Kattrin

Character Analysis

You might be surprised to find Kattrin listed as the second most important character in Mother Courage. C'mon, the girl doesn't even have any lines. Well, Kattrin is here to show you that a person's actions can definitely speak louder than her words.

You Can Count on Kattrin

Kattrin really is one of the most compelling and rich characters in Mother Courage. While her mother is emphatically not a hero, there's no question about Kattrin. She is killed saving a town full of people, among them her mother, from an unsuspected Catholic attack. She embodies selflessness, heroism, and self-sacrifice.

In fact, Kattrin figures in Mother Courage a lot like Saint Martin in the song shared by Mother Courage and the cook in Scene IX. Let's check out that verse:

Saint Martin couldn't bear to see
His fellows in distress.
He met a poor man in the snow
And shared his cloak with him, we know.
Both of them therefore froze to death.
His place in Heaven was surely won!
But soon observed what followed on.
Unselfishness had brought him to that state.
How fortunate the man with none! (IX, 133-142)

Saint Martin is so selfless that he willingly shares his coat with a stranger, even though they both freeze to death. He saves no one, not even himself. And while that definitely makes him a candidate for saintly status, maybe he would have been better off without all that virtue. At least then he'd still be alive.

Now, this doesn't exactly correspond to Kattrin. She gets killed, but she still manages to save the townspeople. Her death isn't for nothing. So, while this verse implies that people would be better off if they didn't try to be selfless, we're not so sure that's true of Kattrin. Her act of selflessness seems to be reflected in this verse, only it's a little distorted.

Now, Stop. Sacrifice.

So, what's the deal with Kattrin's self-sacrifice?

From the start of the play, Kattrin has already lost more to the war than any other character in Mother Courage. She has lost her voice. We learn in Scene VI that she was made mute as a child, when a soldier "stuffed something in her mouth," implying that she was attacked and likely raped (VI, 283).

Along the way, we also learn of Kattrin's desires for sex, love, and family. After catching Kattrin playing with Yvette's red boots and hat, Mother Courage mentions that, while Yvette chooses to sleep with men for money, Kattrin would do it "for nothing, for pleasure" (III, 388). Then again, Mother Courage can only remember one time that Kattrin ever strayed from home overnight (VI, 269-273). And after Kattrin rescues a baby in Scene IV, Mother Courage mentions a previous time when Kattrin found a baby and wouldn't let go of it for hours. Kattrin rocks the baby and makes "lullaby noises," clearly picturing herself as the child's mother (V, 59).

Kattrin is horrified to hear the chaplain say he believes the war will go one forever. As her mother then reveals, she has been waiting for peacetime to find a husband (VI, 125-126). When she is attacked by a soldier shortly thereafter, leaving her with a nasty facial scar, she's afraid no one will ever marry her. She's no longer interested in Yvette's boots (VI, 262-263). She stops waiting on peace (VIII, 77-78).

Life seems to teach Kattrin that her dreams of sex, love, and family will never be fulfilled. She learns that wartime is incompatible with love, that what awaits her instead is rape, prostitution, or worse.

And yet, Kattrin doesn't believe she has nothing left to live for. Kattrin's heroism isn't all about self-sacrifice.

Drumming It on the Mountain

When Kattrin starts beating on her drum, refusing to relent when she is threatened with her life, continuing even after she is shot, Kattrin finally reclaims her voice. She undoes all the injustice that has been done to her. She is, of all the characters in Mother Courage, the only one who tries to fight back. Even when she dies, she dies a hero, giving us some hope that the brutality of war can be halted, if only briefly.

But she still dies, right? If Kattrin's character adds an element of hope to the otherwise bleak landscape of Mother Courage, then it's a tragic hope. It might still be possible to take a stand against brutality, but in the end, Kattrin's death is there to remind us that war spares no one. All innocent illusions about resistance die with her.