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Swiss Cheese
Kattrin is Mother Courage’s only daughter and Eilif and Swiss Cheese’s half-sister. She is mute: she only communicates through gestures, actions, and grunts, so the audience must guess at her intentions by interpreting a combination of her behavior and Mother Courage’s comments about her. Nevertheless, Kattrin keenly observes everything that happens around her and arguably turns out to be the most insightful and ethical character in the whole play by the end. Specifically, she gives the play its haunting, bombastic climax when she beats on a drum to warn the people of Halle that the Catholic army is coming to massacre them—and sacrifices her life in the process. This echoes an earlier scene in which she rushed into a besieged peasant family’s farmhouse to save a baby, and it shows that her overriding concern is her desire to save innocent people (especially children) from the trauma of the war. This makes sense in light of Mother Courage’s comment that Kattrin’s muteness began when a soldier traumatized her (probably by sexually assaulting her) when she was a child. At the same time, Kattrin clearly dreams of escaping the war, living a free and ordinary life, and, above all, falling in love. (She expresses this dream in part by strutting around in Yvette Pottier’s red boots.) In fact, Mother Courage declares that Kattrin’s greatest aspiration is to get married after the war ends. Yet this also becomes all but impossible after soldiers attack her in the sixth scene, leaving her with a disfiguring facial scar. Kattrin thus represents war’s horrifying toll on the innocent. Of course, her final, fateful warning about the horrors to come is really intended for a different audience altogether: the people of Europe in 1939.
Kattrin Quotes in Mother Courage and Her Children
The Mother Courage and Her Children quotes below are all either spoken by Kattrin or refer to Kattrin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Scene 1
Quotes
Well, there’s yours, Eilif, my boy! (As EILIF takes the slip, she snatches it and holds it up.) See? A cross!
[…]
Take yours, Swiss Cheese. You should be a better bet—you’re my good boy. (SWISS CHEESE draws.) Don’t tell me it’s a cross? Is there no saving you either? Just look, Sergeant—a black cross!
[…]
(to KATTRIN) Now all I have left is you. You’re a cross in yourself but you have a kind heart. (She holds the helmet up but takes the slip herself.) Oh dear, there must be some mistake! 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 leave.)
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Scene 3
Quotes
MOTHER COURAGE. I must get you two something to drink, or you’ll be making improper advances out of sheer boredom.
CHAPLAIN. That is indeed a temptation—said the Court Chaplain as he gave way to it. And who is this captivating young person?
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YVETTE (re-enters, pale). You’ve done it—with your haggling. You can keep your wagon now. He got eleven bullets in him. I don’t know why I still bother about you, you 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 think you were in with him.
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Scene 6
Quotes
She’s finished. How would she ever get a husband now? And she’s crazy for children. Even her dumbness comes from the war. A soldier stuck something in her mouth when she was little. I’ll never see Swiss Cheese again, and where my Eilif is the Good Lord knows. Curse the war!
Scene 9
Quotes
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 sees the skirt and pants.) Oh, you stupid girl! Now what if I’d seen that, and you’d been gone! (KATTRIN tries to leave. Her mother holds her.) And don’t imagine I sent him packing on your account. It was the wagon. They can’t part me from my wagon. Now we’ll put the cook’s things here where he’ll find ’em, that silly man. You and I are leaving. (She climbs upon the wagon and 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! Get into harness, Kattrin. This winter will pass like all the others.
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Scene 11
Quotes
LIEUTENANT (pointing to the wagon on which KATTRIN has appeared). There’s another. (A SOLDIER pulls her out.) Is this everybody?
OLD PEASANT. That’s our son.
PEASANT WOMAN. And that’s a girl that can’t talk. Her mother’s in town buying up stocks because the shopkeepers are running away and selling cheap.
OLD PEASANT. They’re canteen people.
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(KATTRIN, unperceived, has crept off to the wagon, has taken something out of it, put it under her skirt, and has climbed up the ladder to the roof.)
PEASANT WOMAN. Be mindful of the children in danger, especially the little ones, be mindful of the old folk who cannot move, and of all Christian souls, O Lord.
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(The soldiers arrive with the gun.)
LIEUTENANT. Set it up! (Calling while the gun is set up on forks:) Once and for all, stop that drumming! (Still crying, KATTRIN is drumming as hard as she can.) Fire!
(The soldiers fire. KATTRIN is hit. She gives the drum another feeble beat or two, then collapses.)
LIEUTENANT. So that ends the noise.
(But the last beats of the drum are lost in the din of cannon from the town. Mingled with the thunder of cannon, alarm-bells are heard in the distance.)
