that is supposed to
refrain, “And though you may not long survive, / Get out of bed be the play’s subtext. (Presumably, the actual Mother Courage
and look alive!” would not have thought the things she sings about here.) This scene
also advances the distancing effect through its form: rather than
playing out any realistic scenes, the actors make it clear that they
are performing a contrived spectacle for the audience. Notably, their
haunting song is as much a warning for the audience—Europeans on
the eve of World War II—as it is for the soldier characters in the play.

SCENE 1
In rural Sweden in 1624, two military men, the Top Sergeant The soldiers’ conversation makes the stakes of war clear: it is a
and the Recruiting Officer, are looking to recruit young men to machine for destroying human beings so that a select few people
join the Thirty Years’ War. The Recruiting Officer is worried (like the King, the military officers, and, indeed, Mother Courage)
that his recruits will take their own lives, and the Sergeant can profit. The Recruiting Officer’s comment shows that even their
declares that the Swedes are disorganized and wasteful recruits quickly realize that fighting is a losing proposition—and
because they haven’t had a war—which would force them to commit suicide in despair. Meanwhile, the Sergeant’s comment,
put all their men, food, and equipment to good use. which echoes the Nazi regime’s beliefs about the economic benefits
of war, shows how treacherous the profit motive can be when taken
to its logical conclusion.

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Mother Courage and her children (Kattrin, Eilif, and Swiss Mother Courage’s children introduce her by describing her defining
Cheese) approach on their wagon. The soldiers demand to see character trait—her unquestioned, often self-defeating
the family’s business license. Eilif and Swiss Cheese explain that perseverance. Notably, the Riga story also explicitly links her to the
everyone knows Mother Courage, who got her name after character of her same name from German folklore. Her use of the
driving her wagon right through a major battle in Riga. Mother Bible to wrap vegetables represents the way that war makes a
Courage shows the soldiers some papers: a Bible (whose pages mockery of religion—the people who join it are forgotten and left to
she uses to wrap vegetables), a map showing Moravia (where die, as though forsaken by God. What’s more, the Thirty Years’ War
she has never been), and a certificate of health for her horse used religion as a thinly-veiled excuse for leading thousands of
(which died). She explains that her license is her “honest face.” soldiers to their deaths. Lastly, Mother Courage’s comments about
Her real name is Anna Fierling, she continues, but her children her children’s fathers reflect how her job has made her transient and
all have different names. Eilif’s surname is Noyocki because his prevented her from forming enduring ties. Her story should leave
father’s was something similar. Swiss Cheese’s father was the audience asking questions as the rest of the play unfolds: how
Swiss, but when he was born, Mother Courage was with a did she meet these men? Are they still alive? Did she fall in love with
Hungarian man, so he took the name Feyos. Kattrin’s last name them, was she a sex worker, or did she suffer sexual violence?
is Haupt because her father is German.

The Recruiting Officer compares Eilif and Swiss Cheese to oxen The Recruiting Officer’s comment suggests that both war and
because they are pulling the wagon. Eilif asks Mother Courage capitalism degrade human beings to the status of animals, beasts of
for permission to “smack him in the puss [face].” Mother burden who get used for others’ benefit. Despite this warning, the
Courage tries to sell the soldiers guns or belts, but they want Sergeant tries to recruit Eilif into the war by manipulating his ego
Eilif instead. They promise him money, fame, and new boots if and his sense of masculine pride. Again, this suggests that men only
he joins the army, but he refuses. Mother Courage draws her agree to fight and die in the war when they are manipulated into
knife and insists that her family are just merchants, not doing so—they clearly would not do so of their own free will. Lastly,
soldiers. The Top Sergeant mocks Eilif for being afraid of war, Mother Courage’s fortune-telling ability is another example of the
then talks about his own successful career in the military. But estrangement effect: it comes out of nowhere, with no explanation
Mother Courage declares that the Sergeant will die soon. Swiss or connection to the preceding plot elements. It is meant to be
Cheese explains that she can see the future. jarring to the audience, remind them that they are watching an
artificial narrative, and force them to ask what Brecht’s true
intentions are.

Mother Courage puts two folded pieces of parchment in the Mother Courage’s foretune-telling also blatantly foreshadows the
Top Sergeant’s helmet: one is blank, and the other has a black play’s conclusion: all of her children will die. The Sergeant’s concern
cross on it (which represents death). She mixes them up, then demonstrates that, despite all his pomp and show, he is actually
pulls out the black cross. The Sergeant protests and insists that terrified of the realities of war—which will require him to face his
he’s taking Eilif. Surprisingly, Eilif agrees to go—and says that mortality. He tries to avoid this fate through commerce, which
Swiss Cheese wants to fight, too. Mother Courage draws lots reflects back Mother Courage’s attitude toward life. It’s also a
for all three of her children, and to her dismay, all three are convenient metaphor for both capitalism and war, which Brecht
black crosses. Seeing how seriously Mother Courage’s family presents as foolish, doomed attempts to cheat fate for personal
takes this, the Sergeant grows fearful and complains that his advantage.
own black cross was a mistake. At the Recruiting Officer’s
suggestion, the Sergeant buys a belt from Mother Courage for
half a guilder, hoping this will save him.

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While Mother Courage takes the Top Sergeant behind her Mother Courage loses Eilif in part because her thirst for profit
wagon to sell him the belt, the Recruiting Officer grabs Eilif and distracts her, and in part because he foolishly believes that war will
leads him away. Kattrin makes disapproving noises. Mother bring him glory. (Brecht has already clearly shown that it will not.)
Courage returns to the front of her wagon, notices that Eilif is Kattrin’s muteness is another incongruent, unexplained, and
gone, and explains that Kattrin can’t speak. Kattrin and Swiss alienating plot point. It will take on powerful new meanings later in
Cheese pull the wagon away, and the Sergeant exclaims, “When the play, but for now, suffice it to say that she has been traumatized
a war gives you all you earn / One day it may claim something in and silenced by the war but keenly observes everything that goes on
return!” around her.

SCENE 2
The stage directions explain that Mother Courage has followed Mother Courage’s price-gouging again shows that she’s involved in
the Swedish army through Poland for nearly two years to the war primarily because she sees it as a great business
Wallhof, where she will unexpectedly meet Eilif in the Swedish opportunity. Her willingness to let the soldiers starve if she doesn’t
Commander’s tent. The scene opens with her negotiating a get the price she wants exemplifies what Brecht saw as the
deal with the Dutch Cook: she wants 60 hellers for a capon, but fundamental brutality of capitalism: by definition, it puts profit
he protests that they’re usually “ten hellers a dozen.” She points above all else, including human life and well-being. Yet the Cook’s
out that they’re in a siege; he replies that the Swedes are the comments about the siege suggest that optimism about the war is
attackers, not the victims; but she notes that they don’t have foolish—rather, they demonstrate that war is brutal, miserable, and
any food either and that the local farmers are dying of hunger. counterproductive even for its victors.
The Cook wants 30 hellers, but Mother Courage refuses and
leaves him to finish his stew of rancid beef.

