Mother Courage Timeline and Summary

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• Mother Courage is carting her covered wagon around Dalecarlia, running a canteen business for the Swedish Army.
• She introduces herself and her family to a sergeant and a recruiter for the army. She sings her first song. She explains that she's trying to keep her family out of the war.
• She tears up pieces of paper and marks one with a black cross. She predicts the sergeant will die when he draws the black cross from a helmet. She offers the helmet to her children, and they also draw the piece of paper with the black cross.
• The sergeant tricks her into trying to sell him a belt buckle, while the recruiter convinces Eilif to join the army. She ignores Kattrin's warnings about Eilif's recruitment.
• Mother Courage is briefly reunited with Eilif while trying to sell a bird to the general's cook. She joins Eilif in singing The Song of the Girl and the Soldier.
• She tells Kattrin to be wary of love. She tells her she should be happy she can't speak, because she'll never be able to say how she truly feels.
• She has a discussion with the chaplain and the cook about politics. She argues that the ones in charge of the war are only waging it for their own good, and she's not so different.
• When Mother Courage sees Kattrin playing with Yvette's clothing, she gets angry, calls her "whore of Babylon," and asks her if she really wants soldiers to "make a prostitute" of her (III, 263-264).
• After the Catholics invade, she tries to convince Swiss Cheese to hold onto the Finnish Regiment's moneybox and not to hide it.
• When Swiss Cheese is arrested by the Catholics for trying to hide the moneybox, Mother Courage pledges her wagon to Yvette, so she can get enough money to set Swiss Cheese free. She bargains too long, and Swiss Cheese is executed.
• After Swiss Cheese's execution, Catholic soldiers trash her wagon and charge her a fine. Mother Courage waits outside a colonel's tent to make a complaint. To convince a hotshot young soldier that he doesn't have what it takes to challenge the colonel's power, she sings The Song of the Grand Capitulation. She leaves without complaining.
• Mother Courage is reluctant to give away some of her officers' shirts to be used as bandages for wounded peasants.
• The chaplain convinces her that the war will keep on going for as long as it's useful to those who are waging it. She decides to stock up while prices are low.
• She turns the chaplain down when he suggests they take their relationship to the next level.
• Mother Courage reaches the height of her career. She sings a song about war and profit.
• Mother Courage is angry about the news of peace. This means her business is ruined.
• She heads into town to try to sell off some of her wares, and inadvertently misses Eilif's final return before he is executed.
• Mother Courage begs for food with the cook, outside a parsonage. They sing together about the misfortunes of men famous for being virtuous.
• She turns down the cook's offer to leave Kattrin behind and join him in running an inn.
• Mother Courage has left Kattrin alone with the wagon on a peasant's farm.
• She returns to find Kattrin dying after the Catholics have shot her for warning the town of their secret attack.
• She sings Kattrin a lullaby as Kattrin dies in her arms.
• Then, she gets up, hitches herself to her wagon, and heads off, declaring that she has to "get back in business again" (XII, 45).