Mother Courage and Her Children

“MOTHER COURAGE. They call me Mother Courage ’cause I was afraid I’d be ruined, so I drove through the bombardment of Riga like a madwoman, with fifty loaves of bread in my cart. They were going moldy, what else could I do?”

Mother Courage’s moniker is paradoxical: She insists that fear drives her to be courageous. She is repeatedly unapologetic for her relentless pursuit to make a living during the war. The play immediately raises questions about what it means to be brave in times of war and as a mother.

“MOTHER COURAGE. A soldier’s life is not for sons of mine!

RECRUITING OFFICER. Why not? It means money.”

Mother Courage protests Eilif’s joining the service, though her pleas have little impact on him. The Recruiting Officer’s reminder to Mother Courage that the perpetuation of the war furthers her “career” as a supplier appeals more effectively to her reasoning.

“SERGEANT. […] Why, you should be ashamed of yourself. Give me that knife, you hag! You admit you live off the war, what else could you live off of? Now tell me, how can we have a war without soldiers?

MOTHER COURAGE. Do they have to be mine?

SERGEANT. So that’s the trouble. The war should swallow the peach stone and spit out the peach, hm? Your brood should get fat off the war, but the poor war must ask nothing in return, it can look after itself, can it? Call yourself Mother Courage and then get scared of the war, your breadwinner? Your sons aren’t scared, I know that much.”

The Sergeant accuses Mother Courage of being hypocritical because of her desire to keep her children safe. He personifies the war, then insists that Mother Courage fails to care about the war as she does her children. Although the implication that the war is another person in need of care is ludicrous, it makes sense to the Sergeant.

“EILIF. So while they were scratching their heads, I reached for my sword and cut them to pieces. Necessity knows no law, huh?

[…]

COMMANDER. You cut ’em to pieces in a good cause, our fellows were hungry and you gave ’em to eat. Doesn’t it say in the Bible ‘Whatsoever thou doest for the least of these my children, thou doest for me?’”

Eilif justifies killing the innocent civilizations by insisting that it was important for his comrades to have meat to eat. Though the meat is just as important to the peasants whom Eilif kills, Eilif has no regard for their lives. The Commander’s subversion of scripture provides a twisted logic, which supports Eilif’s equally twisted logic.

“MOTHER COURAGE. He must be a very bad Commander.

COOK. Just a gluttonous one. Why bad?

MOTHER COURAGE. Because he needs brave soldiers, that’s why. If his plan of campaign was any good, why would he need brave soldiers, wouldn’t plain, ordinary soldiers do? Whenever there are great virtues, it’s a sure sign something’s wrong.”

Mother Courage reasons that the Commander must be assigning his soldiers missions that are particularly dangerous or in some way problematic, if he is insistent on needing brave soldiers. Here, bravery takes on a negative connotation. In the end, Eilif’s willingness to pillage the innocent demonstrates the kind of “bravery” he possesses.

“Woe to him who defies the advice of the wise!

If you wade in the water, it will drown you!

Don’t ignore what I say or you’ll rue it one day,

Said the wise woman to the soldier.

But that young solider, his knife at his side,

And his gun in his hand, he steps into the tide:

For water could never hurt him!”

The song that Eilif sings is ironic because Eilif himself has not heeded his own mother’s advice to stay out of combat. He foolishly believes himself to be invincible and above both the enemy and their civilians.

“MOTHER COURAGE. It’s October now, autumn may come at any time; I purposely don’t say it must come, I’ve learned from experience there’s nothing that must come, not even the seasons. But your books must balance now you’re the regimental pay master.”

At times, Mother Courage is pessimistic, wishing the war would end but certain it will not happen soon. At other times, she hopes the war never ends because this would mean a loss of profit. However, she remains focused on money, cautioning Swiss Cheese to carry out his job as paymaster effectively.

“First comes the May Day Rite

Then comes the May Day night.

The pipes play and the drums do beat.

The foe parades down every street.

And then with us they take their ease

And fraternize behind the trees.”

