Graduate Course

Paper - IX D :
Modern European Drama

THE GOOD WOMAN OF SETZUAN

Bertolt Brecht

The Contents :

Introduction
A brief Life Sketch of Brecht
What is Epic Theatre?
The background of the theory of Epic Theatre.
The Story of the Good woman of Setzuan.
Scenewise Summary of the play.
A criticial analysis of the play.

Edited by:
Usha Anand

SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING

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 Academic Session 2012-13 (600 copy)

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Dear Student,

This Study material is on Bertolt Brecht's drama - The Good Woman of Setzuan, (a parable play)

The play presents the challenge that goodness faces from bad society. Shen Te the good woman
invents her tough cousin, to avoid being destroyed by the greed of others. Gradually this cousin Shui Ta
comes to coexist with her. The epic play leaves the question open for the reader/ audience to answer…

"What is the way for good men to arrive at happy ends".

The study material along with the play, will help you in arriving at an answer-

With best wishes

USHA ANAND
 THE GOOD WOMAN OF SETZUAN (SZECHUAN)

Bertolt Brecht

Part I

Introduction
Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg in what was then the Kingdom of Bavaria on 10th February
1898 and died in Berlin on 14th August 1956. Brecht is one of the great play wrights of modern times and
one of the most controversial. He was the exponent of the epic theatre but his plays do not always
conform strictly to his idea of the epic drama.

A brief Life Sketch of Brecht

During Brecht's youth, contemporary German Society was materialistic and chauvinistic. Brecht's
ideas did not go along with this prevailing attitude of his countrymen. He exposed through his writings the
hero who was a criminal at the same time. According to him, the glorification of such heroes was only a
subtle form of self indulgence.
Brecht's early upbringing was religious and he declared that the Bible had had the strongest influence
on his work. He belonged to a fairly well to do family and had a comfortable childhood.
He drifted to the communist party later on but was never totally acceptable to the communists. Ronald
Gray writes - "Many of his plays reveal a dichotomy - a continual inner dialogue between the claims of
absolute goodness, right, justice on the one hand, and a chameleon-like adaptation on the other". In a way
Brecht's drama may be described as a drama of paradox.
After Schooling, Brecht entered the University of Munich in 1917, as a Student of Medicine and
natural science. Next year he was called up for military service and joined the army. For nearly one year
he served as a medical orderly. He came back full of horror at the terrible cruelty of war. His poems
reflect the gruesome experiences he had. Actually these experiences brought him closer to the communist
party, the only party in real opposition, totally against Militarism. But by temperament, Brecht was more
of an anarchist so he delayed his explicit support to the communist party.
Brecht was unlike a typical German. They maintained their impeccable dress code even when in very
adverse circumstances. But he dressed himself like a mechanic with hair cut in a straight line across his
forehead. He went around in a crumpled shirt without a tie. At dazzling first nights where everyone is in
evening clothes, he would enter unshaven, wearing a black shirt. In the evening accompanying on the
banjo, Brecht sang the Ballad of the Dead Soldier, composed by himself. It described how they dug up a
soldier, patched him up and sent him back to the front. The "Pure German gentleman" answered this
Ballad with furious hatred. Those were days of turmoil in Germany. The fascists were about to grab
power. Brecht’s name was fifth on their murder list, an honour earned by his 'Ballad of the Dead Soldier'.
He has been described, as in the Berlin days, as the solitary intellectual cynic - one against many,
puncturing hypocrisy with his pen, his only weapon.
In his plays as part of his epic presentation he worked for coordination of speech and gesture "The
gesture precedes the word" said Brecht in his play. A Man's a man. The ironical treatment of the theme
shows the transformation of Galy Gay. Who could not say 'no' to a fascist, for whom other say 'no' and
'yes', while he yells only 'heil' The German bourgeois, was not amused. This play was hastily withdrawn
in 1931, after a few performances, from a respectable theatre in Berlin.
Brecht's desire was not to induce catharsis, but to change the attitude of the spectator. The change to
be carried outside the theatre.

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 He became associated with the drama world and worked with two of the leading producers of the
times. Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator Brecht himself produced plays in violently anti-sentimental,
antiromantic fashion. He dressed himself like a mechanic with haircut in a straight line across the top of
his forehead.
The production of the Threepenny opera in Berlin in 1928, made him famous overnight. As a poet
also he became famous at about the same time.
With the growth of the Nazi party, Brecht's Communist leanings became more explicit in his plays.
Early in 1932, his adaptation of Gorky's novel The Mother for the first time in all Brecht's work, held up
the Russian Revolution, as the model for workers in Germany.
But the Nazis banned the performance of the Mother and in 1933 Brecht and his family had a narrow
escape from Germany. The Nazis burnt the books of Brecht and after a brief sojourn in western Europe,
Brecht went to America in 1941. His most famous plays include - "Mother courage", "The Life of
Galileo", "The Good Woman of Setzuan", "Herr Puntila and his hired man Matti," "The Caucasian chalk
circle".
He returned to EastGermany after the war. He had taken some steps before settling there -Such as
retention of a bank account in Switzerland, and acquiring a passport of Austrian nationality - perhaps to
forestall any serious interference with his freedom as might be expected under any totalitarian regime. He
was offered by the East German Govt. his own Theatre to experiment at will. There he built up his
Berliner Ensemble'. his own theatre group. Brecht's theories and his dramatic practice did not always go
hand in hand. He was not rigid about his own writings either. Constant revision, alteration and
modification took place throughout the process of stage production under Brecht himself. Brecht died on
14th August 1956.

