Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children: Marxist Concept of Alienation

Abstract

This paper intends to argue that Mother Courage, the main character of Bertolt Brecht’s play, Mother Courage and Her Children (1980), fails to support her children financially because of a socio-psychological state defined by Marx as “alienation”. Mother Courage’s attempt to maintain and secure financial profit leads to a tragic failure because her endeavor falls into the Marxist category of alienated labor. This reading intends to offer a study of the two major aspects of “alienation”– ‘alienation and identity,’ and ‘alienation and political,’– in selected play.