The playwright Bertolt Brecht described the title character of his play "Mother Courage" as "a negative, villainous character," yet she emerges for most audiences as a heroine, one who is forced into profiteering and cowardice by war. It is true that Mother Courage is an itinerant merchant who lives off the troops of both sides during the Thirty Years' War. She lives by her wits to make sure that her family remains intact. Her wagon of goods is a symbol of her family's survival, as well as the literal means by which they exist. It is the THESIS of this paper that Mother Courage fits both Brecht's description and her role as a heroine: she is a realist who, because she lives off war, is partially responsible for the death of her family. Through Mother Courage, Brecht is able to make a very serious comment about man's struggle to survive in the modern world.
In Eric Bentley's collection of essays on Brecht, there is the observation that Mother Courage is indeed essentially courageous. "Tennessee Williams has written of the final moment of Brecht's play as one of the inspiring moments in all theater-- inspiring because of the woman's indomitability. On she marches with her wagon after all that has happened, a symbol of the way humanity itself goes on its way after all that has happened" (Bentley 157). This is an especially true statement because, in the course of the play, Mother Courage loves her entire family, and each member is a victim of his own heroic action. By focusing on the Thirty Years' War, Brecht is able to show man at his best and worst. Mother Courage remains the symbol of the survivor: this is Brecht's definition of nobility in the years that led up to World War II and the Holocaust.
The quote at the beginning of this paper is discussed in Martin Esslin's essay on Brecht, "The Uses of Commitment." It is true that Anna Fierling, who is called Mother Courage, does provide shoes, ale, and comforts for the...