What is the Epic Theatre

According to Karl Marx - The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point
however, is to change it- Brecht's object was to apply this to the Theatre. Through his plays, he tried
precisely to change the material world by changing human attitude and opinions regarding social norms
and behaviour.
Brecht wanted to introduce the epic theatre in place of Aristotelian or dramatic theatre which had so
long existed. The most important feature of the epic theatre is the estrangement effect, that is the loss of
identification between the character on the stage and the audience. Once the spectator could look at the
dramatic character objectively, he should be able to judge the dramatic character and the action critically.
Brecht wanted drama to present a view of the world. In the epic theatre, unlike in the Aristotelian form,
each scene exists for itself, and the play develops by sudden leaps. In the Aristotelian drama, man is
revealed as known, and fixed. Evolutionary inevitability is shown in the Aristotelian drama, in the epic
form, we see man producing himself in course of the action, and is therefore subject to criticism and
change. The naturalist school of drama, which Brecht was actually opposing, excluded all alternatives by
its conventions of verisimilitude. (The appearance or semblance of truth).
Raymond Williams writes - "Essentially what Brecht created after a long experiment was a dramatic
form, in which men were shown in the process of producing themselves and their situations. This is, at
root, a dialectical form drawing directly on a Marxist Theory of history in which within given limits. Man
makes himself. Correpsondingly, the pure naturalist form (which in many actual naturalist plays were
diluted or qualified) depends on a simpler materialist view, in which man discovers the truth about
himself by discovering his real environment; the literal presentation of this environment is then a means to
human truth".
Brecht's method was one of critical detachment. Everything was 'open" in the sense that Brecht's
intention was to show "the action in the process of being made. He was not rigid about his own writing
either. Constant revision alteration and modification took place throughout the process of stage production
under Brecht himself. Passage of time and change of place are clearly indicated in the Brechtian Theatre-
through a placard or by a narrator, who sits at one side of the stage throughout. The character would talk
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directly to the audience, explaining and defining problems. The action would be commented upon or
announced by intervening or accompanying projections.
Central to his style is the 'Distance' between the audience and the action. In other words the emphasis
on the alienation effect remains vital to the dramatic technique of Brecht. So long in the naturalist theatre
the suspension of disbelief before an illusion of reality, was the accepted formula. Brecht projects the
reality of the illusion on the stage. The actors must also maintain the same distance from the characters
they portray on the stage.
The actor was not required to "live the part", as in the naturalist theatre. Brecht wanted his characters
to be presented objectively and critically by the actors.
The production and acting techniques apart, estrangement effects are built into the structure of a
Brechtian play. There is frequent duplication - of characters or events. Herr Puntila in his drunken
generous mood is different from the sober intolerant Puntila. The good woman Shen Te turns into the
harsh business man ShuiTa. The personalities are therefore neither fixed nor unalterable. There are songs
in the plays, commenting on or predicting the course of the action and thus interrupting it.
In his critical writing - "Little organon for the theatre", written in 1948, Brecht wrote - "Let us treat
the theatre as a place of entertainment------. The theatre was to be neither moralistic nor didactic, it was
merely to detach itself from the classical models that had suited former ages and produce entertainment,
adapted to our own age". So briefly the epic theatre would in theory present the dramatic action in a
manner which would make the audience objectively critical.
Instead of feeling pity and sympathy for the dramatic character, the audience in the epic theatre would
analyse and observe his actions. Brecht's own dramatic creations do not always conform to his critical
theories. Nevertheless some of his plays are great creations whether or not they conform to his theories.
The alienation technique (v. effekt, v standing for verfremdung) is explained at its simplest as the
means of making the happenings on the stage seem unfamiliar, strange. The spectator, as a result will
never identify himself with the stage character which would facilitate his judgement and assessment of the
dramatic character and action.
In distinguishing between the two types of drama, Brecht lists the following qualities of the two :-

Dramatic Form Epic Form

1) Active narrative
2) Involves the spectator in the stage action makes the spectator an observer
3) Consumes his capacity to act awakens his capacity to act
4) Allows him to have feelings demands decision from him.
5) Spectator drawn into something He is confronted with something.
6) Feelings are preserved Feeling driven into becoming realisations.
7) The spectator stands inside, experiences with the The spectator confronts and studies what he
characters. sees.
8) Man is assumed to be know Man is an object of investigation.
9) Man unalterable Man alterable and altering
10) Suspense is awaiting the outcome Suspense at the process.
11) One scene exists for another. Each scene for itself.
12) growth Montage

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 Dramatic Form Epic Form

13) Linear Progress in curves

14) evolutionary inevitability Sudden leaps
15) Man as fixed Man as a process
16) Thought determines being Social being determines thought
17) Feeling reason.

The Brechtian rejection of theatrical illusion is one of the most important traits of his theatre. He
treats the stage openly as a stage and not the real world, seen through a missing fourth wall. Brecht
considered empathy and illusion as poisonous for they destroy man's critical ability as Peter Demetz
says —
"Epic theatre is the theatre of destroyed illusions and wide-awake audience" and also "Epic acting
inscriptions projected upon the stage, a particular use of songs, music, choreography and scenic design,
which counteracts the fable, commenting on rather than supporting it — all of these elements alienate
certain events of the play from the realm of the ordinary, natural and expected, and make them,
surprisingly new and strange" - Peter Demetz - Introduction to 'A collection of critical essays on Brecht'
(Prenctice Hall - 1962).
While in exile in scandinavia and the U. S. A. Brecht wondered whether and how it could be possible
for man to retain his natural goodness and kindness amidst rising political violence and economic
adversity and ruthless exploitation.
Through this thought process, Brecht embarks upon creating his split characters such as Shen
Te/ShuiTa, or the drunk/sober Puntila. In the The Good Woman of Setzuan (1938-42) the good woman
Shen Te has to take help of her other self ShuiTa, in order to survive. "As ShuiTa she safeguards her
livelihood but cripples her life; as Shen Te she fulfils her life but forfeits her livelihood (w. sokel). Brecht
used many of the devices of Expressionist drama, such as episodic structure, unity derived from theme or
thesis, and non illusionist visual elements. Unlike the Expressionists though Brecht, did not consider that
appearance is false. He focussed the attention of the audience on the real conditions, political and Social
and reduced their empathy in the dramatic characters. He hoped that way he could reduce the spectator to
work for changes in society outside the theatre.
"The Good Woman is a parable about the difficulties of remaining good under existing social
conditions. Shen Te, the good woman is soon betrayed and exploited.
She invents ShuiTa, her tough cousin to overcome this problem. In other words, she lets the ruthless
side of her character dominate her actions. With passage of time, she is forced to take on the role of
ShuiTa, more frequently "Brecht uses this device to suggest the progressive deterioration of morality".
The play ends in a stalemate, for the Gods leave Shen Te with the message "Be good", and she is no
nearer to knowing how to accomplish this".
from :
O. G. Brockett, L. Brockett; Introduction to An Anthology of World Drama (P-XVI)
In the play The Good Woman, we have alternatively Short and Long Scenes. The action is broken up
and commented upon by the short scenes. The insertion of songs and speeches in the long scenes, presents
Brecht's ideas about Society. The problem of Shen Te is a universal problem and it may be solved through
taking the right social and political action.

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The Background of the Theory of Epic Theatre & Evolution of Brecht's Dramatic Career
Epic theatre is widely associated with Brecht; and evolution of Brecht's dramatic career but the term
was in use before Brecht adapted it.
Erwin Piscator, highly talented Director of Germany's proletarian theatre movement between 1927-
1930 used the term in his Political Theatre (1929). Structurally Piscator used various mechanical devices.
Revolving platforms, Conveyer belts, escalators, elevators, rising and failing stage levels, were used in the
production of plays by Piscator. According to him, the theatre would launch a movement for the working
class and the stage is to be used as a platform for social and political debate and discussion. The drama
would be epic drama of a narrative sequence without the trappings of a well made play. In 1928 Piscator
produced in Berlin, Hasek's The Good Soldier Schweik' in collaboration with Brecht. Piscator appealed to
the reason of the audience and he assumed that the result of this rational enlightenment would be to kindle
the flame of revolt among the workers' and he tried to convert their every performance into a public
demonstration. Though Brecht was deeply influenced by Piscator, he rejected the identification either of
the actor or of the audience with events on stage. This is the point where he differed from Piscator in
distancing the stage action from the audience and producing the estrangement effect. There was a long
standing tradition of political drama in Germany. Before the Nazis came to power in Germany, frequent
street fights took place between them and communists. Brecht's plays till the late 1930s, reflected the
mood of the times, though his plays lacked the intolerance of some of the Agitprop plays.
What Brecht opposed was that the Spectator should identify himself with the character on the stage.
He should not indulge in the willing suspension of disbelief and should not accept the happenings in the
theatre and outside it as something unchangeable and inevitable. Starting with Piscator’s model of the epic
theatre he was one with him in opposing, Stanislavsky's method of perfecting the illusionistic theatre by
promoting the actor identifying with the role he enacted. Stanislavsky the founder of a new method of
intense and introspective acting, was a young member of the Moscow art theatre (1890s').
The famous producers Piscator and Reinhardt, during the time, when Brecht started his career, wanted
the involvement of the audience in the events of the stage. Reinhardt's production of the "Death of
Danton" seated the actors in the auditorium, so that the theatre became the French revolutionary tribunal.
Brecht was deeply influenced by the two and acknowledged his own debt to Piscator, describing his
as "without doubt one of the most important theatre men of all times".
But his important difference with Piscator was in 'distancing' the stage action in inducing a critical and
questioning response. The word verfremdung, '(alienation), in Brecht's drama actually means that 'reality
not only ceases to be taken for granted, but is seen reconstructed with new eyes''.
(Ronald Gray — Brecht —Page 76)
The term epic, has had for Brecht sources other than the political theatre of Erwin Piscator and
German Agitprop (Agitation Propaganda). He was also influenced by Expressionists, the carbaret of
Frank Wedekind, and the the music hall comedian Karl Valentin, Charlie Chaplin and American Silent
film; by the revolutionary Soviet theatre also by Shakespeare and Elizabethan chronicle plays. Japanese
'Noh' plays with their non realistic and highly stylized conventions, had an impact on Brecht's plays. The
Noh actors directly speak to the audience, and serious issues are dealt with simply and objectively. The
technique of self-controlled 'demonstration' in Chinese acting was appreciated by Brecht, when he
witnessed the acting of the Chinese actor Mei Lan-fang in Moscow in 1935. His first major play Baal
(1918) is episodic like the later plays. This connects the play to what Brecht defined as "epic theatre", an
important trait of which is a collection of scenes.
Brecht kept on developing his dramatic theory. He wanted to establish 'a theatre fit for a Scientific
age". In the Short Organon in 1948 he writes that the theatre should be socially productive as well as
aesthetically pleasurable. It is wrong to say that Brecht barred amusement and feelings from the theatre.
He wanted to prevent empathy (one type of feeling) and shake the spectator out of torpor, and encourage
the pleasures of a productive life. The object of epic theatre was to 'examine' and not just to stimulate

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emotion. The aesthetic that finally emerged from Brecht's modified theories may therefore be called
'dialectical aesthetic.
The picaresque story of Baal's life reproduces the expressionist stationen drama "The form of
stationen drama is often adhered to by Pirandello, and achieves its acts and subdivisions by means of
some event or foreign element which breaks off the action at the 'right' place. Connected with the idea of
the stationen drama and its tempting loose structure are the plays which are built on an inversion of the
time concept and its aspect of cause and effect. Thus Act II may chronologically follow Act III as in
Priestley's Time and the conways (Aesthetic Distance in contemporary theatre by Oscar Badel, from
PMLA XXVI 1961).
The archetypal expressionist play becomes stationen drama (a passion play in the sense that each
scene corresponds to one of the stations of the cross, on a road to redemption or to Calvary (From
Modernist Drama by Martin Esslin).
The other play of Brecht In the Jungle of Cities 1923, has an exuberance of language, one of the traits
of the expressionist theatre. The other influences which are prominent in the early Brech are the idea of
the futurists.
--The drama as a sporting contest, its anticipation of the surrealist and absurdist drama on its
insistence on a motiveless action and rejection of psychology.
Moreover according to one critic "With the true ambivalence of a real poet Brecht has also infused a
great deal of genuine feeling, even a degree of a biographical self-identification between himself and Baal
into the characters of the wild Bohemian whose destructiveness is merely an expression of his mystic
belief that life has to be accepted in all its beauty and horror".
Baal is an irresponsible individualist. Brecht said that Baal was "antisocial in an antisocial society"'.
His early plays —Drums in the Night', 'In the Jungle of cities', 'A Man's a Man'. 'The Threepenry Opera'
'Rise and Fail of the Town of Mahagonny' has been described as less the attempt to change the society,
and more attempts to come to terms with his own personality-
Short Story in 1921, 'Bargan lets it be', Bargan, the protagonist, allows himself to be degraded by a
worthless devilish character Croze. (It brings to mind the case of Shen Te, in The Good Woman, staking
her all for the sake of the worthless airman sun) Bargan wants to imbibe a wide knowledge of the devilish
side of human nature, by aligning himself with the murderer Croze. From another point of view Bargan's
self sacrifice has a religious overtone. It seems, sometimes in Brecht's play brutality and cruelty are shown
as necessary evils. In the "Good Woman" the disregard of normal humanity by shuita is abhorrent to
ShenTe. But Shui Ta the other part of ShenTe's personality, has to behave the way he does, to maintain
order and balance, Brecht siad that the theatre must entertain in a way suitable to our own age, in other
words, a theatre scientific in mood. The theatre should be treated as a place of entertainment. We come
across these views in the Little Organon for the Theatre (1948). In the same essay, Brecht writes "Society
can derive enjoyment even from the antisocial, while it displays vitality and greatness". All attempts at
refashioning society successful or not, give us a feeling of triumph and confidence in the possibility of
change in all things. Change is welcomed for its own sake for example by Galileo in Brecht's Play. The
highest pleasure is the morally - unmoved witnessing of such change. In the Life of Galileo, the sheer
dynamism of the flux of life is welcomed. This is unlike the earlier propagandist plays, where the
structure of society was sought to be altered for the benefit of the undeprivileged.
In the words of Ronald Gray "in these last words of the Organon (Where he says 'the theatre should
not even be expected to teach, at all events nothing more useful than how to conduct oneself pleasurably,
whether in a physical or an intellectual sense') Brecht reverts to an attitude akin to that he had expressed
through Baal; the all accepting amoral delight in the dreadful as well as in the more obviously pleasurable
consequences of being alive.........
Brecht's aesthetics reveal their weakest point, in their complete irrelevence to tragedy, their insistence
that the tragedies of the past as presented by Shakespeare and sophocles are now to be presented as
avoidable........,

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 Human history is full of catastrophes; individual and national which could not be controlled, tragedy
has relentlessly confronted these, grasping at the worst enduring it without pessimism or resignation. For
this form of drama "Brecht has no place. For the millions, who even in recent years have seen final and
inevitable disaster, disaster which when it came could only be met in the spirit and in faith Brecht has no
word to offer.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Lei, the most effective of the his anti-nazi plays was completed in
Finland in 1941, in colloboration with Margaret Steffin. In this play. Hitler was meant to be understood,
as a product of capitalism.
The five plays of later years, are the best written by Brecht The life of Galileo, Mother Courage, The
Good Woman of Setzuan, Herr Puntilla and his Man Matti, The Caucasian Chalk Circle — all display a
general human interest - Those plays invite the spectator to consider how he should have conducted
himself in similar circumstances. In these plays more compassion is shown for ordinary human failure.
These plays show more tolerance than the rigidity shown in earlier plays, may be the rigours of exile had
generated more understanding in Brecht, or the real face of communism were being gradually realised.
Galileo had pursued knowledge and scientific research in isolation and the play implied that the direct
fallout was the horror of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. The question mark on the suggested
solutions at the end of the drama, marks the mature later plays of Brecht, and that also brings about the
essentially epic trait of these plays.
It is said that tragedy is out of place in modern setting. A statement by a modern critic makes amusing
reading if Oedipus were to put his eyes out to day, Creon would probably call an ambulance".
Mother courage, is one of the best plays by Brecht, and is typical epic drama, Mother courage earns a
living off war, which goes on, it seems infinitely. She sells food, drink and equipment from her wagon, to
the soldiers. She feeds her children from the profit but ultimately all her children are lost to her through
direct or indirect effects of war. She is shown dragging the wagon alone behind first the protestant and
then the catholic army. At the end Brecht depicts in Mother courage, how things stand and the final effect
is one of the sense of waste.
After this short discussion of a few of Brecht's great plays, it is clear that his mature work has, above
all, human interest and warm compassion, the qualities that rank him among the great playrights of
modern times.
In the words of Martin Esslin, the biggest question mark on Brechts total achievement, has been "how
far is it possible to be committed to a political creed and yet to produce works which like all of the
Greatest Literature, are of universal validity and appeal to all mankind? Brecht was by nature in his early
life, without much sense of purpose or direction. Baal his first play has no social relevance.
Gradually he started feeling concern for the lot of the working calsses, but his subsequent plays such
as "A Man's a Man ", and the "Three-Penny Opera", still do not make his stand point very clear. Through
in these plays elements of his well-known alienation are introduced. In his adaptation of the English
'Beggar's Opera' (by John Gay) he satirises society in general and even the revolution that the playwright
seems to demand. 'Rise and Fall of the Town of Mahagonny', is again a satire on the capitalist way of life.
The Measures Taken, St. Joan of the. Stockyards, The Mother, are plays with clear cut doctrinaire
approach showing Brecht openly sympathizing with the communists. His later plays reveal his tolerance
and sympathy, without any trace of the earlier rigidity and doctrinaire approach. Many of his plays appeal
for their contemporary relevance. The problem faced by the good woman, is universal "Why are bad
deeds rewarded and good ones punished" How to retain the essential human values and defend goodness
against the onslaught of evil. Throughout ages, across the world, goodness has been exploited, trampled
upon and ignored by selfishness and meanness.
In The Life of Galileo, again Brecht has left the question upon regarding the Tightness of Galileo's
action. The ambivalence of the playwright's attitude in these plays, make their interpretation more
difficult. In Galileo, perhaps, Brecht was looking for a character who compromises to gain the confidence

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of a strong adversary, to be able to survive to fight for another day. He makes a show of total submission
to the Roman Catholic Church, to be able to continue his forbidden research. However in the case of Shen
Te, no such definite aim is in sight. She has to disrupt her natural way of life by taking recourse to a dual
personality, in order to survive. She is not a genius, a great Scientist nor a Theoretician Nevertheless, she
is unable to follow her instincts and be her own self without being exploited and abused by the very
people who are benefited by her generosity. In her acquired persona of being Shui Ta, She is more
acceptable in her ruthlessness. This Paradoxical situation brings up layers of truth, defying easy solutions.
These plays make us think and the avowed aim of the epic theatre is displayed. But the empathy is not
absent. Surely we do feel for the girl Shen Te's Predicament and respond to her appeal lost on the gods,
Galileo, of course is not projected as a hero, and we are free to draw our own conclusions regarding his
action.
Brecht's major plays. Mother courage, The Good Woman of Setzuan, The Life of Galileo, The
Caucasian Chalk Circle all belong to a period between 1937-1945. If his plays are given all the traits,
which he thought essential for his epic theatre, still the spectator's response to the action is an element
beyond the control of the dramatist. Some crities have preferred the term "open" theatre to the epic, as
Brecht adopted a critical detachment in his methods of writing, producing and acting. In contrast to the
naturalist theatre, the open presentation shows the action in the process of being made.
"What happens on the stage is not so much lived as shown and both the consciousness of an audience,
and the distance between the audience and the delibrately played action, are made central to the style.
According to Brecht a work of art shows characters and events as historically determined subject to
change and contradictory by their very nature. It is directed toward all people of good will ............ It
reveals that as result of the creation of a society free from exploitation, human creative possibilities will
develop the dimensions unheard of until now" ("On the Artistic orginality of Bertolt Brecht's Drama" - by
I Fradkin, Translated by Ruth Crego from Voprosy Literatury (Moscow) December 1958.
His faith in man was emphasized when he stressed the strength of the people, and wanted to make
them conscious of it.
According to Brecht's theory there is no inevitable fate, there is need for people to know-that historic
conditions influencing social relations can definitely be changed and have always changed. This
confidence in the instability of an unfair and exploiting social order is to be built up by the art of what
Brecht defines as socialist realism, at the same time inspiring people to change the society.
He thoroughly, studied Marx's Kapital during the vacation in October 1926. The same year he laid the
foundation for his theory of the epic theatre.
At the end of year 1926 his comedy A Man's a Man was performed, and according to Brecht this was
his first work which met the conditions of epic theatre. The Marxist world view which Brecht adopted
brought for him new social tasks as an artist and for him the key to accomplish these tasks, was his theory
of the epic theatre. This artistic integrity and responsibility made him constantly rewrite and correct his
own writings, and he was ready to incorporate and adapt all constructive suggestions and ideas. He was
indifferent though to historical discrepancies. The action of the Good Woman takes place in Setzuan, but it
could happen anywhere. The readers and spectators could apply the situation anywhere under the sun and
thus break from the narrow local historical conditions. This is a point which universalizes Brecht's play
and adds to its relevance. The exotic settings free from familiarity more easily takes on the form of a
parable, in which some of his plays are written.

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 Part II
COMMENTS PROLOGUE

We are introduced to Wong the water seller. His role is akin to the chorus in the play. He is poor and
we are provided with a glimpse into the life of a typical poor labourer. He has to work hard without any
hope of adequate return. And then again as a typical poor man, he believes that gods alone can save the
situation. While trying to guess who the gods are, Beecht's irony is evident when Wong speaks of some
people who cannot be gods, as they have to work. Gods are benevolent, wong says as they don't beat
people like some others. The treatment of the situation is throughout ironical Wong makes false excuses
to the gods, as they are denied shelter by one man after another. And, there is amusing treatment of the
awkwardness of the gods who pay Shen Te, for the night shelter. Even the gods are liable to be
misunderstood and they too care for their reputation "But don't tell anyone" they are on the defensive and
assert that it was never decreed that a god must not pay hotel bills. Gods too are subject to limitations!-----

Comments on Scene I
The gods have been generous to Shen Te. The brazen attitude of Mrs. Shin, the previous owner of
Shen Te's newly acquired Tobacco shop, is shown, when she finds fault with Shen Te, insulting her
gratuitously.
Hordes of hangers on descend on Shen Te's shop. The hospitality of the good woman, ShenTe, is
taken for granted and uncalled for advices offered. The process of exploitation begins, which will end as
we know, in the creation of the dual personality Shen Te/Shui Ta. Actually the other self of Shen Te, i.e.
shui Ta, is a product of the insistence of people, who want all Shen Te's generosity for themselves. Human
nature is shown in a very poor light. Those who have come to seek help from the kind girl, want to snatch
the maximum, without any consideration for her.

Comments Scene II
Shui Ta - The tough cousin appears on the scene, to the dismay of all concerned. In this scene, we
note how stern authority pays dividend. Shui Ta is friends with the policeman and the old couple come
like a whiff of fresh air to offer friendship without any axe to grind. The policeman is a sensible man of
the world. Marriage is a practical way out for Shen Te, who cannot meet her pressing economic
requirements. It is a business proposition in which the only consideration that matters, is how to pay six
months rent

Comments - Scene III

Yang Sun, the unemployed pilot, and two women, who sell themselves, and Shen Te may be seen
here. The dejection and desperation of the economically deprived are shown. The pilot is trying to commit
suicide, he is bitter and ironical.
Shen Te's innate goodness is shown in her compassion, she takes pity on the pilot and pays wong for a
cup of water for him, even though it is raining.

Comments - Scene III A

The gods are happy to know that Shen Te is continuing to be good. The continued irony of Brecht, in
treating the gods, makes the latter appear to be comic figures. They are befuddled regarding the nitty
gritty of "business" they seek to banish Shen Te's cousin from her door and insists on her keeping strictly
to the book of rules.

9
Comments -Scene IV
People who have started taking Shen Te's generosity for granted, easily indulge in gossip against her.
There is violence against the poor, but nobody is prepared to stand by the injured Wong except Shen Te.
Throwing caution to the winds Shen Te is ready to stand as eye witness. Shen Te's generous character
comes out. She forgets about her personal interest in promising help to others. Her freshness of mind still
lets her enjoy the sights and sounds of nature, of the early morning.

Comments on Scene V
Yang Sun gives himself away. He is exposed as the most selfish and is in a hurry to get for himself
money in a way that may ruin Shen Te. He has no intention of taking Shen Te with him. She is no more
than a millstone round his neck, Shu Fu, the rich man wants to assist Shen Te, but for a price. Though he
does not ostensibly have any motive. And the scene shows how Shen Te does not understand, how to
defend herself against the hypocrisy of the sweet talking Yang Sun.

Comments on Scene VI
We have in this scene further exposure of Yang Sun and the real motive of the mother and son. Shen
Te cannot sell the Shop for him as she has to settle the claim of the old couple for two hundred pounds.
They had lent her the money, when she badly needed it, now Yang Sun and his mother decide that he will
not marry her without the money. The man is a cheat, he thinks nothing of cheating even his mother,
ultimately the proposed wedding ends on a fiasco. The marriage between Shen Te and Yang Sun never
takes place.

Comments on Scene VII

We get a further glimpse in to the selfless attitude of Shen Te and her dreams about her unborn son,
she is about to lose the shop but keeps on sheltering the weak and the needy. People continue to abuse her
hospitality. Shui Ta tries to invervene and stop Shen Te from getting totally ruined.

Comments on Scene VII

With the change for the better in the attitude of Yang Sun and he doing his best for the firm, perhaps
Brecht is implying that being soft in trying to be good to others, is not always in the best interest of the
beneficiary. It is not Shen Te's yielding to all his unreasonable ways, that brought out the best in Yang
Sun. It is Shui Ta's tough talk that brought out the best in Yang Sun and proves his mettle.

Comments on Scene IX
Rumour is rife regarding the whereabouts of Shen Te. The target of easy exploitation is missing, so
people are alarmed and Shui Ta is suspect.