Eilif enters with the Swedish Commander and the Chaplain. Mother Courage is surprised to meet Eilif, but the audience is not
The Commander praises Eilif’s heroism but complains about surprised to see it happen: Brecht has already explicitly said this
the ungrateful local peasants hiding their oxen (even though would happen in his stage directions, which are meant to be read
the Swedes are there “to save their souls”). Eilif asks the Cook aloud. This is another example of how he uses unconventional
for meat and complains that “skinning peasants” is exhausting. theatrical techniques to alienate his audience—to draw them out of
Suddenly, Mother Courage recognizes her son (but he doesn’t the story and force them to analyze it, rather than drawing them
see her). She remarks that he must be doing well in the army into it and entertaining them. Brecht sets up a parallel between Eilif
and tells the Cook to buy the capon for 100 hellers. He “skinning peasants” and Mother Courage plucking the chicken.
protests, but reluctantly agrees. She starts plucking off its Again, the comparison between humans and animals underlines
feathers. how war destroys everything that makes human beings civilized.
Lastly, it’s telling that Mother Courage’s first instinct when she
recognizes Eilif is to raise the price on the capon—again, this shows
that her single-minded obsession with commerce cuts her off from
the emotional connections that give true, deeper meaning to human
life.

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The Commander invites Eilif to keep drinking and asks him to Eilif’s story demonstrates that the war has turned him into a
tell the story of how he got the oxen back. Eilif explains that he monster by rewarding his most sadistic and brutal tendencies. He
followed the peasants into the woods, where they were uses the often-misattributed line “necessity knows no law” to justify
keeping the oxen, but they quickly cornered him. So he offered his actions, as though he had no option but to murder the peasant
them money for the oxen. Confused, they paused, and he killed family because he was hungry. Clearly, this is an excuse, not the
them. He remarks that “necessity knows no law,” and while the truth. (After all, he never considers the peasants’ necessity, and
Chaplain notes that this phrase is not actually in the Bible, the Mother Courage’s capon sale shows that the army had other way of
Commander praises Eilif for bravely saving their soldiers from finding food.) The Chaplain’s response shows how rulers—including
hunger. Mother Courage comments that good commanders the kings involved in the Thirty Years’ War, but also the Nazis in
make plans that ordinary soldiers can fulfill, so only an Brecht’s contemporary moment—twist religion to their own political
incompetent commander would need brave soldiers to win. ends, turning it into a justification for conquest and violence. Lastly,
Mother Courage’s counterintuitive comment about bravery points
to a motif that recurs throughout the play: war turns virtues (like
bravery, honesty, and courage) into liabilities.

The Commander guesses that Eilif’s father was a soldier; Eilif The mention of Eilif’s father again raises subtle but significant
says he’s right and sings a song that his mother always sang: questions about the nature of his relationship with Mother Courage.
“The Fishwife and the Soldier.” In the song, an old fisherman’s Meanwhile, “The Fishwife and the Soldier” again demonstrates
wife warns a young soldier boy against going out to sea. But he Brecht’s alienation effect: Eilif sings presciently about exactly the
says that he will live the life of a hero, marching across Europe kind of folly that will lead him to his death.
with his gun and knife. He wades out into the water one night
and the tide sweeps him away.

Mother Courage sings the song’s last stanza. Eilif recognizes Mother Courage and Eilif’s reunion is a rare moment of hope and
her voice, runs to the kitchen, and embraces her. She tells him tenderness amidst the play’s endless scenes of suffering and
that Swiss Cheese is an army paymaster now, and that her feet brutality. It’s a reminder of the love and human connection that war
hurt. The Commander asks if Mother Courage has more sons destroys—and Mother Courage sacrifices by participating in it (and
to send to the army, and Mother Courage lovingly hits Eilif over by choosing commerce over family).
the ear for stealing the peasants’ oxen instead of surrendering
to them.

SCENE 3
The stage directions explain that three years have passed; The stage directions again give away the scene’s punchline, eroding
Mother Courage, Swiss Cheese, and Kattrin will become any sense of suspense. Along with Mother Courage and Kattrin
prisoners of war and Swiss Cheese will soon die. In this scene, folding their laundry on the cannon, this is another example of the
Mother Courage and Kattrin fold clothes on a cannon while alienation effect, as it encourages the audience to analyze the play’s
Swiss Cheese looks on in his paymaster uniform and an meaning rather than simply watch and enjoy it. The Ordinance
attractive young sex worker named Yvette Pottier drinks and Officer’s trade underlines the soldiers’ desperation and corruption,
sews a hat. An Ordnance Officer begs Mother Courage to buy and Mother Courage’s deal with him again shows what capitalism is
his bullets so he can afford liquor. But she is reluctant to trade really about, to Brecht: profiting off human suffering.
in army property, which could get her in trouble. She talks the
officer down to a guilder and a half, then sends Kattrin to make
the payment.

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Mother Courage gives Swiss Cheese his underwear for the Brecht again suggests that Mother Courage’s self-interested
cold and warns him that nothing is a must in the world, not even warmongering is really the foundational principle of modern
the weather—except that “your books must balance.” She capitalist societies. Indeed, her adage that “your books must
remarks that he’s the paymaster because he’s honest, and the balance” captures the way capitalist maxims have become common
Ordnance Officer takes him away. Yvette complains that they wisdom: it’s simply taken for granted that the economy is the
didn’t say goodbye. Mother Courage tells Yvette that the war is foundation of everything, nothing is for certain except death and
raging on, which is good for business, but warns her against taxes, and so on. Meanwhile, like many characters and events in this
drinking in the morning because of her illness. Yvette says that play, Yvette Pottier seems to come out of nowhere, but she plays an
she’s not sick—it’s just a nasty rumor. She says that everyone is important symbolic role. Above all, she serves as a foil for Mother
avoiding her because her love, a Dutch army cook the girls Courage and Kattrin, and her story will underline women’s fraught
nicknamed “Peter Piper,” has cheated on her. place in war (and societies that depend on it). Moreover, whether or
not audiences realize that “Peter Piper” is the Cook from the last
scene, this fact will become significant later on in the play.

Yvette sings “The Camp Follower’s Song.” When the enemy Yvette’s story shows that, just like the military tricks young men into
army came to her land, she sings, she was just 17. Each of the giving away their lives by promising them fame and glory, it
soldiers took a girl—a Dutch cook took her, and she fell in love. manipulates young women into doing the same through the promise
But one winter, the men all disappeared. She foolishly went of love. (Presumably, once she had been with the Cook and was no
looking for the cook. Ten years have passed, and she hasn’t longer a virgin, she had no choice but to stay with the military as a
found him. After finishing the song, she hides behind the sex worker because no other man would marry her.) Audiences will
wagon. Next, Mother Courage tells Kattrin not to fall for a probably figure that Mother Courage’s warning to Kattrin is based
military man because they charm people and then enslave them on her own past—and this again raises questions about the
forever. potentially traumatic circumstances that led to her having children.

The Chaplain and Cook enter, looking for brandy. The Chaplain Yvette is out of sight during this portion of the scene, which is why
explains that Eilif has a message for Swiss Cheese, but Mother she and the Cook do not recognize one another. The Chaplain’s
Courage says Swiss Cheese has left. She complains that Eilif interest in brandy and absurd comments about the war again show
wants to corrupt Swiss Cheese and gives the men money for how people use religion to justify atrocities and control one
Eilif. The Cook says that Swiss Cheese may not come back, but another—including promising them salvation to get them to give up
the Chaplain protests that “dying for one’s beliefs” in a religious their lives in futile wars. Where the Chaplain sees the hand of God,
war is a great honor. (The Cook jokes that God’s approval it’s clear that Brecht sees only power and manipulation.
makes the “cheating, plunder, rape, and so forth” legitimate.)