Yvette, a sex worker, sings of her experiences. Her song suggests, however, that it is the enemy soldiers who assault or rape her, rather than Yvette willingly engaging in sex work.

“MOTHER COURAGE. Let this be a lesson to you, Kattrin, never start anything with a soldier. The heavens do seem to open, so watch out! Even with men who’re not in the army life’s no honeypot. He tells you he’d like to kiss the ground under your feet—did you wash ’em yesterday, while we’re on the subject?—and then if you don’t look out, your number’s up, you’re his slave for life. Be glad you’re dumb, Kattrin: you’ll never contradict yourself, you’ll never want to bite your tongue off because you spoke out of turn. Dumbness is a gift from God.”

Here Mother Courage warns Kattrin of men, insisting they are uncaring and interested in marriage only for sex or personal benefit. Her own string of husbands gives Mother Courage’s words credibility. However, she misinterprets Kattrin’s silence, arguing it is a boon rather than an indication of trauma.

“CHAPLAIN. All very touching, my dear Cook, but to fail in this war is not a misfortune, it’s a blessing. This is a war of religion. Not just any old war, but a special one, a religious one, and therefore pleasing unto God.

COOK. Correct. In one sense it’s a war because there’s fleecing, bribing, plundering, not to mention a little raping, but it’s different from all other wars because it’s a war of religion. That’s clear. All the same, it makes you thirsty.”

The Chaplain’s words point to the hypocrisy of the war, which ostensibly is fought on the grounds of religion but violates religious principles all the same. The Cook agrees; in addition, his insistence on thirst alludes to the penchant for alcohol of the soldiers on both sides.

“MOTHER COURAGE. (rubbing ashes into Kattrin’s face) Keep still. A little dirt, and you’re safe. A calamity! The sentries were drunk! Well, one must hide one’s light under a bushel, as they say. When a soldier sees a clean face, there’s one more whore in the world. Especially a Catholic soldier.”

Mother Courage is convinced that if Kattrin is unattractive, then she will not be at risk of rape or other assault. Her assertion that men are unable to control their urges at the sight of an attractive woman reflects poorly on Christianity. Further, her use of ashes to make Kattrin unattractive is ironic as this is symbolic for Catholics on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lent season.

“MOTHER COURAGE. A good thing they let me stay in business. In business you ask what price, not what religion.”

Mother Courage supports the war solely for the financial gain it brings her. She is unmoved by the apparent religious doctrines at stake and notes here that commercialism is a trait shared by Catholics and Protestants alike.

“MOTHER COURAGE. Thanks be to God they’re corruptible. They’re not wolves, they’re human and after money. God is merciful, and men are bribable, that’s how His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Corruption is our only hope. As long as there’s corruption, there’ll be merciful judges and even the innocent may get off.”

As Mother Courage plans to pawn her wagon to the eyepatch man, then steal from the army’s cashbox to fund its return, she seems oblivious to her own corrupt dealings. Like other characters before her, she subverts scripture to point out the un-Christian actions that are done in the name of Christianity.

“SERGEANT. Here’s a man we can’t identify. But he has to be registered to keep the records straight. He bought a meal from you. Look at him, see if you know him. (He pulls back the sheet) Do you know him? (Mother Courage shakes her head.) What? You never saw him before he took that meal? (Mother Courage shakes her head.) Lift him up. Throw him in the carrion pit. He has no one that knows him.”

To keep herself from being discovered as a Protestant and therefore the enemy, Mother Courage heeds Yvette’s instructions and denies knowing Swiss Cheese. Her denial of her child challenges her insistence that she intends to keep her children safe from harm. It is also reminiscent of the Apostle Peter’s denial of Christ, thus suggesting Swiss Cheese is a martyr and Mother Courage a betrayer.

“YOUNG SOLIDER. I won’t stand for injustice!

MOTHER COURAGE. You’re quite right. But how long? How long won’t you stand for injustice? One hour? Or two? You haven’t asked yourself that, have you? And yet it’s the main thing. It’s pure misery to sit in the stocks. Especially if you leave it until then to decide you do not stand for injustice.”

