41 pages • 1 hour read
Bertolt BrechtMother Courage and Her Children
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1939A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Scene 4 Summary
At an officer’s tent, Mother Courage informs a clerk that the army has destroyed much of her inventory and charged her an unjust fine for trading. The clerk is unsympathetic, insisting that she is lying about not knowing Swiss Cheese. Mother Courage wants to file an official complaint with the officer; the clerk tells her to wait until he is available.
Their conversation is interrupted by a young soldier who is angrily searching for a captain. The captain had promised him reward money for the successful completion of a task, but then took the money and spent it on brandy for himself and other soldiers. Another soldier appears and tries to calm the first soldier, blaming his rage and foolishness on youth. Mother Courage, too, tries to make the soldier see that war is full of injustices. The young soldier finally sits calmly and waits for the captain to appear.
While he sits, Mother Courage sings a song about a young woman who insists she is special and vows she will never bend to follow the norm, but ultimately does so. As the song ends, the clerk informs Mother Courage that she may see the officer now to file her complaint. She tells the clerk that she has changed her mind.
Scene 5 Summary
Two years have passed; it is now 1631. Two soldiers stand in front of Mother Courage’s wagon, demanding brandy. They insist it was promised to them by their captain as a reward for plundering a local village. Mother Courage refuses to give them any brandy that has not been paid for.
The Chaplain rushes in, demanding Mother Courage give him some linen shirts from her inventory: A group of peasants has been injured and he wants to use the shirts to bandage their wounds. Kattrin runs to get the shirts, but Mother Courage intervenes, insisting that the shirts are to be sold to officers. They argue, with the Chaplain ultimately taking the shirts. While he helps the injured peasants, Kattrin rocks an infant who has also been wounded.
Scene 6 Summary
It is still 1632. Mother Courage and Kattrin take stock of their inventory while the funeral of an army commander takes place nearby. It is raining, so they shelter inside a tent. Mother Courage observes that the army commander would have lived if not for the fog, which prevented him from seeing the bullet that hit him. She notes that although the commander requested that church bells sound at his funeral, it was he who ordered that all the churches be destroyed, so there are no bells to ring.
While various soldiers approach the canteen to purchase brandy, the Chaplain and Mother Courage discuss the war. The Chaplain philosophizes about war and peace, assuring everyone that the war will continue, despite the intervals of peace.
Mother Courage resolves to buy more supplies and sends Kattrin to town for them. She tells Kattrin that the clerk will accompany her, and since most of the soldiers are at the funeral, she need not worry about being accosted. Once Kattrin and the clerk have left, Mother Courage asks the Chaplain to chop some firewood for her. She smokes a pipe while he does so, though he complains that he is not as skilled at physical labor as at preaching. He suggests to Mother Courage that they should shift their friendship to a romantic relationship but Mother Courage refuses.
Kattrin reenters, having been beaten by enemy soldiers. Mother Courage cleans her wounds and tells Kattrin that they will heal. Privately, she reassures herself that even if Kattrin’s face is permanently scarred it will keep her safe from men’s advances. She laments that Kattrin will never marry or have children.
Scene 7 Summary
The Chaplain, Mother Courage, and Kattrin pull the wagon from town to town. It is filled with new inventory. Mother Courage sings a song in which she insists she will fight against the war ending because the war is good for business.
Scene 8 Summary
It is 1632. A young man and his mother approach the wagon, dragging a mattress filled with feathers that they attempt to sell to Mother Courage. She does not want it; suddenly, bells sound and there are shouts that the king of Sweden has been killed. News spreads that the war ended three weeks ago. Mother Courage hopes this is not true as she has just restocked her wagon.
She wakes Kattrin, then reassures herself that on a positive note, she will get to see Eilif once again. The Chaplain wonders if it is safe to put on his pastor’s robes. Just then, the Swedish Commander’s Cook arrives. He tells Mother Courage that Eilif has already headed off to find her. Mother Courage calls for Kattrin to exit the tent to await the arrival of Eilif with her, but Kattrin refuses. Mother Courage is certain Kattrin is self-conscious about the damage done to her eye.
Mother Courage and the Cook talk. The Cook is shocked that she has taken the Chaplain under her wing; Mother Courage regrets listening to the Chaplain’s advice to restock and his certainty that the war would never end. The Chaplain appears in his old cloak, and he and the Cook argue about the advice the Chaplain gave Mother Courage. The Cook urges her to quickly sell off her supplies as, with the war over, their value will plummet.