The Chaplain suggests that the Cook dreams about Mother The Cook’s dream and the Chaplain’s comments mix two vices, sex
Courage, but the Cook denies it—he just dreams about a young and alcohol, which seem to be soldiers’ only solace amidst the
woman serving brandy. Mother Courage says she’ll give them brutality of war. Meanwhile, the Chaplain’s strange meta-
their drink, lest they start “making improper advances out of commentary again shows the alienation effect at work. First, he
sheer boredom.” The Chaplain comments in the third-person briefly breaks character, as though to remind the audience that he is
that the Chaplain is going to do exactly that, and then he asks just a character in a play and force them to question the meaning of
Mother Courage about her “captivating” daughter Kattrin. his actions. Then, he does the opposite of what a Chaplain is
Mother Courage calls Kattrin “respectable,” not “captivating,” supposed to do by shamelessly sexualizing Kattrin. In doing so, he
then takes the Cook and Chaplain behind the wagon to again underlines the way that the war uses religion as an excuse for
dispense their brandy. brutality and control.

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Changing the subject, Mother Courage blames the Poles for Mother Courage’s explanation of the war is self-serving: she blames
the Swedish invasion of Poland. The Chaplain and Cook agree the victims for being invaded. Presumably, she does this because it
that the Swedes have a religious obligation to free the Poles helps her justify her job feeding (and profiting from) the invaders.
from the German Kaiser, and the Cook sings Luther’s Hymn, The Cook and Chaplain’s claims about their religious obligations
which describes God as a “mighty fortress” protecting the serve exactly the same purpose. They’re also Brecht’s warning about
faithful from sin. The Cook remarks that the Swedish King the Nazis, who used religion to justify their violence and conquest in
Gustavus “made quite a profit” by conquering Germany, but the much the same way. Nevertheless, Mother Courage’s final comment
Chaplain is offended: he thinks the King’s real motive is about the King’s real motives—self-interest and profit—shows that,
religion. Mother Courage agrees with the Cook—she even if she blames the victims for the invasion, she is still the only
comments that “little fellows like you and me” fight on the character who understands the invasion’s real purpose. For all her
King’s side because they know he’s in it for profit, and they are faults, then, in a way, she’s actually the most honest character in the
too. They all toast the Protestant flag. play.

Suddenly, the Catholic army starts firing on the Swedes. The When she puts on Yvette’s hat and boots, Kattrin appears to be
Cook and Ordnance Officer run off to battle, the Chaplain fantasizing about being an unbothered, casual young
decides to stay, and a soldier tries and fails to wheel away the woman—someone who could worry more about looking good and
cannon. When Kattrin arrives wearing Yvette’s hat and boots, finding a husband than surviving the war and who could derive
Mother Courage compares her to a sex worker and hides the status and influence from her beauty. When audiences recall that
boots behind her wagon. Yvette briefly shows up to powder she has lived her whole life in the war and has lost her speech due to
her face and look for her boots, then runs off. Swiss Cheese her traumatic experiences, it becomes clear why she would dream of
comes with his cashbox, which Mother Courage tells him to an ordinary life. It’s telling that Mother Courage rubs dirt on her to
hide. She also removes the Chaplain’s coat, rubs dirt all over make her unattractive: this shows that, like Eilif’s bravery, Swiss
Kattrin’s face so the soldiers don’t think to kidnap her, and Cheese’s honesty, and Mother Courage’s courage, Kattrin’s beauty is
takes down her Protestant flag. actually a liability for her in the war, since soldiers may kidnap and
rape her.

Mother Courage, Swiss Cheese, Kattrin, and the Chaplain Brecht intentionally defies the conventions of the theater by
spend three days anxiously waiting out the battle. The scene announcing to his audience that three days have passed in the
picks up on the third morning, as Swiss Cheese worries that his middle of this scene (instead of just ending it and starting a new
fellow soldiers are looking for him. The group rations out milk, scene three days later). Of course, this only underlines the unusual
and the Chaplain prays and warns that there are Catholics timeline in the play as a whole: most of the scenes are set years
everywhere—there was even a one-eyed Catholic spy in the apart, such that the plot is more a series of vignettes than a
hole he was using as a toilet. Mother Courage admonishes continuous narrative. The Chaplain’s odd, improbable comment
Kattrin for “strutting like a peacock” in Yvette’s stolen boots, about a Catholic spy hiding in a hole of the ground contrasts with
then takes the Chaplain away to go buy meat and a Catholic the play’s otherwise serious tone, so it again enacts the “distancing
flag. effect,” pulling audience members out of the narrative and forcing
them to analyze it.

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Swiss Cheese hatches a plan to bury his cashbox near the river Unlike most of the soldiers in the play—including Eilif—Swiss Cheese
so that he can eventually bring it back to his sergeant. Kattrin is loyal and honest. He wants to save the cashbox so that he can
goes behind the wagon, where two soldiers (the Sergeant and eventually fulfill his duties as paymaster. But this seems to be
One Eye) confront her, asking for Swiss Cheese. She runs back putting him in peril. In contrast, the Chaplain has no such sense of
in terror and desperately tries to warn her brother with noises honesty or morality. Indeed, it's profoundly ironic that the Chaplain
and gestures, but he confidently walks off to bury his cashbox. raises the Catholic flag, as his entire job was to create a (Protestant)
When Mother Courage and the Chaplain return, Kattrin tries religious justification for the war. When the situation gets serious,
to explain what happened through howls and gestures. The even he is willing to abandon his beliefs and put survival first. In
Chaplain raises the Catholic flag, then figures out that Kattrin is turn, this means that he does not truly believe what he preached:
talking about the one-eyed spy. that soldiers should care more about saving their souls than saving
their lives.

The Sergeant and One Eye roughly escort Swiss Cheese back In the war, just like Eilif’s bravery turns him into a monster, Swiss
to the stage. Swiss Cheese claims that Mother Courage is just Cheese’s honesty ends up putting him in peril. Again, Brecht’s
the woman who sold him lunch, and she offers the soldiers message is clear: war is cruel and inhuman, so it rewards the
brandy, but they refuse. The soldiers insist that Swiss Cheese immoral and punishes the virtuous. In fact, Swiss Cheese’s
was hiding something under his shirt. They demand to know interaction with the Catholic soldiers in this scene rehashes this
where the cashbox is, threaten to kill Swiss Cheese, and lead dynamic on a smaller scale. Namely, staying loyal and honest to his
him off. Mother Courage begs Swiss Cheese to tell the truth commander requires lying to the soldiers.
and save himself.

