Literary Devices in Mother Courage and Her Children
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
What is the Thirty Years' War, anyway?Well, for starters, it was a very, very long war, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Can you imagine if World War II, or the Vietnam War, or any other war in recent me...
Genre
It's hard to be specific when it comes to the genre of Mother Courage. Sure, it's a play about war. That means it's a war drama. But it's pretty obvious that this is not your typical, Mel Gibson-st...
Tone
Polemical, Anti-EstablishmentFor Brecht, it makes sense to say his tone is "anti-establishment." After all, he writes in protest against World War II and the rise of Nazism in Germany. And Brecht's...
Writing Style
Get Ready, Because This is Important Brecht is known for creating a very particular style of theater. He calls it epic theater. Here, "epic" is in contrast to "dramatic," including the traditional...
What's Up With the Title?
Brecht gets inspiration for the title and idea of Mother Courage from a seventeenth-century text by the German author Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen. Written in 1669, the text is a novel...
What's Up With the Ending?
When the Catholics plan a secret attack on a Protestant village, Kattrin beats a drum to alert the townspeople, saving her mother and countless other people from murder. The Catholic soldiers shoot...
Tough-o-Meter
Mother Courage might be a little quirky, confusing, or even unsettling, but ultimately it's not hard to grasp the issues and problems presented in this play. Brecht purposely uses an invented diale...
Plot Analysis
Rollin' With My FamilyFirst things first. We meet Mother Courage on the road, with her family completely intact. In the first scene, when she is stopped by a soldier and a recruiter for the Swedish...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
Scene I: Mother Courage introduces her children to the soldier and recruiter. Eilif is recruited by the Swedish army. Courage continues to follow the Swedes through Europe.Scene III: Swiss Cheese i...
Trivia
After the first performances of Mother Courage in Switzerland in 1941, during World War II, Brecht decided the title character was just too darn likeable. You know, people aren't supposed to like M...
Steaminess Rating
Sex is definitely a reality in Mother Courage, but it's not something we hear about or see directly. Kattrin longs for intimacy, according to her mother, but then she goes and gets herself shot. Yv...
Allusions
The BibleCheck out these Biblical references in Mother Courage:II, 127-128. This passage refers to one of Jesus' miracles, known as feeding the multitude. Jesus transforms five loaves of bread and...