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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Good Woman of Setzuan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Pursuit of Goodness
Greed, Capitalism, and Corruption
Women and Dual Identities
Humanity vs. The Divine
Summary
Analysis
Many of the major characters have gathered in a courtroom. As they sit, they gossip about Shui Ta and his plans for expansion of the tobacco factory. They are certain that a man like Shui Ta will not be punished: rumor has it that he’s bribed the judge already. On top of it all, the old woman says, Shen Te is still nowhere to be found. Wong laments that “only the gods” will ever know what truly happened to her.
Though many of the characters want to see Shui Ta punished, their gossip about him having bought his way out of the trial already reflects an understanding of the ways in which money lets the greedy and corrupt get away with anything while the good and virtuous suffer the consequences.
Themes
At that moment, the policeman announces the arrival of the judges. The three gods walk in wearing judges’ robes. As they proceed to the bench, they whisper nervously amongst themselves about their badly-forged certificates and shabby robes. Wong alone recognizes the judges as the gods and smiles at them. They smile back.
The gods have returned to Setzuan once more to assess the situation for themselves—they are very desperate to find Shen Te and to make sure the one good person on Earth has not vanished.
Themes
The policeman brings in Shui Ta. As Shui Ta spies the “judges,” he nearly faints. The first god asks Shui Ta how he pleads, and he says he is not guilty. The first god calls the policeman as a witness. The policeman takes the stand and describes Shui Ta as “a man of principle” who could never have harmed his cousin. The first god asks if anyone else will offer similar testimony. Shu Fu rises and declares that a fellow businessman could never be guilty of such a crime—Shui Ta is an upstanding member of the community. Mrs. Mi Tzu stands up and speaks out on behalf of Shui Ta, as well.
In this passage, as the policeman, Shu Fu, and Mrs. Mi Tzu speak up on behalf of Shui Ta, it becomes clear that the wealthy and powerful members of the community believe that he is innocent. To believe that someone of the same class could have committed a crime such as murder is unthinkable to them—they would then have to see that wealthy, influential people like themselves can be bad, too.
Themes
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The first god then asks if there is any “less favorable” evidence. Wong, the carpenter, the old man and old woman, the unemployed man, the sister-in-law, and the niece come forward. The policeman whispers to the first god that only “riffraff” have anything bad to say about Shui Ta. The witnesses call him a cheat, a thief, a liar, and a murderer. The first god thanks them for their opinions and then lets Shui Ta himself take the stand.
The needy people of Setzuan clearly hate Shui Ta—he has profited off their labor but made their lives worse. Though the wealthy of Setzuan stand with Shui Ta in a show of class solidarity, it is clear that Shui Ta has negatively impacted the working people of the village.
Themes
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Shui Ta defends himself by stating that many people hate him because he has done the “filthy jobs” needed to save Shen Te’s shop. The others speak out against him again, pointing out his treachery and his favoritism of the crooked Yang Sun. As Shui Ta tries to defend himself, Yang Sun also leaps to the man’s defense. He declares that he heard sobbing in the back room—Shen Te, he deduces, must still be alive, and Shui Ta must be innocent of her murder. Shu Fu says that Yang Sun recognized Shen Te’s sobs because he himself made her cry so often. Yang Sun retorts that he made Shen Te happy—she was only going to be with Shu Fu after Shui Ta sold her to him.
Shui Ta finds himself dealing with the ruins of Shen Te’s personal life on top of everything else. Shui Ta tries to point out that his ruthlessness was a necessary evil—but the majority of the other villagers cannot see things from his point of view.
Themes
Shui Ta defends himself, stating that the money he got in the exchange was for the poor—and for Shen Te, so that she could “go on being good.” Wong accuses Shen Te of spoiling the “fountain of goodness” that the shop, a gift from the gods, was supposed to be all along. Shui Ta declares he did what he needed to do to stop the fountain from “run[ning] dry.” Wong demands to know where Shen Te is, and the rest of the crowd echoes him. Shui Ta says that he cannot tell them. When the others ask why Shen Te had to go away, Shui Ta shouts that if she had stayed, the town would have “torn her to shreds.”