That evening, Mother Courage explains that she has a plan to While Mother Courage’s plot to rescue Swiss Cheese demonstrates
pawn her wagon and buy Swiss Cheese’s freedom. Yvette that she cares deeply about her children, it’s telling that she tries to
enters with an elderly Colonel, tells him that she would love to save him by means of her overriding obsession in life: commerce.
buy Mother Courage’s wagon, and says that a blond Lieutenant Perhaps she cannot conceive of anything else to do, as she has
promised to lend her money. The Colonel jealously tells her not dedicated her life to trading, or perhaps she thinks that the soldiers
to trust the Lieutenant and agrees to pay 200 guilders for the are more likely to give Swiss Cheese back if there’s profit in it for
wagon. Mother Courage has two weeks to pay the money back them. Yvette’s chat with the Colonel shows how war turns love into
if she wants to recover the wagon. Yvette gets on the wagon a transaction, too. This is true in both directions: he buys her time
and promises to follow the Colonel to camp, and the Colonel and affection, while she uses him to get the loan for Mother
leaves. Courage.

Mother Courage begs Yvette to follow through with the Mother Courage’s knack for negotiation initially appears to be an
promise she has already made: to give One Eye the 200 asset, but all does not go according to plan. Swiss Cheese’s last-
guilders as a bribe to save Swiss Cheese, who is facing a court ditch act of loyalty to the Swedish army—throwing the cashbox into
marshal in an hour. Yvette leaves and Mother Courage explains the river so that it won’t fall into enemy hands—ironically
the rest of her plan: once Swiss Cheese is free, she will buy undermines his mother’s plan and may even prevent him from
back the wagon with the money from his cashbox. Yvette regaining his freedom. Forced to choose between her beloved son
returns and reports that One Eye agreed to the deal, but Swiss and the wagon that is her livelihood, Mother Courage decides to try
Cheese threw the cashbox in the river when he was captured. to save both.
Mother Courage desperately asks Yvette to bargain One Eye
down to 120 guilders, so she will have something left over to
live on.

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Yvette leaves again, and Mother Courage and Kattrin clean Swiss Cheese’s death is tragic because it was so avoidable. But this
knives for a few minutes. Then, Yvette returns to explain that is precisely Brecht’s point—the most devastating part of war is that
One Eye will only take 200 guilders, and Mother Courage the death and destruction it causes is utterly arbitrary and
agrees. Yvette runs off, and Mother Courage wonders if she meaningless. Needless to say, Mother Courage’s attempt to bargain
“haggled too long.” The stage goes dark, then lights up, and down the price of Swiss Cheese’s freedom is in part responsible for
Yvette returns to tell Mother Courage that it’s too late: they his death. Again, Brecht’s message is clear and blunt: when we put
already executed Swiss Cheese. Worse still, the soldiers think profit before human beings, we end up destroying them. The
Mother Courage is hiding the cashbox, and they’re bringing her soldiers’ quest for the cashbox only underlines how the toxic
Swiss Cheese’s body to see if she admits to knowing him. combination of war and money turns ordinary people into heartless,
self-interested brutes.

Mother Courage holds Kattrin’s hand, and surely enough, the By making audiences watch Mother Courage come face-to-face
soldiers show up with Swiss Cheese’s body on a stretcher. They with her son’s body, Brecht forces them to confront the profound
pull back the sheet to show Mother Courage his face and tragedy of war and the depth of human corruption. Worse still,
demand to know if she knew him before the time when she Mother Courage must pretend not to know Swiss Cheese, hiding her
served him lunch. Mother Courage shakes her head no. The sorrow and going on in her life with the knowledge that he never got
soldiers decide that Swiss Cheese’s body will go in the dump the burial he deserved. Once again, audiences must strike a balance
because “he has no one that knows him.” between profound sympathy for Mother Courage and outrage at
how she ends up destroying her own family through her
warmongering and obsession with profit.

SCENE 4
Mother Courage waits by an army tent, singing “The Song of As though confronting Swiss Cheese’s body at the end of the last
the Great Capitulation.” A Regimental Clerk recognizes her as scene wasn’t humiliating enough, Mother Courage must now beg his
the woman who harbored the paymaster (Swiss Cheese). She murderers for mercy so that she and Kattrin do not end up penniless
claims to be innocent and protests that the army destroyed her and stranded. It remains to be seen whether she will learn her lesson
wagon and fined her five thalers. The Clerk tells her to keep and change her ways.
quiet, but she insists on complaining to the Captain.

A furious Young Soldier arrives and starts cursing the Captain, The Captain’s corruption underlines the way that war is really about
who stole his reward money and spent it on brandy and sex power and self-interest—no matter what the war’s organizers say,
workers. An Older Soldier tells the Young Soldier to stay in line, there is no real principle behind it, least of all justice. Notably, the
as the Young Soldier complains that he was the only one willing Young Soldier’s story suggests that he swam in the river and
to swim in the river. Mother Courage promises that she retrieved Swiss Cheese’s cashbox on behalf of his Captain. In this
understands the Young Soldier’s frustration, but when he way, he becomes a foil for Swiss Cheese, who also thought that his
insists that he “won’t stand for injustice,” she points out that he loyalty would save him (but ended up facing punishment for it).
has no other option. She predicts that his rage will die down,
but he promises to kill the Captain. At the Clerk’s orders, they
both sit.

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Mother Courage performs “The Song of the Great “The Song of the Great Capitulation” describes humans’
Capitulation” in full. She sings that she used to think of herself powerlessness in the face of fate and reminds the audience that war
as special, the creator of her own destiny, until “a little bird” told inflicts profound injustice on innocent people. Little does the Young
her that she would have to temper her expectations and learn Soldier know that Mother Courage has experienced a far greater
to compromise once she experienced war. She tells the Young injustice than him, losing not just her money but also her son. They
Soldier to think seriously about whether it’s worth it to cross both realize that, with no incentive to give them justice, the Captain
the Captain. He decides to leave. The Clerk tells Mother will probably just ignore them. So they learn to do what Mother
Courage that the Captain is free, but she decides not to Courage is famous for: accept injustice and move on with life.
complain either, so she leaves too.

SCENE 5
After following the war across Europe for two more years, Like Eilif’s comment about “skinning peasants” two scenes prior, the
Mother Courage and Kattrin end up in a ruined Bavarian town. soldiers’ petty complaints here show how war turns ordinary people
Catholic soldiers are doing a victory march in the background. into monsters who can commit acts of unspeakable cruelty with
Two soldiers ask Mother Courage for liquor, even though they little second thought. But Mother Courage’s attitude to the
don’t have any money, and complain that their commander only Chaplain’s request shows that she is no better. She only thinks
let them plunder the village for an hour. The Chaplain hurries about money, not life, and so even after all the loss and trauma that
over and explains that a desperate peasant family needs she has experienced, she cannot find any sympathy for the helpless,
bandages for their wounds. But Mother Courage is out of dying peasants.
bandages, and she refuses to gift cloth to customers who can’t
pay and will just tear it up. Kattrin tries to get some shirts out of
the wagon, but Mother Courage stops her.

The Chaplain brings in a dying peasant woman, who explains Whereas Kattrin and the Chaplain’s sense of conscience leads them
that she stayed in town instead of fleeing because she wanted to do what they can to save the peasant family, Mother Courage
to save her farm—and that she needs bandages. But Mother again blames the victims. Worse still, she views even this tragic
Courage says she can’t afford to foot the bill for the woman’s situation as primarily a business opportunity. This suggests that she
foolishness. The Chaplain brings over a peasant man from the has learned nothing from losing her son—on the contrary, it seems
same house. He has been shot, but Mother Courage’s response more and more likely that she will never change, no matter how
is the same. Kattrin threatens to hit Mother Courage with a badly her actions hurt herself and her family. To add insult to injury,
board, and then the Chaplain finds the shirts and starts tearing she lets the soldier get away with stealing the bottle only because he
them up into bandages. Kattrin runs over to the peasant has something of value. In this way, she is no better than the
family’s house and returns holding a baby and singing it soldiers—who no doubt got the fur from the village they raided.
lullabies. Mother Courage furiously tells her to stop. One of the Brecht’s message is clear: there is little moral difference between
soldiers tries to steal a liquor bottle, and Mother Courage committing atrocities and profiting from them.
snatches his fur coat but lets him go.

