Capitalistic Society through the Play "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"

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The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Movies, films, novels, and other forms of literature serve as a mirror to society. They help uphold values and rebuke vices and thus encourage society to change. The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny serve as an excellent example of how well such literary devices help to shape society. It is a political-satirical opera by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. The play was first performed on 9 March 1930 at the Neues Theater in Leipzig and came across as a critique of the fast gaining control of the American society. Brecht sought to capture every moment of the opera via text and ensure that it reached as many audiences as possible in writing the libretto. While the libretto was further translated to other languages for easy access, the opera has become a major text that provides insights on the capitalistic society and the exploitation it bears on its population.
A capitalistic society is one where people’s selfish interests override societal values and other rules of acceptable conduct. Such societies do not care about morals, and the sole goal is to generate as much wealth as possible. For example, as evident in scene two of the opera, Jenny Smith, a whore, and six other girls abandon their homes and set out to pursue whiskey, dollars, and pretty boys (Brecht and Kurt 7:30). The opera sets out to show the endpoint of such societies to warn the modern bourgeoisie from engaging in practices that are likely to end in their downfall. It shows what is likely to happen to a society constructed on lust, greed, and corruption.
The opera depicts a capitalist society as living in hell. It has all the characteristics of hell, in which drinking, eating, fighting, and infidelity are not only allowed but signific...