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Dramatic Irony
Definition of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved directly or indirectly, by making... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the... read full definition
Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Drawing Lots:
Mother Courage foreshadows the deaths of her own children by drawing their lots. The other characters believe that Mother Courage has the ability to tell fortunes. She offers to look into the Sergeant’s future to see if he will indeed reach the age of 70 while “above ground.” The Sergeant agrees, and Mother Courage demands his helmet (which is a symbol of military prowess). Mother Courage makes a bunch of slips, some blank and some with black crosses, and mixes them into the helmet. She claims that drawing the black crosses means death, while drawing the blank slips means life. All four fortunes she foretells—the Sergeant's, Eilif's, Swiss Cheese's, and Kattrin’s—end in death. It is unclear, by the logic of the play, whether Mother Courage can actually tell the future, whether all the characters received black crosses by random chance, or whether Mother Courage rigged the system somehow. Regardless of whether Mother Courage actually possesses fortune-telling abilities, though, the black slips foreshadow the deaths of those three characters.
There is also some foreshadowing about how each character will die. Mother Courage proclaims that Eilif is "too brave, like his father." She supposes that the reason Swiss Cheese will die is because “he’s too simple.” And, finally, she tells Kattrin to "be very quiet" and that she "can't speak." All three of these remarks, made after she draws each slip, hint at how her children will die.
In addition to foreshadowing individual deaths, the frequency of black slips seems to foreshadow the massive casualties that the war will bring throughout the play. No purely white slips, which would demonstrate that someone survives the war, were drawn. Four out of four of the fortunes indicate death. This suggests that the ratio of bodies to survivors will be quite bleak at the end of the war. The dire fortune sets the tone for the play and tells the audience that the war will be extremely destructive.
Related Themes:
Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Eilif as Caesar:
In Scene 2, after Eilif butchered peasants and stole their cattle, the Swedish Commander makes an allusion when he tells him: “You have the markings of a Julius Caesar, why, you should be presented to the king!” Julius Caesar, before becoming the dictator of the Roman Empire, gained fame as a general for his victories in Gaul. The Roman senate awarded him honors for his martial prowess. By making this allusion in reference to Eilif, the Commander pays him a great compliment.
However, Julius Caesar famously met his demise at the hands of his comrades. Roman senators, many of whom he believed to be his friends, waited for him to come into the senate one day and stabbed him. The senators conspired to kill Caesar because they believed he held too much power. With this in mind, the Swedish Commander's allusion to Julius Caesar in reference to Eilif foreshadows Eilif's own demise.
Indeed, Eilif does eventually meet his death at the hands of his peers. He acts very valiantly as a soldier in wartime, but he continues to act like a soldier even in peacetime. On the day the war “ends” (only to start again), Eilif repeats the deed that the Commander praised him for: killing peasants and taking their cattle. However, Eilif neglects to consider that the circumstances have changed: martial law no longer applies when there is no war. Different rules govern peacetime. So, other soldiers capture and execute him.
Brecht, by including this bit, demonstrates the hypocrisy of war. The same deeds that make a man a monster in peacetime make him a hero in a state of war. Like Julius Caesar, who was a wonderful general and thus a wonderful dictator, brutal men like Eilif become a liability when they aren’t on a battlefield. Thus, Brecht shows that war valorizes cruelty.
Related Themes:
