AN ACTUALITY OF BERTHOLD BRECHT’S PLAY «MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN» AND KAREL CHAPEK’S «MOTHER»

Keywords: Berthold Brecht, Karel Chapek, «Mother Courage and her children», «Mother», play, war

Abstract

The article reveals an actuality of plays of the fi rst half of the twentieth century: Berthold Brecht «Mother Courage and her children» and Karel Chapek «Mother». On the example of the main characters and their children, it is shown that the war is incompatible with life. Two types are analyzed: Anna Firling, whose nickname is Courage (Berthold Brecht’s play «Mother Courage and her children») and Mother (Karel Chapek’s play «Mother»), who have different perceptions of the war, the military events and the loss of children. It is proved that writers in theirs plays warn against the war and bloodshed. Drawing parallels with the present day. Many writers turned to the theme of the war in the twentieth century. There are a lot of famous names among those who condemned the war in theirs creation, but anti-war motives occupy a special place at Bertolt Brecht and of Karel Chapek’s creation. Berthold Brecht’s play «Mother Courage and her children» and Karel Chapek’s play «Mother» are also powerful today, when military events are taking place on our lands, when human blood is shed every day, and mothers lose their children. Berthold Breacht wrote the play «Mother Courage and her children» in 1939 as a warning against the dangers of the Second World War. And who could think that this play would become so topical at the beginning of the twentyfirst century. For now, it can also be taken as a warning, because in our days mothers are losing their children, because in our days «someone» is trying to earn on the war. The playwright hoped that he would awaken the audience’s consciousness, make them think over «damned questions of the era», all in all, the viewer must see and understand that war brings an evil to the mankind. At the fi rst sight, Karel Chapek’s play «Mother» is a family-psychological drama. It’s about desperate mother’s attempts to save their children from sacrifi cial service to ideas. But Chapek goes far beyond a family drama. He tutns to conventional forms of stage stories and creates drama-parable, which is based on refl ections on the history of mankind, he interprets the confl ict of the drama as a clash between two eternal principles – male and female. The male brings death and war, and feminine – peace and life. In those two plays we see the events of the previous centuries. In our turn, we draw parallels between the twenty-fi rst century. War brings sorrow to peaceful towns and villages. There is no difference in that how people are dying: from the sword of the soldier or aircraft bomb. The war, at any times, is an element that organically hostile to humanity. But there are always people who benefi t from it. The war in literature is described differently. The writers have a common goal – to warn humanity from the danger of war. Any war has its beginning and its end. Even Thirty Years Wars ends. In the meantime peace will come to earth, thousands of families will lose their breadwinners, mothers will mourn their dead sons for ages. Bertolt Brecht and Karel Chapek propheticly warn humanity from admiration of false ideas, show the terrible side of war. Because the price
of war is human lifes.

Author Biography

Natalia Chernysh, SHEE «Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi Hryhorii Skovoroda State Pedagogical University»

Natalia Chernysh - Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, senior lecturer of the chair of Ukrainian and foreign literature and methodology

References

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Published
2017-12-29
How to Cite
Chernysh, N. (2017). AN ACTUALITY OF BERTHOLD BRECHT’S PLAY «MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN» AND KAREL CHAPEK’S «MOTHER». Theoretical and Didactic Philology, (26), 193-201. Retrieved from https://tdp-journal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/96