Comments on Scene X
In the court room scene, problems get more compounded. The double identity of Shen Te/Shui Ta is
revealed. The gods masquerading as judges cannot offer any solution to Shen Te's predicament. They go
by the rule book, which is impossible to follow. If goodness goes unchecked, it will end up ruining itself.
The paradox of life comes through the statement of Shen Te - I've got to defend myself against The
barber, because I. don't love him! And against Sun because I do love Him!", The audience of the epic
drama has to look for a solution and answer the query - How could a better ending be arranged ? The
audience has to write the happy ending to the play.

10
The Story of the Good Woman of Setzuan
The play was written between 1938-1941.
The Good Woman of Setzuan is a parable about the problems of remaining good under the existing
adverse social and economic conditions.
Three gods come to Setzuan in search of at least one good person. Wong, the water-seller looks for a
shelter for the gods to stay for the night. He finds only Shen Te, the prostitute ready to accommodate
them. She foregoes a client for the night to shelter the gods. Though she needed the money from the client
to pay her rent.
The gods are highly pleased with her and ask her to remain good, in spite of all the difficulties in the
way of remaining good. Problems of day to day living, Shen Te says, has made it unavoidable for her to
live on her immoral earnings. The gods offer some money to Shen Te. They want her to keep it a secret.
Shen Te, they feel, will be able to make use of the money and have a better life and be able to remain
good.
Shen Te buys a tobacco shop. But before she can start business, all sorts of people come to her with
all sorts of demands of shelter, of money, of food, of exorbitant claim for work done for the shop.
Shen Te is almost ruined in trying to meet all the demands. She invents a cousin Shui Ta to deal with
the situation. This man cuts down every one to size. He goes about in a business like manner. And soon
every body understands that he is not going to tolerate any nonsense. He makes friends with the
policeman who suggests that Shen Te should marry a rich man to solve her financial worries.
An old couple have a carpeat shop across the square.
The lady comes to make friends with Shen Te; Actually Shui Ta is the other self of Shen Te. She has
to take the help of the tough calculating side of her character, to counteract the over generous impulses of
her feminine self as Shen Te. Shen Te falls in love with an unemployed airman, Yang Sun. She is
prepared to sacrifice her shop, her only means of livelihood to get money which he needs to get
employment as a pilot. The man is totally unscrupulous and is ready to abandon Shen Te after he gets
money from her to serve his needs. He exposes himself to Shui Ta. Shui Ta sets up a factory to enable
Yang Sun and also the other dependents of Shen Te, to work and earn their bread. But this leads her to
become more ruthless. She wants to safeguard her unborn son's interest. "I will study to defend him/ To be
good to you, my son, / I shall be tigress to all others/ If I have to."
She had realised that following her charitable impulses, she will be ruined in no time, by ever
increasing demands on her generosity, ShuiTa, therefore comes to her rescue, But Shui Ta is hauled up
before the court on charges of murdering Shen Te. Shen Te has vanished in the presence of Shui Ta. as
Shen Te and Shui Ta are the same person. In the court the gods come disguised as judges. ShuiTa/Shen Te
recognises them and tells them why she has put on the disguise of her male cousin.
To be good to others and myself at the same time/I could not do it/ your world is not an easy one,
illustrious ones. When we extend our hand to a beggar, he tears it off for us.
When we help the lost, we are lost ourselves Since not to eat is to die.
Who can long refuse to be bad?
As I lay prostrate beneath the weight of good intentions
Ruin stared me in the face
It was when I was unjust that I ate good meat and hobnobbed with the mighty.
Why ?
Why are bad deeds rewarded?
Good ones punished ?

11
 The gods however insist that she should continue to be good. They overlook all her bad deeds as mere
unfortunate coincidences. At most they allow her to take help of her bad cousin once a month. Ignoring
Shen Te's cry for help, the gods disappear.
The epilogue requestes the audience "to find a way". To help good men arrive at happy
ends.......There's got to be a way".

Scenewise Summary of the Play

The Good Woman of Setzuan is a parable about the difficulties of remaining kind and humane under
the constraints of existing economic and social conditions.
The good woman Shen Te, known as the Angel of the slums, is always ready to help others. In this
endeavour, she gets throughly exploited and betrayed by the very people whom she helps. In order to
survive she invents a ruthless cousin Shui Ta. Shui Ta puts everything in order and does not allow
anybody to take advantage of the goodness of Shen Te But the dilemma is not resolved. The gods, who
had come to Setzuan in search of at least one good person, were happy to find Shen Te. At the end Shui
Ta is exposed, she has the double identity of both Shui Ta and Shen Te. Shen Te confesses to have
allowed ShuiTa (the evilside of her character) to take over, in order to survive. The gods want her to
remain good, with only occasional help from ShuiTa, the other self of hers.
In the epilogue the audience is asked to find a solution to the problem of how to remain good in the
face of all the prevailing meanness and exploitation "there must, there's got to be a way".
The play alternates short and long scenes. As you already know that in the epic theatre each scene
exists for itself. The short scenes break up and comment on the action. The long scenes have songs and
speeches delivered directly to the audience. Another way of bringing about the reality of the illusion. The
spectators are made to realise that they are in a theatre and are asked to exercise their judgement to decide
what should be the course of action.
In the Prologue, we learn a lot about the setting and the background of the action of the play. The
good woman - Wong the water seller, introduces himself. He talks of his own problem of securing and
selling water in different seasons - dry and wet. He has heard rumours of the presence of gods in the
neighbourhood, who he hopes may solve the problems of poverty.
The gods indeed arrive, looking for at least one good person. They are looking for a shelter for the
night. Trying to help them. Wong comes across Shen Te. She sells herself to pay the rent of her room.
Still she decides to forego her earning for the night, to accommodate the gods. In the morning the gods
leave. They are highly pleased with Shen Te. She is asked to remain good, but it is not easy she says.
Economic constraints do not allow her to practise her good intentions. So the gods pay her a handsome
amount, with which she should be able to indulge in her charitable wishes.
Scene I - A small tobacco shop, not fully furnished,
Shen Te has started business she bought a tobacco shop with the money, the gods gave her, from one
Mrs. Shin, who has already asked for rice from Shen Te. This morning she arrives with complaints and
demands rice and cash from Shen Te and starts screaming at and threatening her. Immediately after, a
stream of people with more demands on Shen Te's charity, descends on her shop. We come to know from
her that they had put her up when she first came from the country. The audience is also informed by Shen
Te that "when my small purse was empty, they put me out on the street". This family of eight, make
themselves at home at Shen Te's expense and they are very unwilling to let her help anybody else.
A carpenter comes for being paid for the shelves he had installed. As Shen Te can not make
immediate payment, he gets rude. As a quick remedy the hangers-on urge Shen Te, to invent a cousin.
Seeing no way out Shen Te mentions ShuiTa, her cousin, a supposedly all-powerful man. When Mrs.
MiTzu insists on a good reference for Shen Te, the cousin; comes in very handy. That's how Shen Te
somehow wards off her immediate threats. Her small place is almost taken over by the grabbing lot of
people, who fight among themselves.

