A deconstructive look at the characters of Mother Courage and her Children by Bertolt Brecht

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A Deconstructive look at the Characters of Mother Courage and her Children by Bertolt Brecht
Introduction
Mother courage and her children is a play written in 1939 by Bertolt Brecht who is a German dramatist and poet. It is set during the thirty years’ war. It is about a woman called Mother Courage but her real name is Anna Fierling and her 3 children Eilif, Swiss Cheese and Kattrin. She tries to take care of them and protect them throughout the whole play. Her courage however, is as questionable as her motherhood. She gets the nickname mother courage from her loaves business. Balancing between being a mother and a woman in the war turns out hard for her. She in the end up losing all three children while following the war around Europe and end the Play alone with her wagon. This paper will seek to analyze how good character in us should not have to change; the community may just be what should change.
Character analysis
Our main angle for this paper is to examine the characters of the three children of mother courage. we look at how their traits though positive bring tragedies to all their lives and in the end costs each one of them their lives. Eilif will die from his courage; Swiss Cheese dies from his honesty and Kattrin from her compassion.
Character of Mother Courage
Mother of courage is denoted as a strong willed character who believes that everything is possible in life. She successfully and courageously negotiates with the cook to buy a fowl through her strong willed negotiation skills. This can be seen in the quote, “Look, this capon was no ordinary bird. It had what you might call talent. Rumor has it that it would eat only to music…” She is also persistent in nature and that is why she consistently followed the Swedish army throughout the Polish campaigns. She was a protagonist entrepreneur who used to sell food and goods to the armies. As a result we can therefore argue that she supported the war, since she got her livelihood from the warring armies. As quoted in “Food first, then morality”.
Swiss Cheese
Swiss Cheese also mentioned as Feyos is Courage’s youngest son. Courage feels that Swiss is far too honest for his own good. Swiss Cheese has the desire to be honest and useful but she only sees a simpleton. Brecht however, paints him as rather stupid. He takes a job as a paymaster of the second Finnish Regiment (Brecht Para 3). He is given the responsibility over the Swedish Army’s money. He is a hardworking kid and very loyal to his employers. He is highly trusted because of his honesty and from this we see him get in trouble.
There is an incidence where the Catholic forces attack and Swiss Cheese hides the regiment’s payroll (Brecht Para 6). His mother wants him to throw it away but he will not. They hide the money in their wagon. While trying to return the box to his general, he is captured by the Catholics. Cour...