45 pages • 1 hour read
Bertolt BrechtThe Caucasian Chalk Circle
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1944A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Scene 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Scene 3 Summary: “In the Northern Mountains”
For seven days, Grusha hikes through the mountains, eagerly seeking shelter in her brother’s home. The thought of being with family keeps her going, but barely. She finally reaches her destination, but “When the sister came to the brother she was ill from her wanderings” (72). She can barely stand as she tells her brother, Lavrenti, and her Sister-in-Law that she left her job when the Governor was killed. When the Sister-in-Law exits, Lavrenti asks Grusha if the baby has a father and Grusha shakes her head. When the Sister-in-Law returns and asks about the baby, Lavrenti invents a story, saying “She got married on the other side of the mountain” (73). Grusha goes along with it, adding that he’s a soldier, and Lavrenti adds that the husband will inherit a small farm. The Sister-in-Law is still unsatisfied and continues to prod until Grusha, weak from scarlet fever, collapses.
Lavrenti takes Grusha to a bed but tells her she can’t stay too long. Grusha, weak from her illness, tells Michael “If we make ourselves really small, like cockroaches, our sister-in-law will forget we’re in the house. […] And don’t cry because of the cold. Being poor and cold as well puts people off” (75). Even in her own family’s home, Grusha is not made to feel welcome.
The primary concern for Lavrenti and the Sister-in-Law is that Grusha is not married. Lavrenti tells his sister, “when spring comes and the snow is melting on the passes you must leave here. […] People are already talking about a child with an unmarried mother” (76). Society looks down on unmarried mothers, and if they are to shelter Grusha they risk tarnishing their own reputation. Grusha does not wish to marry because she is still waiting to reunite with Simon. Lavrenti understands, but insists she still needs a place to go in the meantime. He sets out to find her a husband.
Lavrenti returns with an unconventional solution to their problem. The son of a local woman is dying, and he can become Grusha’s husband on paper. The man fits the lie that they’ve contrived perfectly: he lives on the other side of the mountain, and as soon as he dies she, as the widow, will be taken care of societally and fiscally. Grusha knows they will be safer on that side of the mountain, even further away from the Ironshirts. She agrees to the plan, and they get to planning a wedding and a funeral.
During the ceremony, news arrives that the war has ended and the soldiers will be coming home. The allegedly dying groom, Yussup, who conveniently fell ill when soldiers were called to fight, springs to life at the news after being on his deathbed for over a year. Grusha finds herself married, when she thought she was to be widowed, just as Simon is meant to return from war. Yussup is irritable and mean to Grusha and his mother. He complains that Grusha won’t consummate the marriage, but she is steadfast in refusing to sleep with him.
Years pass, and Michael is a toddler now. While Grusha is watching him play with the other children, Simon approaches. Their bittersweet reunion is tainted when Simon asks if she is still unwed, and Grusha tells him that she had to marry Yussup out of necessity. She tells Simon that Michael isn’t her child, meaning biologically, which means she has kept their promise to each other in spite of her marriage. However, the Ironshirts arrive and demand to know who is mother to the child, and Grusha claims it as her own. After hearing this, Simon leaves, and Grusha is left alone with the Ironshirts and their questions. The Governor’s Wife wants her son back, and there is to be a trial to determine whether she or Grusha is Michael’s true mother.
Scene 3 Analysis
The third scene finds Grusha, more than ever, torn between her love and loyalty for Michael, and her love and loyalty for Simon. She despairs at the thought of marrying someone else before he returns, but as the war trudges on time starts to run out. During the ceremony, a stage direction provides a key detail to why Grusha goes along with Lavrenti’s plan:
The Monk: Are you prepared to be a faithful, obedient and good wife to this man? And to
cleave to him until death do you part?
Grusha: (looking at the child) Yes (79).
The vows that Grusha makes are, in fact, not to Yussup but intended for Michael. In taking Yussup as her husband, Grusha is once again pledging her steadfast love and duty to Michael, emphasizing The Bond of Mothers and Their Children.
At the end of the marriage ceremony, Grusha prays using a silver cross that she wears on a chain under her blouse. The silver cross necklace is a symbol of the bond between her and Simon, and its reappearance foreshadows his return and the conflict that will follow. Grusha has vowed to protect and love Michael, but Simon holds a close second place in her heart, making the exchange between them in this scene incredibly difficult.
Sure enough, when news of the war ending comes, Grusha is left stunned. Not only does this mean she will have to explain herself to Simon, but politically, there will still be no justice for the working class. She says, “Now everything will be as it was. Only the taxes will go up because we’ll have to pay for the war” (82). The Ironshirts did nothing to benefit the working class, but now the working class will have to help pay for the damage regardless.
When Simon does return, their reunion is not performed by the characters playing Grusha and Simon. Instead, their words are performed by the Singer. This part of the scene is critical to the play as a whole in a number of ways. First, the tactic of having the Singer speak on Grusha and Simon’s behalf is a key element of Brecht’s epic theater. This scene, which is nearing the climax of the play, could easily be heightened emotionally. Brecht was adamant that audiences should be analytical and thinking critically when watching theater. By having the Singer deliver these speeches, Brecht is supplying audiences and/or readers with an important barrier, allowing the words to be the focus instead of the emotions of the characters.
Second, there is a particular line that the Singer says that relates to another symbol within the play. The Singer says for Grusha, “I had to tear myself to pieces for what was not mine/But alien./Someone must be the helper./Because the little tree needs its water” (90). One of the symbols in the play is a fruit tree, which works in two ways: In the play within a play, it represents Michael, and in the framing device, it represents the valley. Either way, the tree is representative of something that needs nurturing, sacrifice, and hard work in order to flourish.
Finally, this scene builds to the climax of the narrative: the trial between Grusha and the Governor’s Wife. Though Grusha has raised Michael for years, since the war has ended, the Governor’s Wife wants her son back. This is a direct parallel to the framing device of the battle for the valley between the two kolkhoz villages. The final line of scene four introduces a new character, who will be the primary focus of the following scene: Judge Azdak.
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By Bertolt Brecht
