Context in Mother Courage and her Children by Brecht Essay -- Second W

Context in Mother Courage and her Children by Brecht There are many different contexts to the play and they are all influenced by social, cultural and historical implications. The context of the play itself and how it was written and performed for the first time and now were all influenced by events that occurred in Brecht’s life. The play itself discusses the thirty year war but is a clear reflection of the Second World War. Brecht believed that the war only took place for the economic benefit of the government and decided to portray this within his work. Marxism was the influence that gave Brecht hope that there was good within humans although some needed re-awakening. Therefore his objective was to make people aware of this and he did this through a process of alienation. The play Mother Courage and her Children was Brecht putting his ideas into practice as the whole play involves alienation and concentration on the political message being portrayed. Brecht’s work was banned from Germany and some of his performances were even disrupted by police and due to the portrayal of the war through his work his plays were socially unacceptable. Due to this social implication the context of Brecht’s play itself conveyed the true nature of the war to its extremes and this decision is clearly apparent in Mother Courage and her Children. The Chaplin was observed as the ironic hypocrite whom represented religion but was too scared to stand up for what he believe...