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SCENE 6
The stage directions explain that, at the Catholic General Tilly’s The General’s futile, pathetic death—a real historical
funeral in 1632, Mother Courage will speak about heroism, the event—becomes a convenient symbol for the absurdity and self-
Chaplain will sing about the war, and Kattrin will get her red destructiveness of war. Namely, the General failed to distinguish
boots. This scene takes place in the canteen tent, with the between his friends and his enemies. In a way, this represents the
funeral march audible in the background. Mother Courage sense in which everyone is out for themselves in the war and all
explains that the General died that foggy morning after alliances are temporary and futile. And in another, it captures the
accidentally riding his horse the wrong way, straight into the sense that even the people behind the war are incompetent and
crossfire. She criticizes the soldiers for drinking instead of unaware of what they are getting into. Rather, Brecht suggests, they
attending the funeral; the Regimental Clerk agrees, even participate in war for the same reason as everyone below them in
though he didn’t go either. (He blames the rain.) the chain of command: they believe they can fulfill unrealistic
fantasies of power, wealth, and glory.

A soldier sings a “Battle Hymn” demanding a drink and a Mother Courage’s complaints about the soldiers’ disrespect for their
woman because soldiers have “no time to waste.” But Mother commander are ironic. She views herself as superior to them—just
Courage says he has to pay first. She laments that the “common as they view themselves as superior to her—but in reality, they are
riffraff” don’t even care about their commander’s death, and all exactly alike. They all joined the war for the same self-interested
she asks if the war is going to end. (She’s low on supplies and reasons. Worse still, all of them think they are outsmarting everyone
wants to know how much more to buy.) The Chaplain promises else, but actually, none of them will get out ahead. The soldiers will
that the war has a “prosperous future,” but the Regimental spend all their money on liquor and go home with nothing, if they
Clerk says he hopes it ends so he can go home to Bohemia. even survive; Mother Courage will never make the fortune she
dreams about.

The Chaplain remarks that “war satisfies all needs” and sings Like the Top Sergeant’s comments about “organization” and “The
“The Army Chaplain’s Song” about how war gives men food, Song of Mother Courage,” the Chaplain’s song highlights the
drink, women, and the eternal salvation of death. He sings that absurdity of war propaganda by exaggerating it and making its
soldiers can keep the war going by having children, and that dishonesty clear. The audience knows that the war is really making
war is really the foundation of the world. “Like love,” he Europe miserable through endless scarcity, death, and sexual
concludes, war will “always find a way.” Mother Courage violence. But the Chaplain knows that his job is to sanitize this
announces that she will buy more supplies. When Kattrin drops reality—by painting death as salvation, for instance. In this way, his
a basket full of glasses and runs away, Mother Courage explains profession is exactly like Mother Courage’s: he depends on the war
that she promised Kattrin could get married once the war is and will do better the longer it goes on.
over. Mother Courage gets Kattrin, reminds her that the war
will ensure that they’re wealthy once peace comes, and then
sends her to fetch supplies with the Clerk.

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Meanwhile, Mother Courage asks the Chaplain to help her cut Mother Courage’s penchant for stealing things (like the Cook’s pipe,
wood. He reluctantly agrees and asks about her pipe—which he Yvette’s boots, and the liquor-snatching soldier’s furs) shows that, at
knows she stole from the Swedish Commander’s Dutch Cook. base, she’s not really the honest businesswoman she pretends to be.
Mother Courage refuses to admit it. The Chaplain says it Yet nobody is honest in the army—in fact, the soldiers frequently
doesn’t matter, since the Cook was an evil, manipulative man. make it clear that their primary motive for joining the army is to rob
He chops the wood aggressively as he reminds her that his true and pillage peasants. In other words, the whole enterprise of the war
talent is preaching, not labor. He says that he knows Mother depends on theft and conquest, and Mother Courage’s business is
Courage has a heart under her rough exterior and proposes no exception. The Chaplain’s willingness to forgive Mother Courage,
that they form a “closer relationship.” Mother Courage says no like his sexual advances toward her, show that he is also in no way
and tells him to keep chopping the wood. an honest man.

Kattrin returns, but she has a wound near her eye and is Kattrin has clearly been attacked, but Mother Courage doesn’t take
dropping all the merchandise she brought. Mother Courage her condition seriously and goes on thinking about her profits
bandages up her wound, promises that it isn’t serious, and gives instead. When she gives Kattrin Yvette’s boots—which she had
her Yvette’s red boots as a gift. But Kattrin refuses to wear the stolen years ago in the hopes of selling them for a profit—this
boots and hides in the wagon. Mother Courage tells the represents her trying to repair the damage she has done to Kattrin’s
Chaplain that Kattrin’s wound will scar and complains that she sense of identity and femininity. But clearly, it’s too little, too late:
never knows what Kattrin is thinking. (She even disappeared Kattrin wants the boots (her femininity) on her own terms, not on
for a whole night once.) Mother Courage picks up the scattered her mother’s.
merchandise and comments that war is “a nice source of
income.”

A cannon blast marks the General’s burial. Mother Courage Kattrin’s actions, like trying on Yvette’s boots and rescuing the
remarks that nobody will marry Kattrin now, with her scar. She peasant family’s baby, have demonstrated both her desire for love
reveals that Kattrin hasn’t spoken since a soldier traumatized and her maternal instincts. Notably, marriage would also free her
her as a child. And she laments that the war has taken all of her from Mother Courage—and the life of war profiteering that, despite
children away: “Curse the war!” her muteness, she clearly disagrees with. In fact, Mother Courage
makes an important revelation about the origins of Kattrin’s
muteness, too. Her comment raises more questions than it answers,
but she seems to be suggesting that a soldier sexually assaulted
Kattrin when she was a child. In this way, Kattrin’s muteness
represents the trauma that war inflicts on the
innocent—particularly women and children.

SCENE 7
Kattrin and the Chaplain pull the wagon, which is filthy and Mother Courage trudges on, steadfast in her pursuit of wealth. But
falling apart but full of new wares. Mother Courage walks her namesake virtue—courage—is starting to look more and more
alongside them and announces that nobody can spoil “her” war. like folly: it is leading her family to ruin and even degrading the
War might eliminate “the weak,” she remarks, but “what does wagon she lives in. Brecht forces the audience to ask if perseverance
peace do for ’em?” She again sings “The Song of Mother is truly valuable when directed toward a destructive, futile pursuit
Courage” from the Prologue. like war.

