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Scene 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mother Courage and Her Children, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
War, Failure, and Despair
Profit, Violence, and Power
Love and Nurture
Faith and Identity
Theater, Performance, and History
Summary
Analysis
After following the war across Europe for two more years, Mother Courage and Kattrin end up in a ruined Bavarian town. Catholic soldiers are doing a victory march in the background. Two soldiers ask Mother Courage for liquor, even though they don’t have any money, and complain that their commander only let them plunder the village for an hour. The Chaplain hurries over and explains that a desperate peasant family needs bandages for their wounds. But Mother Courage is out of 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.
Like Eilif’s comment about “skinning peasants” two scenes prior, the soldiers’ petty complaints here show how war turns ordinary people into monsters who can commit acts of unspeakable cruelty with little second thought. But Mother Courage’s attitude to the Chaplain’s request shows that she is no better. She only thinks about money, not life, and so even after all the loss and trauma that she has experienced, she cannot find any sympathy for the helpless, dying peasants.
Themes
The Chaplain brings in a dying peasant woman, who explains that she stayed in town instead of fleeing because she wanted to save her farm—and that she needs bandages. But Mother Courage says she can’t afford to foot the bill for the woman’s foolishness. The Chaplain brings over a peasant man from the same house. He has been shot, but Mother Courage’s response is the same. Kattrin threatens to hit Mother Courage with a board, and then the Chaplain finds the shirts and starts tearing them up into bandages. Kattrin runs over to the peasant family’s house and returns holding a baby and singing it lullabies. Mother Courage furiously tells her to stop. One of the soldiers tries to steal a liquor bottle, and Mother Courage snatches his fur coat but lets him go.
Whereas Kattrin and the Chaplain’s sense of conscience leads them to do what they can to save the peasant family, Mother Courage again blames the victims. Worse still, she views even this tragic situation as primarily a business opportunity. This suggests that she has learned nothing from losing her son—on the contrary, it seems more and more likely that she will never change, no matter how badly her actions hurt herself and her family. To add insult to injury, she lets the soldier get away with stealing the bottle only because he has something of value. In this way, she is no better than the soldiers—who no doubt got the fur from the village they raided. Brecht’s message is clear: there is little moral difference between committing atrocities and profiting from them.
Themes