Mother Courage is pessimistic that true justice can ever be obtained. She has resigned herself that the war will continue and with it an unfair world. Her recognition that the young soldier’s complaint is futile changes Mother Courage’s mind about filing a complaint of her own.

“CHAPLAIN. There’s always been people going around saying some day the war will end. I say, you can’t be sure the war will ever end. Of course it may have to pause occasionally—for breath, as it were—it can even meet with an accident—nothing on this earth is perfect—a war of which we could say it left nothing to be desired will probably never exist.”

The war, once again, is personified as an entity in need of fuel and sustenance to survive. The Chaplain’s words are phrased in such a way to indicate that many wish the war would not end—a belief that contradicts common sentiments about war.

“CLERK. In the long run you can’t live without peace.

CHAPLAIN. Well, I’d say there’s peace even in war, war has its islands of peace. For war satisfies all needs, even those of peace, yes, they’re provided for, or the war couldn’t keep going […] War is like love, it always finds a way. Why should it end?”

The Chaplain’s words subvert the commonly held notions of war, insisting it is a state more desirable than peace. This is in keeping with the statements by the Sergeant and Recruiting Officer who open the play, insisting that it is war—not peace—that brings reason and order to societies.

“CHAPLAIN. The way you run your business, and always come through, is highly commendable, Mother Courage—I see how you got your name.

MOTHER COURAGE. The poor need courage. Why? They’re lost. That they even get up in the morning is something—in their plight. Or that they plough a field—in war time. Even their bringing children into the world shows that they have courage, for they have no prospects.”

Mother Courage presents a new definition of courage here, insisting that ordinary people who are forced to struggle through difficult lives are the most courageous. Her words counter those of Eilif, who insists he is brave when he kills innocent peasants.

“MOTHER COURAGE. You can’t deny your war was a flop.

CHAPLAIN. You have no respect for peace, Courage. You’re a hyena of the battlefield!”

At this point in the war, Mother Courage is eager for conflict to continue so that there is a need for her supplies and thus she can continue to make a living. Her longing for conflict, rather than peace, counters the general notions about war and presents a critique of the mindsets that allow war to take place.

“YVETTE. That a man like him should have been able to turn me from the straight and narrow! I have my own star to thank that I rose none the less to the heights! But I’ve put an end to your tricks, Peter Piper, and one day—in a better life than this—the Lord God will reward me!”

Yvette accuses the Cook of accosting her sexually in the past. She asserts that this attack led her to become a sex worker. She regards herself as innocent and deserving of rewards in the afterlife—an image that changes the view that Mother Courage holds of Yvette.

“MOTHER COURAGE. [Eilif] was here? Then we’ll see him on the march. I’ll be with our side this time. How’d he look?

COOK. The same.

MOTHER COURAGE. He’ll never change. And the war couldn’t get him, he’s bright.”

Despite the examples Eilif has provided of his immoral behavior, Mother Courage continues to hold him in high esteem. She loves her children and desperately wants them to survive the war; she is convinced that because Eilif is intelligent, he will be able to do so. The play repeatedly offers examples of his arrogance and selfishness overriding his intelligence.

“COOK. The world’s dying out.

MOTHER COURAGE. Sometimes I see myself driving through hell with this wagon and selling brimstone. And sometimes I’m driving through heaven handing out provisions to wandering souls. If only we could find a place where there’s no shooting, me and my children—what’s left of ’em—we might rest awhile.”

This is a rare instance of Mother Courage longing for the war to end so that she might live safely with her children. Her mentioning that she envisions herself in both heaven and hell at various times suggests she is dubious about the moral rightness of her actions.

“COOK. We’re law-abiding folk, we keep to ourselves, don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t burn the place down. And in this way we sink lower and lower and the song proves true and there’s no soup going. And if we were different, if we were thieves and killers, maybe we could eat our fill! For virtues bring no reward, only vices.”

The Cook laments—as he begs for soup—that those who obey the law and live morally suffer the most. He insists those who steal and behave immorally are those who reap the rewards in life, such as food and goods. However, the Cook provides evidence elsewhere in the play that he is not as virtuous as he claims to be here.