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SCENE 8
The stage directions explain that, in this scene, King Gustavus Mother Courage’s war profiteering leads her to a profoundly cruel,
will die, Mother Courage will worry about her business deeply ironic conclusion: she desperately wants the war that has
collapsing, and Eilif will “perform one heroic deed too many” destroyed her family to continue. She doesn’t care whether her king,
and perish. One summer day, an elderly woman and her son Gustavus, is dead or alive, or whether Kattrin will finally get to live
approach Mother Courage’s wagon at the camp. They have a the quaint married life she dreams about. Rather, she cares only
huge sack of bedding to sell, but Mother Courage doesn’t want about pursuing her fantasy of getting rich off the war—even though
to buy it. In the distance, church bells ring and a voice yells that she has spent nearly all her life trying and failing. In contrast, the
the King of Sweden is dead. Mother Courage is furious—the peasants’ attitude is far more understandable: as the war’s innocent
war can’t end; she just stocked up on supplies. But the distant victims, they keep their moral priorities in order.
voice says the war ended three weeks ago. The old woman is
stunned; her son rejoices and leads her away.

The Dutch Cook comes to see Mother Courage, who is glad to The Cook and Chaplain aren’t happy about the war ending, either,
see him after so many years. He reports that Eilif is on his way. because their jobs also depend on it. But the Cook’s comments
The Chaplain leaves to go put on his pastor’s robes, and about the Chaplain are ironic, given what the audience has already
Mother Courage tells Kattrin to give the Cook some brandy, learned about the Cook from Yvette Pottier: he’s at least as much of
but she does nothing and refuses to leave the wagon. Mother a womanizing rake as the Chaplain. Moreover, the army’s
Courage brings the Cook’s drink herself, then starts haphazard decision to disband itself when it runs out of money
complaining that the peace is going to bankrupt her. The Cook again shows that the powerful people running the war are no more
says she was wrong to listen to the Chaplain, who is organized, dedicated, or realistic than the ordinary people fighting it.
misogynistic and unreliable. Mother Courage jokes that the They seem to have no greater moral purpose, either: they discard
Cook is no better and asks if the soldiers have gotten their back the soldiers as soon as they prove no longer useful.
pay. The Cook says no—in fact, the army disbanded after it
stopped paying the soldiers.

The Chaplain returns in his robes, and the Cook confronts him, The Cook, the Chaplain, and Mother Courage start taking out their
accusing him of interfering with Mother Courage’s business. frustration at losing their jobs on one another. In other words, as
The Chaplain says he sees the Cook’s intentions and compares soon as the war ends, they ironically break out into conflict. After all,
Mother Courage to a hyena, as she prefers war over peace. The they are the falsest of friends: they may have stuck together during
Cook encourages Mother Courage to start selling her goods at the war, but it was only out of self-interest. None of them truly care
a discount, before they become totally worthless. Mother about the others, and they would all be willing to undermine the
Courage gets in her wagon, and the Cook and Chaplain start others to get ahead. In fact, the Cook’s comments about Mother
trading threats. Courage’s prices suggest that he is trying to get a discount for
himself.

Suddenly, Yvette Pottier arrives. She is now older, heavyset, The war is over, but the conflicts continue. Yvette Pottier’s
and dressed in a widow’s black. She introduces herself as the transformation underlines how much time has passed since the
Colonel’s wife and asks to see Mother Courage, then calls out beginning of the play. In theory, this should remind audiences of the
her first name. At this point, the Cook realizes who she is. work’s epic scale and ambitions: Brecht is capturing Mother
Yvette and the Cook stare at each other in shock, then insult Courage’s entire life, not just one unfortunate period in it. Yvette’s
each other’s weight. Yvette remarks that she will finally have newfound wealth and status show that she actually managed to
the chance to tell the Cook what she really thinks of him, and achieve her dream—unlike Mother Courage, the Cook, and the
the Chaplain begs her to do it once Mother Courage arrives. Chaplain.

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Mother Courage exits her wagon and asks why Yvette is in By marrying the Colonel’s brother for money, Yvette has done
mourning. Yvette replies that her husband—the brother of the exactly what she accuses the Cook of doing to her: turning love and
Colonel from Scene Three—died some years back. The sex into commodities, which deprives them of their true power and
Chaplain reminds Yvette to tell Mother Courage about the significance. Of course, the key difference is that the Cook fooled her
Cook. Yvette identifies him as the seducer Peter Piper, who into following him to the war, which ruined her marriage prospects
cheated on her. Mother Courage instantly understands (and forever, while the Colonel’s brother clearly knew what he was
mentions that she has his pipe). The Cook claims that he’s not getting into. Still, their conflict brims with hypocrisy on all sides,
like that anymore, but Yvette keeps hurling insults at him. much like when the Cook and Chaplain angrily call each other
Mother Courage and Yvette leave to try and sell some of womanizers.
Mother Courage’s extra goods.

The Chaplain tells the Cook that “the mills of God grind slowly.” Even after giving up on the army, raising the Catholic flag, and
The Cook admits that he was just hoping that Mother Courage making sexual advances at Mother Courage and Kattrin in scenes
would feed him, but that probably won’t happen now. He past, the Chaplain somehow returns to his empty religious
complains that he has no job without the war, either. He and the platitudes. His point is that change and justice often play out slowly,
Chaplain reminisce about working for the King. over the course of years or decades, but his statement could also
easily be interpreted as saying that God forgets about human beings
altogether. Here, unlike the Chaplain, at least the Cook is honest
about his motives.

Eilif arrives, pale, handcuffed, and escorted by two soldiers. He The circumstances surrounding Swiss Cheese’s death repeat
explains that it’s his last visit; one soldier makes a throat- themselves: Mother Courage ends up missing Eilif’s execution, too,
cutting gesture while the other explains that Eilif raided a because she is away on business. Again, this clearly represents the
peasant’s house, murdered his wife, and stole his cattle. The way that her selfish profit-seeking blinds her to the human stakes of
Chaplain points out that this behavior might be a crime now, the war and leads to her family’s undoing. But so do Eilif’s actions:
but it was considered heroic during wartime. Eilif asks for they provide the ultimate proof that war turns ordinary people into
brandy, but the soldiers won’t let him have any. He tells the monsters. The actions that he earned praise for during the war are
Chaplain not to tell Kattrin, and to tell Mother Courage that horrific crimes in ordinary times—again, wartime morality proves to
he’s just the same as before. The Chaplain follows Eilif to be the opposite of true morality.
perform his last rites (even though Eilif asks him not to), and
the Cook tries to coax Kattrin out of the wagon.

Mother Courage returns with her goods and triumphantly Just like her pessimism when the war ends, Mother Courage’s
announces that the war has started up again. The Cook admits optimism in this section is ironically out of step with reality. She has
that Eilif just passed through, and Mother Courage no idea that Eilif is dead, and tragically, she will never learn, as the
optimistically replies that they’ll meet him soon and he’ll Cook can’t work up the courage to tell her. Worse still, the war’s
definitely survive the war. She asks how Eilif looked, and the return means that Eilif might not have been breaking the law, after
Cook says he looked the same. She asks whether Eilif is still all—and yet, this doesn’t make his actions any less cruel, and
doing heroic deeds, and the Cook explains that he actually just nobody, neither he nor his captors, could know the truth.
performed one. She asks where the Chaplain is, and the Cook
says he’s with Eilif.

