Mother Courage and Her Children Character Analysis

Mother Courage

The protagonist and title character is a middle-aged woman who works alongside the Swedish army, selling the soldiers food, alcohol, and supplies out of her wagon. Her real name is Anna Fierling, but… read analysis of Mother Courage

Eilif

Eilif is Mother Courage’s oldest son and Swiss Cheese and Kattrin’s half-brother. Bold, proud, and impulsive, his personality is fitting for a soldier, and the Recruiting Officer and Top Sergeant exploit this fact… read analysis of Eilif

Swiss Cheese

Swiss Cheese (“Schweizerkas”) is Mother Courage’s younger son, Eilif and Kattrin’s half-brother, and the first of Mother Courage’s children to die in the play. Honest and loyal, he becomes the paymaster for a… read analysis of Swiss Cheese

Kattrin

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… read analysis of Kattrin

The Chaplain

The Chaplain is a Protestant minister who works for the Swedish army, then joins Mother Courage and her family on their odyssey around Europe after his unit gets captured in the third scene. His job… read analysis of The Chaplain

The Cook

The Cook is an opportunistic, womanizing, pipe-smoking Dutchman who works for the Swedish Commander as a private chef in the second and third scenes. Like Mother Courage, his primary interest is profiting off the… read analysis of The Cook

Yvette Pottier

Yvette Pottier is a sex worker who accompanies the Swedish army on its campaigns around Europe, hoping to make a living in the short term and eventually strike it rich in the long term by… read analysis of Yvette Pottier

Top Sergeant

The Top Sergeant is one of the soldiers who recruit Eilif into the war in the first scene. (The other is the Recruiting Officer.) The Sergeant boasts about his success in the military and… read analysis of Top Sergeant

The Sergeant and One Eye

The Sergeant and One Eye (who wears an eye patch) are the Catholic soldiers who capture Swiss Cheese during the third scene. Mother Courage tries and fails to buy Swiss Cheese’ freedom from One Eye… read analysis of The Sergeant and One Eye

The Young Soldier

In the fourth scene, the Young Soldier furiously approaches the Captain’s tent to demand his monetary reward. (The play strongly implies that he retrieved Swiss Cheese’s cashbox from the river.) Feeling that he… read analysis of The Young Soldier

The Captain

The Captain is the Catholic officer to whom Mother Courage and the Young Soldier try to complain in the fourth scene. The Young Soldier alleges that the Captain stole his reward money and spent it… read analysis of The Captain

The Parson

The Parson is a local religious leader in a small town in Bavaria’s Fichtel Mountains. Unlike the rest of his town, he finds soup even in the war’s meanest days, which speaks to the church’s… read analysis of The Parson

The Lieutenant

In the penultimate scene, the Lieutenant leads the group of soldiers who terrorize the peasant family (Old Peasant, Old Peasant Woman, and Young Peasant) on their way to attack the town… read analysis of The Lieutenant

Minor Characters

The Recruiting Officer

The Recruiting Officer manipulates Eilif into joining the war effort in Sweden in the first scene. He remarks that his job is incredibly difficult, as most young Swedish men know that the war is essentially a death sentence.

The Swedish Commander

The Swedish Commander is the leader of Eilif’s regiment, and he effusively praises Eilif for slaughtering a crowd of peasants in the second scene.

The Ordnance Officer

The Ordnance Officer is a soldier with the Swedish army who is in charge of supplies like weapons and ammunition. In the third scene, he sells Mother Courage his last bullets in exchange for liquor, which underlines how desperate and weary soldiers become during the Thirty Years’ War.

The Colonel

The Colonel is the elderly but high-ranking soldier whom Yvette Pottier convinces to buy Mother Courage’s wagon in the third scene. (Actually, he gives her a loan for 200 guilders and takes the wagon as collateral.) Yvette ends up marrying his brother.

The Regimental Clerk

The Regimental Clerk is an apathetic, cynical bureaucrat in the Catholic army.

Old Peasant

The father of the peasant family in Halle, the old peasant collaborates with the Lieutenant out of fear and grieves with Mother Courage after they both lose their children (Young Peasant and Kattrin).

Old Peasant Woman

The mother of the peasant family in Halle, the old peasant woman prays for God to save the townspeople and later promises Mother Courage to give Kattrin a dignified burial.

Young Peasant

The Old Peasant and Old Peasant Woman’s son, the young peasant does the Lieutenant’s bidding at gunpoint until Kattrin inspires him to stand up for the townspeople by beating her drum. He yells out in support of her, and in response, the Lieutenant immediately murders him.

King Gustavus Adolphus

The King of Sweden and a talented military commander, Gustavus leads the Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years’ War, turning the conflict in the Protestants’ favor. However, he dies at the Battle of Lützen in 1632, during scene eight of the play.