Mother Courage and Her Children explores the horror and futility of war by following Mother Courage on a 12-year odyssey around Europe during the famously brutal Thirty Years’ War of 1618–1648. Stoic, savvy, and enterprising, Mother Courage hopes to make a fortune by following the Swedish army in her wagon, selling food, liquor, and supplies. But her quest fails, and her three children (Eilif, Kattrin, and Swiss Cheese) all get caught up in the war and die violent, early deaths. Like much of Bertolt Brecht’s work, this play is experimental and provocative, intended less to entertain audiences than to shape their political consciousness. It is full of songs but not a musical, packed with metaphors but not an allegory, and set in the distant past but intended specifically as a warning to Germany and the world on the eve of World War II.
The play opens with “The Song of Mother Courage,” in which Mother Courage sings that soldiers should come buy her food and liquor before they go to die in battle. The first scene is set in rural Sweden in 1624. Two soldiers (Top Sergeant and Recruiting Officer) stop Mother Courage and her children and demand to see their business license. The whole family introduces itself, explaining that Mother Courage got her nickname after pulling her wagon straight through the middle of a raging battle and that the children’s fathers are various men she encountered during her travels around Europe. The soldiers convince Eilif to join the war by promising him wealth and glory, and then Mother Courage foretells the Sergeant’s death—and all three of her children’s—by drawing lots.
Mother Courage and Eilif reunite by accident two years later in Poland. Mother Courage sells the Swedish Commander’s personal Cook a capon at a greatly inflated price, and then the Commander returns to his tent with Eilif, who boasts about outsmarting and slaughtering a group of peasants. Together, Eilif and Mother Courage sing “The Fishwife and the Soldier,” which is about an idealistic young man who dreams of becoming a war hero, runs out into the sea, and drowns.
The third scene takes place three years later. An Ordinance Officer sells Mother Courage his last bullets for liquor money and a young sex worker named Yvette Pottier recounts how her one great love, the Cook from the last scene, betrayed and abandoned her. Shortly thereafter, the Cook arrives with the Chaplain and asks for Swiss Cheese—who is now the Swedish army’s paymaster. But Swiss Cheese and Yvette have both already left. The Chaplain praises Sweden’s King Gustavus for fighting a holy war to liberate Poland from Catholicism, but the Cook and Mother Courage argue that he’s really after money and power. Suddenly, the Catholics attack. The Cook leaves, and then Kattrin struts past wearing Yvette’s flashy hat and red boots, which Mother Courage takes and hides. Swiss Cheese returns and makes a plan to hide his cashbox, and Mother Courage takes down her Protestant flag. They all hide for three days.
Two Catholic soldiers (Sergeant and One Eye) confront Kattrin—they want Swiss Cheese’s cashbox. But Kattrin never speaks: she can only communicate through grunts and gestures. Swiss Cheese doesn’t understand her warning and quickly gets captured, but he manages to throw his cashbox in the river first. Mother Courage gets a loan from one of Yvette’s dates, an elderly Colonel, and tries to purchase Swiss Cheese’s freedom with it. But she tries to negotiate down the price, and by the time she finally makes a deal, it’s too late: the Catholic army has already executed Swiss Cheese. Soldiers bring his body to Mother Courage and demand to know if she was helping him hide out; she claims not to know him, and the soldiers send his body to the dump for burial.
In the next scene, Mother Courage goes to the German Captain’s tent to protest the fine she was charged for protecting Swiss Cheese. A furious Young Soldier approaches the tent and promises to kill the Captain, who stole his reward for swimming in the river (and presumably recovering Swiss Cheese’s cashbox). Mother Courage sings the Young Soldier “The Song of the Great Capitulation,” in which she explains how she gave up on expecting justice and learned to make compromises instead. She and the Young Soldier both leave instead of making their complaints.
Two years later, somewhere in Bavaria, the Chaplain begs Mother Courage to give him her unsold shirts so that he can tear them up, use them as bandages, and save a peasant family dying of gunshot wounds. She refuses, so he steals them. Kattrin runs into the family’s farmhouse and saves their baby, and Mother Courage gives liquor to the Catholic soldiers who massacred the town—and steals their fur coat for payment.
The sixth scene takes place in the Catholic army’s canteen tent during a prominent general’s funeral. But instead of attending the event, most of the soldiers are hanging out drinking. Mother Courage debates whether or not to stock up on more supplies, and after the Chaplain sings about how the war will continue, she does. She looks forward to the day when she will be rich, the war will end, and Kattrin will marry—but then, a soldier attacks Kattrin, leaving a hideous scar over her eye and ruining her chances at marriage.
In the following scene, Mother Courage learns that King Gustavus is dead, and the war is over. She responds by panicking: she just bought new supplies and thinks that peace will bankrupt her. The Cook visits and gets into a nasty personal dispute with the Chaplain, and then Yvette Pottier returns, realizes that the Cook is her long-lost lover, and starts a second vicious argument. Mother Courage and Yvette leave, and then two soldiers pass by with Eilif. They explain that he attacked an innocent peasant family—which is a crime now that the war is over—and lead him off to be executed. When Mother Courage returns and excitedly announces that the war has restarted, it’s too late. The Cook admits to seeing Eilif but doesn’t reveal his fate.
The following winter is particularly harsh. The remaining characters (Mother Courage, the Cook, and Kattrin) are out of merchandise, stranded in a Bavarian mountain village, and reduced to begging. The Cook receives a letter explaining that his mother has died and that he will inherit her inn, and he excitedly invites Mother Courage—but not Kattrin—to follow him. Mother Courage and the Cook stand outside the local Parson’s house and sing him “The Song of the Wise and Good,” which describes how wisdom, selflessness, and faith lead people to ruin. The Parson invites them inside and gives them soup. Having heard everything, Kattrin starts packing her things—but before she can go, Mother Courage returns, brings her soup, and explains that she wasn’t going to abandon her. Instead, Mother Courage and Kattrin leave the Cook behind and trudge on with their wagon. They pass a large farmhouse and hear one of its residents singing about how cozy and comfortable it is to spend the winter inside by the fire.
Two years later, Mother Courage and Kattrin have parked their wagon in front of a peasant family’s house near the town of Halle. One night, while Mother Courage is doing business in town, a group of soldiers bangs on the peasant family’s door and forces the son (Young Peasant) to guide them to town. The boy’s father (Old Peasant) climbs on the roof and sees a huge army marching into Halle, then gets down and starts desperately praying with his wife (Old Peasant Woman) and Kattrin. When the peasants mention that their grandchildren live in town, Kattrin quietly pulls a drum out of the wagon and climbs on the farmhouse roof. Then, she starts beating the drum furiously to warn the townspeople about the coming army. The soldiers run back and tell her to stop, but she refuses. She continues beating the drum zealously for several minutes, defying the soldiers’ orders. She keeps playing even as the soldiers threaten to shoot her, find a musket, set it up, and fire, killing her.
The play’s final scene shows Mother Courage sitting with Kattrin’s corpse and wondering if she is just sleeping. Mother Courage sings a lullaby about her children’s fate, naively remarks that at least Eilif is alive, and asks the peasant couple to bury Kattrin. She marches on with her wagon and asks the Catholic army—the same men who killed Kattrin—if she can accompany and trade with them. The play closes with the soldiers singing the same number that appeared at the beginning: “The Song of Mother Courage.”