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Mother Courage assures the Cook that his history with Yvette Audiences should immediately recognize the dramatic irony in this
won’t affect her view of him. She asks whether the Cook will scene: the Cook already admitted to the Chaplain that he was only
take over for the Chaplain and accompany her and Kattrin, and approaching Mother Courage in search of food and drink, and it’s
he agrees and gets in the harness to pull the wagon. They take clear that the Chaplain has abandoned her for good. She clearly just
off, singing “The Song of Mother Courage,” including a new wants the Cook to go with her so that he can help her run the
verse about how people support the war and the war supports canteen—and so that she doesn’t have to pull the wagon herself. But
the people. she still pretends to respect him, and they both still pretend to make
an honest agreement in good faith.

SCENE 9
The stage directions explain that, in these 16 years of war, half Brecht yet again uses stage directions unconventionally to get the
of Germany’s people have died, whether of violence, plague, or audience to respond to his work in a rational way (as opposed to an
hunger. It’s 1634 in Bavaria’s Fichtel Mountains. Winter has hit emotional one). By presenting these historical facts, he reminds the
hard and early, and Mother Courage’s business is struggling. audience that Mother Courage and her children’s suffering were not
The Cook will soon return home. One gray morning, Mother the exception but the norm during the Thirty Years’ War. His point is
Courage and the Cook wonder if the local Parson (minister) clear: by launching World War II, the Nazis are repeating the
might share food with them. The Cook shows Mother Courage mistakes of the darkest times in Germany’s past. The Cook’s
a letter from home, which states that his mother has died and excitement about his mother’s death is another reminder of how,
that he has inherited her inn. Mother Courage admits that she’s thanks to the war, broken parent-child relationships pervade this
tired of traveling—she sometimes dreams that she’s wandering play.
through heaven or hell.

The Cook invites Mother Courage to go run the inn with him, The Cook is cruel and dismissive to Kattrin in part because he thinks
and she proposes the idea to Kattrin. But the Cook quietly tells Mother Courage views her as a liability. Unfortunately, Mother
Mother Courage that Kattrin can’t come—there’s no space for Courage’s halfhearted response seems to prove him right. Even now,
her at the inn. (Kattrin is secretly listening in and hears Kattrin says nothing but understands everything—and nobody else
everything.) Mother Courage suggests that Kattrin could look realizes it. Soon, audiences will learn that, despite her muteness, she
for a husband, but the Cook says that no man will marry her is actually the most sane and compassionate character in the whole
because of her age and her scar. play.

The Parson’s light turns on, and the Cook and Mother Courage “The Song of the Wise and Good” turns traditional moral parables
sing “The Song of the Wise and Good” to him. The first verse on their head to show how war rewards evil and transforms virtues
describes how King Solomon’s wisdom ruined him by showing into liabilities. The first anecdote refers to a verse from Ecclesiastes
him that “all is vanity.” The second verse is about Saint Martin in which Solomon claims that life without God is vain, or pointless,
killing himself through “unselfishness”—he shared his coat with and the second is a famous story about Saint Martin of Tours. In
a beggar in the winter, and both froze to death. Following God short, the Cook and Mother Courage are singing to the Parson
and the Ten Commandments has “not done us any good,” the about how religion has failed them and how God has forsaken them.
Cook sings in the final verse, as he begs the Parson for alms. This adds two more layers of irony: first, the Parson, who is
supposed to dedicate his life to God, is actually the wealthiest and
most comfortable man in the village; second, the Cook and Mother
Courage try to win the Parson’s favor precisely by insulting the
religion he represents.

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In fact, the Parson calls down to them, offering them soup. But Mother Courage’s willingness to leave Kattrin behind again calls
the Cook again tells Mother Courage to leave Kattrin behind, into question whether she is really willing to put her family before
and she agrees. She goes inside, but quickly returns with soup herself—or if she just views her children as potential sources of
for Kattrin—only to find Kattrin outside the wagon with a labor. But her quick return shows that she actually is loyal to her
bundle of her possessions, trying to run away. Realizing that daughter—even if she isn’t particularly nice to her. Aware that the
Kattrin heard her conversation with the Cook, Mother Cook was using her all along, Mother Courage mercilessly leaves
Courage calls her a “stupid girl!” and promises that she wasn’t him behind and gets in the harness to pull the wagon herself for the
going to leave her behind—never mind the wagon. Mother first time.
Courage tosses the Cook’s things on the ground and promises
never to work with a man again. She and Kattrin start pulling
the wagon away, and once they are gone, the Cook comes
outside.

SCENE 10
Mother Courage and Kattrin pull their wagon up to a well-to- This brief scene depends on the juxtaposition between Mother
do farmhouse. A voice sings inside, and they stop to listen. The Courage and Kattrin’s transient life, on the one hand, and the
anonymous singer performs “The Song of Shelter,” which is farmhouse residents’ comfortable, settled one, on the other.
about planting a tree in spring and watching it bloom during the Whereas Mother Courage once looked down on peasants as poor
summer, then spending the winter sheltering inside the and stupid, now she envies them. The message is clear: Mother
farmhouse. Mother Courage and Kattrin move on. Courage’s lifelong pursuit of wealth has been a grave error; instead
of joining the war effort, she should have stayed home in Sweden
and built an ordinary life for herself.

SCENE 11
When Catholics attack the Protestant city of Halle in 1636, the This is the play’s pivotal scene and, curiously, is also the only one in
stage directions explain, Kattrin will die, Mother Courage will which Mother Courage does not appear. (Yet again, she will miss
go on alone, and the war still will not end. It is nighttime, and one of her children’s deaths because she is too busy trading.)
the tattered wagon is parked next to a farmhouse. Three Instead, Kattrin steals the show—and while the stage directions give
soldiers and a Lieutenant knock on the farmhouse door, then away their fate, what they do not reveal is that she is about to
bring out the family who live there (Old Peasant, Old Peasant become the play’s only hero. But first, the scene opens with a
Woman, and Young Peasant). They see Kattrin in the wagon pattern of events that is now familiar to the audience: passing
and force her to get out of it, too. The Old Peasant Woman soldiers abuse innocent peasants simply for being in the wrong
explains that Kattrin is mute, and her mother is off doing place at the wrong time.
business in town.

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The Lieutenant demands that the son (Young Peasant) show The soldiers conscript the peasants into their own community’s
the soldiers the way to town, but he refuses, saying he doesn’t destruction. The Young Peasant quickly realizes that he will suffer if
know the way and would rather die than help a Catholic. But he he doesn’t guide them to town (and that they will probably find their
finally agrees when the soldiers threaten to kill the family’s way there regardless). This reflects how, in war, victims can easily
cattle, and they leave. The farming couple wonders what the become perpetrators, and vice versa. The mention of cattle clearly
soldiers are doing, and the Old Peasant climbs up on his roof to links this situation to Eilif’s actions in the third scene, when he
get a better view. He sees a massive regiment of soldiers bragged about murdering a group of peasants to steal their cattle.
moving toward the town and realizes that they are going to Put differently, Kattrin is now experiencing the same terror that her
attack while everyone is asleep. And the watchman hasn’t brother was inflicting—and she and her mother have been profiting
blown his horn, which means the soldiers probably killed him. from.