Yvette enters, wearing black and looking older. She calls out for Mother Courage, and they embrace. She explains that she is in mourning because her husband, a colonel (the older brother of the colonel who attempted to buy Mother Courage’s wagon), has just died. Yvette greets the Chaplain but is disgusted to see the Cook, telling Mother Courage that he sexually assaulted her years ago. The Cook denies this, and then he and the Chaplain bemoan the war’s end while Mother Courage and Yvette head to the market in hopes of selling the rest of the stock.
Eilif appears with several soldiers who have promised him he can see Mother Courage. The soldiers explain that Eilif has been found guilty of stealing a cow from a peasant family and then killing the wife; because it is peacetime, Eilif will be punished. Eilif is nonchalant about his actions. When the Chaplain insists he say hello to Kattrin, Eilif refuses, and the soldiers carry him away.
Mother Courage enters, frantically announcing that the war is back on and that she should be able to sell her goods after all. The Chaplain informs her that she missed Eilif, but she is certain that they will be able to catch up to him. She looks forward to hearing of his brave deeds.
Scenes 4-8 Analysis
This section continues to advance the theme of Commerce in War as Mother Courage becomes ever more focused on turning a profit and looking out for herself. This is highly evident when she refuses to give away her linen shirts. The shirts, she insists, are expensive and can garner her a hefty profit. To use them as bandages for wounded civilians would mean losing that money. Mother Courage repeatedly prioritizes personal gain over the welfare of other people, and she is not the only one.
As the war continues, its officials become increasingly corrupt and self-seeking. The fact that Mother Courage seeks recompense for the goods that have been destroyed by the army shows she expects a degree of decorum and justice despite the fighting, but she is quickly reminded of the harsh realities of wartime. The young soldier’s rant about the injustice of war demonstrates that many individuals are looking out for themselves and have little intention of sharing their spoils with others. Mother Courage, who knows this to be true, is unsurprised when the soldier does not receive the reward he has been promised and decides that filing her complaint isn’t worth the trouble. This scene underscores the way the war rewards selfishness.
This section reiterates The Futility of Religion when Mother Courage notes that the church bells cannot be rung for the funerals of soldiers because the churches have been destroyed. The fact that the commander who ordered the churches to be destroyed later requested church bells be rung at his funeral is a moment of dark humor that highlights his hypocrisy as a Christian. The Chaplain, too, reveals his hypocrisy when he propositions Mother Courage. His desire to enter a sexual relationship with her goes against the chastity expected of church officials and casts the sincerity of his religious convictions into doubt. More broadly, the Chaplain’s hypocrisy speaks to the tenuous ideological underpinnings of the Thirty Years’ War.
Mother Courage’s comment about churches also conveys the rampant religious intolerance of the war and its devastating toll across Europe. The cost of war is far-reaching, and yet Mother Courage continues to hope that the war will endure. The Chaplain tells her, “You have no respect for peace, Courage. You’re a hyena of the battlefield!” (87). Even though Mother Courage can see the devastation all around her, she hopes conflict will continue so that she can keep profiting from it. Through Mother Courage and her longing for war, rather than peace, the play counters the general notions about war and exposes the self-centered mindset that allow war to take place.
Kattrin’s plight worsens as the section unfolds, developing the theme of A Mother’s Duty to Her Children. Mother Courage wants to protect Kattrin from the violence of men, but she fails to do so—instead, she inadvertently puts Kattrin in harm’s way, and Kattrin is attacked by enemy soldiers. Mother Courage attempts to regard the situation optimistically by insisting that, disfigured, Kattrin will now be less attractive to men, and less likely to be raped. However, Kattrin’s disfigurement also makes it unlikely that she will ever find a husband to take care of her after Mother Courage has died. Mother Courage, in sending Kattrin alone to buy new inventory, once again places profit over her children, with disastrous results.
It is notable that Mother Courage does not blame the enemy soldiers for their wrongdoings, as if they cannot or should not be expected to control their actions or behave morally. In contrast, Yvette attempts to hold a man (in this case, the Cook) accountable for his actions. In doing so, she draws attention to men’s agency in committing acts of violence, adding to the play’s scathing critique of war.
Finally, Eilif’s final actions call to mind the motif of Bravery and Courage: Though he has consistently boasted of his courageous nature as a soldier, his pillaging during a period of peace suggests otherwise. The play provides no evidence of Eilif’s valor on the battlefield; instead, he selfishly harms and steals from those who are defenseless, not unlike a schoolyard bully who belittles the weak to make himself feel strong and powerful.
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By Bertolt Brecht