While others declare that Shui Ta ran the shop—a gift from the gods—into the ground, Shui Ta argues that he was actually doing all he could to try to turn the place into a resource for everyone. By invoking imagery of water and fountains, Brecht again signals the failures of capitalism and the unfortunate ways in which “fountains” of wealth and plenty don’t always serve the purposes they’re meant to. Shui Ta laments being able to do enough for his neighbors—on his own, or as Shen Te.
Themes
Shui Ta asks for the court to be cleared—when only the judges remain, he says, he will make a confession. The policeman clears the court. Everyone exits. Shui Ta, addressing the shocked “illustrious ones,” declares that he himself is Shen Te. He takes off his mask and tears away his clothes, revealing his true identity. The gods are astounded. Shen Te tells the gods that their entreaty of her “to be good and yet to live” has literally torn her in two—she could not be good to others and to herself at the same time. The gods, she says, have not built an easy world. Shen Te says that it is easy to become lost while trying to help those who are lost themselves—and it is hard not to become bad along the way, “since not to eat is to die.”
In this passage, Shen Te admits that she created Shui Ta because she could not physically, emotionally, or logistically handle the demands of being good while still supporting herself and living her own life. There is so much suffering in the world that it is no wonder the wealthy don’t help more—one can spiral down and become “lost” in trying to solve the problems of the needy, since there are so many in need and so few able to help. Brecht indicts the ways in which capitalism turns people against one another—often through no fault of their own.
Themes
Shen Te marvels at the fact that “it was when [she] was unjust that [she] ate good meat.” She asks why good deeds are punished and laments having come to see her sense of empathy as only a nuisance. She apologizes to the gods but insists that she did all she did in an attempt to help her neighbor, to keep her lover, and to provide for her child. She was “too poor [and] too small,” she says, for the gods’ wishes.
Shen Te has come to realize that just like Wong the water seller, who profits off his neighbors’ suffering, she too found herself enjoying life more as Shui Ta—a man who was capable of pushing aside his empathy and thinking only of himself and his own prosperity.
Themes
The first god begs Shen Te not to make herself miserable any longer—they are all relieved just to have found her. Shen Te asks how the gods can be happy to see her when she is the bad man who committed many crimes against his neighbors, but the gods point out that she is also the good woman who did many good deeds. The first god insists that Shen Te is just “confused” and then announces that the world should not be changed. The stage lights turn pink. Music begins to play. The gods ascend onto a cloud to return to heaven, and they ask Shen Te not to let her courage fail her.
Shen Te knows that she is not entirely good—she has done good deeds in her life, to be sure, but she’s also done plenty of bad ones. Shen Te wants the gods’ help in making sense of her life, her choices, and her future—but the gods would rather speak to Shen Te in easy platitudes than engage in the kind of moral reckoning she’s trying to do.
Themes
Shen Te calls out to the gods as they ascend, asking for instructions as to what to do about the old couple who lost her shop, the water seller with the mangled hand, the barber to whom she is betrothed but does not love, the cruel man whom she does love, and the child she will soon bring into the world. The gods simply urge Shen Te to “continue to be good.” She says she still needs her bad cousin, but the first god says that she should call on Shui Ta “once a month” at most. Shen Te begins shrieking as she begs for the gods to stay. The gods sing the “Valedictory Hymn,” a brief song in which they declare what “rapture” it is to know a good thing—and then they flee. Shen Te continues screaming as the gods float away.
The gods are perturbed by the realization that there is, perhaps, no way for a human being to be entirely good. Rather than deal with the complicated moral questions Shen Te is asking—or even advise her as to how to alleviate some of the damage she’s done to her own circumstances, her sense of self, and her community—the gods decide to flee Earth and ignore the things they have learned about humanity’s capacity for goodness.
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