Terrified, the peasants realize they can’t do anything except By showing how the peasants take recourse to prayer, Brecht
pray. They beg Kattrin to join them. They all kneel, and the Old suggests that religion is deeply ingrained in rural Germany—and
Peasant Woman asks God to wake up the townspeople and to completely useless. Where the peasants’ prayers do nothing, Kattrin
save their son-in-law, grandchildren, and farm. While the takes matters into her own hands: she beats the drum to try and
woman prays, Kattrin quietly pulls a drum out of the wagon, wake up the townspeople before the soldiers arrive and massacre
hides it in her skirt, and then climbs up to the roof. When the them all. She specifically acts when the peasants mention their
farmers finish their prayer, Kattrin starts beating the drum. The grandchildren, which again shows that her concern is specifically
farmers panic, try to get Kattrin down, and even threaten to about saving children from the horrors of war. Understandably, the
stone her, but she is unfazed—she keeps playing the drum. peasants fear that the soldiers will turn on them because of
Kattrin’s actions. This highlights the extent to which Kattrin’s self-
sacrifice is an exception: she’s the only person in the whole play who
doesn’t prioritize herself above everyone else.

The Lieutenant runs back, threatens to kill the farmers, and With her drum, Kattrin says everything that she has been unable to
demands that Kattrin throw him the drum. But she keeps say throughout the play: she gives voice to her own pain, stands up
drumming. A soldier offers to spare Mother Courage, and the against soldiers (who have long coerced and abused her), and lodges
Lieutenant offers his sincerest promise as an army officer, but a protest against the war’s senseless, inhuman brutality. Against all
Kattrin ignores them. The Lieutenant proposes making a louder the odds, she seems to have cultivated a sense of morality and
noise to drown out the drum, and the Old Peasant starts selfless, nurturing certain caregiving instincts that Mother Courage
chopping wood, but it’s not enough. The Lieutenant considers herself lost long ago (if, indeed, she ever had them). And she makes it
burning down the farm, but the Old Peasant points out that the clear that her purpose is not to save her mother but rather the
townspeople would definitely notice that. children of Halle.

Kattrin starts to laugh as she drums louder and louder. The Kattrin continues drumming, desperately and relentlessly, showing
Lieutenant demands a musket, and his soldiers go to get one. that she is willing to die if necessary. Needless to say, her warning to
The Old Peasant Woman suggests threatening to break the the people of Halle is also Brecht’s warning to the people of Europe
wagon—the Lieutenant tries this, and the Young Peasant even in the first days of World War II. This is what makes this scene so
hits the wagon with a board. But Kattrin just pauses, makes a haunting: modern audiences can imagine the carnage that is
pained sound, and keeps drumming. The Lieutenant tells beginning in Halle, as they know all too well about the carnage that
Kattrin he will shoot her and lies that the townspeople can’t followed this play in Europe.
hear her drum.

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The Young Peasant finally switches sides and tells Kattrin to The Young Peasant and Kattrin’s deaths are Brecht’s final and most
keep drumming. In response, the Lieutenant stabs and kills him. poignant reminder of the senseless violence of war. Yet again,
Kattrin starts to cry, but continues drumming, even as the Mother Courage misses one of her children’s deaths because she is
soldiers bring the gun, set it up, and fire. She falls over dead. As too busy trying to make a profit. But there is one major difference
the Lieutenant says, “So that ends the noise,” cannons and here: unlike her brothers, Kattrin dies a purposeful death. She
alarm bells sound in the distance. One of the soldiers remarks, sacrifices her life in the name of a greater cause—saving others from
“She made it.” the war—and in this way she becomes the play’s only hero. This
helps explain why the soldier comments that “she made it.” Namely,
even if Kattrin doesn’t survive, she made a meaningful impact with
her life and took a stand against the war that everyone else just
blindly accepted, whether out of fear or weakness.

SCENE 12
Later that night, with the army in the distance, Mother Courage Mother Courage appears to be in denial about Kattrin’s death,
sits with Kattrin’s body near their wagon. The Old Peasant and which signals the complete destruction of her family and leaves her
Old Peasant Woman advise Mother Courage to leave before utterly alone. Needless to say, this is an understandable reaction to
the soldiers find them. But Mother Courage remarks that all the trauma that she has experienced—and the guilt that she may
maybe Kattrin is just sleeping, and she sings a short lullaby feel (but never shows) for leading her children to their deaths.
about her kids being happy and well-fed—but also dead and
missing.

Mother Courage blames the peasants for what happened to Mother Courage’s comment about the grandchildren again supports
Kattrin, because they mentioned their grandchildren. But the the interpretation that Kattrin sacrificed her life to save the children
peasants blame Mother Courage for going to town in search of from the troops—likely because of the profound trauma that she
profit. Mother Courage again says that Kattrin is sleeping, but experienced as a child in the war. But Brecht assumed that his
the peasants repeat the truth and tell Mother Courage to get audiences would no doubt see that the peasants’ theory is the right
going, for her own safety. one: Mother Courage’s thirst for profit and short-sighted faith in the
war are the real reasons for Kattrin’s death. Worse still, as the
soldiers approach, Mother Courage’s denial now poses a threat to
her own life, too.

The Old Peasant asks if Mother Courage has anyone left, and The play closes with a haunting scene of Mother Courage running
she says that at least her son Eilif is alive. The Old Peasant eagerly toward the men who slaughtered her daughter in cold blood.
Woman promises to bury Kattrin, and Mother Courage gives But she is not delusional: she is not going because she thinks that
them some money to do it. She gets in the harness and starts these men are sympathetic or will save her, but rather because she
pulling her wagon. The soldiers pass in the distance, and knows that selling to them is her best chance at making a profit.
Mother Courage yells out that she wants to go with them. Even if Mother Courage has learned her lesson about the perils of
war, it seems, it is far too late for her to make a change—and it is not
clear what alternative might be lying in store for her. So she
continues on, cold and courageous as always, having both suffered
and perpetuated the worst evils of humankind. Brecht’s message is
clear: nobody wins in war—at least, none of the people on the
ground do.

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In fact, the soldiers are singing “The Song of Mother Courage.” The play ends as it began, with “The Song of Mother Courage.” It
They sing a new verse about how the war devastated three may have seemed quaint and optimistic at the beginning,
generations, and then the same refrain: “Christians, awake! The particularly to audiences who didn’t know what to expect of the
winter’s gone! / The snows depart, the dead sleep on. / And play or didn’t listen particularly closely to its lyrics. But now, it’s all
though you may not long survive / Get out of bed and look but impossible to misinterpret it in the same way. It’s a cross
alive!” between a battle hymn and a funeral march, and it makes it clear
that Mother Courage has also suffered greatly from her involvement
in the war. Like Kattrin’s drum, the beat of this song is a dire warning
to the people of Europe about precisely what lies in store for them
over the next few years.

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To cite any of the quotes from Mother Courage and Her Children
HOW T
TO
O CITE covered in the Quotes section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA Brecht, Bertolt. Mother Courage and Her Children. Grove Press.
1991.
Jennings, Rohan. "Mother Courage and Her Children." LitCharts.
LitCharts LLC, 6 Jun 2023. Web. 6 Jun 2023. CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL Brecht, Bertolt. Mother Courage and Her Children. New York:
Grove Press. 1991.
Jennings, Rohan. "Mother Courage and Her Children." LitCharts LLC,
June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023. https://www.litcharts.com/
lit/mother-courage-and-her-children.

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