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Scene 5
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
The stage directions explain that, at the Catholic General Tilly’s funeral in 1632, Mother Courage will speak about heroism, the Chaplain will sing about the war, and Kattrin will get her red boots. This scene takes place in the canteen tent, with the funeral march audible in the background. Mother Courage explains that the General died that foggy morning after accidentally riding his horse the wrong way, straight into the crossfire. She criticizes the soldiers for drinking instead of attending the funeral; the Regimental Clerk agrees, even though he didn’t go either. (He blames the rain.)
The General’s futile, pathetic death—a real historical event—becomes a convenient symbol for the absurdity and self-destructiveness of war. Namely, the General failed to distinguish between his friends and his enemies. In a way, this represents the sense in which everyone is out for themselves in the war and all alliances are temporary and futile. And in another, it captures the sense that even the people behind the war are incompetent and unaware of what they are getting into. Rather, Brecht suggests, they participate in war for the same reason as everyone below them in the chain of command: they believe they can fulfill unrealistic fantasies of power, wealth, and glory.
Themes
A soldier sings a “Battle Hymn” demanding a drink and a woman because soldiers have “no time to waste.” But Mother Courage says he has to pay first. She laments that the “common riffraff” don’t even care about their commander’s death, and she asks if the war is going to end. (She’s low on supplies and wants to know how much more to buy.) The Chaplain promises that the war has a “prosperous future,” but the Regimental Clerk says he hopes it ends so he can go home to Bohemia.
Mother Courage’s complaints about the soldiers’ disrespect for their commander are ironic. She views herself as superior to them—just as they view themselves as superior to her—but in reality, they are all exactly alike. They all joined the war for the same self-interested reasons. Worse still, all of them think they are outsmarting everyone else, but actually, none of them will get out ahead. The soldiers will spend all their money on liquor and go home with nothing, if they even survive; Mother Courage will never make the fortune she dreams about.
Themes
The Chaplain remarks that “war satisfies all needs” and sings “The Army Chaplain’s Song” about how war gives men food, drink, women, and the eternal salvation of death. He sings that soldiers can keep the war going by having children, and that war is really the foundation of the world. “Like love,” he concludes, war will “always find a way.” Mother Courage announces that she will buy more supplies. When Kattrin drops a basket full of glasses and runs away, Mother Courage explains that she promised Kattrin could get married once the war is over. Mother Courage gets Kattrin, reminds her that the war will ensure that they’re wealthy once peace comes, and then sends her to fetch supplies with the Clerk.
Like the Top Sergeant’s comments about “organization” and “The Song of Mother Courage,” the Chaplain’s song highlights the absurdity of war propaganda by exaggerating it and making its dishonesty clear. The audience knows that the war is really making Europe miserable through endless scarcity, death, and sexual violence. But the Chaplain knows that his job is to sanitize this reality—by painting death as salvation, for instance. In this way, his profession is exactly like Mother Courage’s: he depends on the war and will do better the longer it goes on.
Themes
Literary Devices
Meanwhile, Mother Courage asks the Chaplain to help her cut wood. He reluctantly agrees and asks about her pipe—which he knows she stole from the Swedish Commander’s Dutch Cook. Mother Courage refuses to admit it. The Chaplain says it doesn’t matter, since the Cook was an evil, manipulative man. He chops the wood aggressively as he reminds her that his true talent is preaching, not labor. He says that he knows Mother Courage has a heart under her rough exterior and proposes that they form a “closer relationship.” Mother Courage says no and tells him to keep chopping the wood.
Mother Courage’s penchant for stealing things (like the Cook’s pipe, Yvette’s boots, and the liquor-snatching soldier’s furs) shows that, at base, she’s not really the honest businesswoman she pretends to be. Yet nobody is honest in the army—in fact, the soldiers frequently make it clear that their primary motive for joining the army is to rob and pillage peasants. In other words, the whole enterprise of the war depends on theft and conquest, and Mother Courage’s business is no exception. The Chaplain’s willingness to forgive Mother Courage, like his sexual advances toward her, show that he is also in no way an honest man.
Themes
Literary Devices
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Kattrin returns, but she has a wound near her eye and is dropping all the merchandise she brought. Mother Courage bandages up her wound, promises that it isn’t serious, and gives her Yvette’s red boots as a gift. But Kattrin refuses to wear the boots and hides in the wagon. Mother Courage tells the Chaplain that Kattrin’s wound will scar and complains that she never knows what Kattrin is thinking. (She even disappeared for a whole night once.) Mother Courage picks up the scattered merchandise and comments that war is “a nice source of income.”
Kattrin has clearly been attacked, but Mother Courage doesn’t take her condition seriously and goes on thinking about her profits instead. When she gives Kattrin Yvette’s boots—which she had stolen years ago in the hopes of selling them for a profit—this represents her trying to repair the damage she has done to Kattrin’s sense of identity and femininity. But clearly, it’s too little, too late: Kattrin wants the boots (her femininity) on her own terms, not on her mother’s.
Themes
Literary Devices
A cannon blast marks the General’s burial. Mother Courage remarks that nobody will marry Kattrin now, with her scar. She reveals that Kattrin hasn’t spoken since a soldier traumatized her as a child. And she laments that the war has taken all of her children away: “Curse the war!”
Kattrin’s actions, like trying on Yvette’s boots and rescuing the peasant family’s baby, have demonstrated both her desire for love and her maternal instincts. Notably, marriage would also free her from Mother Courage—and the life of war profiteering that, despite her muteness, she clearly disagrees with. In fact, Mother Courage makes an important revelation about the origins of Kattrin’s muteness, too. Her comment raises more questions than it answers, but she seems to be suggesting that a soldier sexually assaulted Kattrin when she was a child. In this way, Kattrin’s muteness represents the trauma that war inflicts on the innocent—particularly women and children.
Themes