FIRST SOLDIER. She made it.
Scene 12
Quotes
LULLAY, LULLAY, WHAT’S THAT IN THE HAY?
THE NEIGHBOR’S KIDS CRY BUT MINE ARE GAY.
THE NEIGHBOR’S KIDS ARE DRESSED IN DIRT:
YOUR SILKS WERE CUT FROM AN ANGEL’S SKIRT.
THEY ARE ALL STARVING. YOU HAVE A CAKE
IF IT’S TOO STALE, YOU NEED BUT SPEAK.
LULLAY, LULLAY, WHAT’S RUSTLING THERE?
ONE LAD FELL IN POLAND. THE OTHER IS—WHERE?
Get the entire Mother Courage and Her Children LitChart as a printable PDF.
Kattrin Quotes in Mother Courage and Her Children
The Mother Courage and Her Children quotes below are all either spoken by Kattrin or refer to Kattrin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Scene 1
Quotes
Well, there’s yours, Eilif, my boy! (As EILIF takes the slip, she snatches it and holds it up.) See? A cross!
[…]
Take yours, Swiss Cheese. You should be a better bet—you’re my good boy. (SWISS CHEESE draws.) Don’t tell me it’s a cross? Is there no saving you either? Just look, Sergeant—a black cross!
[…]
(to KATTRIN) Now all I have left is you. You’re a cross in yourself but you have a kind heart. (She holds the helmet up but takes the slip herself.) Oh dear, there must be some mistake! 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 leave.)
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Scene 3
Quotes
MOTHER COURAGE. I must get you two something to drink, or you’ll be making improper advances out of sheer boredom.
CHAPLAIN. That is indeed a temptation—said the Court Chaplain as he gave way to it. And who is this captivating young person?
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YVETTE (re-enters, pale). You’ve done it—with your haggling. You can keep your wagon now. He got eleven bullets in him. I don’t know why I still bother about you, you 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 think you were in with him.
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Scene 6
Quotes
She’s finished. How would she ever get a husband now? And she’s crazy for children. Even her dumbness comes from the war. A soldier stuck something in her mouth when she was little. I’ll never see Swiss Cheese again, and where my Eilif is the Good Lord knows. Curse the war!
Scene 9
Quotes
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 sees the skirt and pants.) Oh, you stupid girl! Now what if I’d seen that, and you’d been gone! (KATTRIN tries to leave. Her mother holds her.) And don’t imagine I sent him packing on your account. It was the wagon. They can’t part me from my wagon. Now we’ll put the cook’s things here where he’ll find ’em, that silly man. You and I are leaving. (She climbs upon the wagon and 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! Get into harness, Kattrin. This winter will pass like all the others.
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Scene 11
Quotes
LIEUTENANT (pointing to the wagon on which KATTRIN has appeared). There’s another. (A SOLDIER pulls her out.) Is this everybody?
OLD PEASANT. That’s our son.
PEASANT WOMAN. And that’s a girl that can’t talk. Her mother’s in town buying up stocks because the shopkeepers are running away and selling cheap.
OLD PEASANT. They’re canteen people.
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(KATTRIN, unperceived, has crept off to the wagon, has taken something out of it, put it under her skirt, and has climbed up the ladder to the roof.)
PEASANT WOMAN. Be mindful of the children in danger, especially the little ones, be mindful of the old folk who cannot move, and of all Christian souls, O Lord.
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(The soldiers arrive with the gun.)
LIEUTENANT. Set it up! (Calling while the gun is set up on forks:) Once and for all, stop that drumming! (Still crying, KATTRIN is drumming as hard as she can.) Fire!
(The soldiers fire. KATTRIN is hit. She gives the drum another feeble beat or two, then collapses.)
LIEUTENANT. So that ends the noise.
(But the last beats of the drum are lost in the din of cannon from the town. Mingled with the thunder of cannon, alarm-bells are heard in the distance.)
FIRST SOLDIER. She made it.
Scene 12
Quotes
LULLAY, LULLAY, WHAT’S THAT IN THE HAY?
THE NEIGHBOR’S KIDS CRY BUT MINE ARE GAY.
THE NEIGHBOR’S KIDS ARE DRESSED IN DIRT:
YOUR SILKS WERE CUT FROM AN ANGEL’S SKIRT.
THEY ARE ALL STARVING. YOU HAVE A CAKE
IF IT’S TOO STALE, YOU NEED BUT SPEAK.
LULLAY, LULLAY, WHAT’S RUSTLING THERE?
ONE LAD FELL IN POLAND. THE OTHER IS—WHERE?
