Context in Mother Courage and her Children by Brecht

Context in Mother Courage and her Children by Brecht

There are many different contexts to the play and they are all

influenced by social, cultural and historical implications. The

context of the play itself and how it was written and performed for

the first time and now were all influenced by events that occurred in

Brecht’s life. The play itself discusses the thirty year war but is a

clear reflection of the Second World War. Brecht believed that the war

only took place for the economic benefit of the government and decided

to portray this within his work. Marxism was the influence that gave

Brecht hope that there was good within humans although some needed

re-awakening. Therefore his objective was to make people aware of this

and he did this through a process of alienation. The play Mother

Courage and her Children was Brecht putting his ideas into practice as

the whole play involves alienation and concentration on the political

message being portrayed.

Brecht’s work was banned from Germany and some of his performances

were even disrupted by police and due to the portrayal of the war

through his work his plays were socially unacceptable. Due to this

social implication the context of Brecht’s play itself conveyed the

true nature of the war to its extremes and this decision is clearly

apparent in Mother Courage and her Children. The Chaplin was observed

as the ironic hypocrite whom represented religion but was too scared

to stand up for what he believe...