12
 The scene closes with Shen Te's song -
"The little lifeboat is swiftly sent down
Too many men too greedily
Hold on to it as they drown"

Scene IA-Wong's den in a sewer pipe.

He is scared to face the gods, as he was not aware that Shen Te had given them shelter. But the gods
appear in his dream and ask him to report on Shen Te's good activities. They continue in the meanwhile to
search for other good people.

Scene II —
Mr. Shui Ta, Shen Te's cousin appears on the scene. The parasitic crowd in Shen Te's shop, are
expecting Shen Te to bring them breakfast. There is a lot of heated exchange between them and ShuiTa.
First they refuse to accept him as the genuine relation of Shen Te, then they hope that Shen Te will come
and send him away. When Shui Ta shows......firmness, they send a boy to steal food from the bakery. The
carpenter comes, demanding a hundred silver dollars for the shelves, he had made for the shop. Shui Ta
rejects the claim as too exhorbitant. He offers him twenty silver dollars. The carpenter has to settle for this
reduced sun, which he does sullenly.
A policeman appears and seems to be; on excellent terms with Shui Ta. ShuiTa asks the crowd to
leave. The policeman takes all of them away, as it is clear that they are hand in glove with the boy, who
has come to the shop with stolen goods.
Mrs. Mi Tzu, Shen Te's land lady, turns up next. She demands six months rent, payable in advance.
She speaks ill of Shen Te and looks askance at the police man who has re-entered.
The police man helps himself to two cigars from the shop, and suggests that to get out of her financial
problems, Shen Te must get a husband - "We can't pay six months rent, So what do we do? We marry
money". He prepares an ad in this connection to be given in the paper, and hands it ove to ShuiTa. In the
meantime an old lady has come to the shop to buy a cigar. She and her husband have a carpet shop across
the square and wants to be good neighbours.

Scene III ----

Shen Te meets the unemployed pilot Yang Sun trying to hang himself from a large willow tree. It
starts raining and both of them take shelter under the tree. Yang Sun is indignant at others, who are
employed, though they are not good pilots. Shen Te's talking stops Yang Sun from taking his own life.
They become friends : Yang Sun is very thirsty, for two days he has not eaten anything. Wong, the water
seller, enters, singing. He sings that he cannot sell his water, as it is raining. Shen Te buys a cup of water
for yang sun and runs to him with it. But he is fast asleep and Shen Te is in love.

Scene IIIA ---Wong's den

The Gods appear again to Wong in a dream. They eagerly listen to wong's report of all the good deeds
done by Shen Te. They are happy but a little upset to know about her cousin Shui Ta's unkind treatment of
the carpenter. First of all they say "he must never darken her threshold again”. Next they are somewhat
puzzled to know that he is a business man. They know nothing of business, and what is customary there.
But they firmly state that 'Such a thing must not occur again'. But wong tells them that they "should not
ask too much- all-at-once".
Scene IV-- The square in front of Shen Te’s tobacco shop- Morning. The carpet shop and the barber’s
also are seen outside. Shen Te’s shop- the Grand father, the sister-in-law, the unemployed man, and Mrs.
Shin, wait. They are waiting for rice, to be brought by Shen Te. They are commenting on her undesirable
conduct of staying out all night. The barber, Shu fu, a fat man comes chasing Wong the water seller. He
13
strikes his hand with a hot curling iron, for pestering his customers to buy his water. All who are present
witness the incident.
She Te comes, happy to have woken up early and observing the beauty of Setzuan in the morning.
She distributes the rice, she has brought. Shen Te goes into the carpet shop, watched by admiring Shu Fu.
Shen Te comes out of the shop with its owner- an old man and his wife, the old woman. She is buying a
shawl from them. They will give her a reduction as there is a little hole in it.
This old couple want to help her with two hundred Silver dollars for payment of her rent, falling due
next Monday. They feel happy to help her, as Shen Te says that it is love that got her into difficulties.
Next Shen Te sees the wound of Wong she is indignant and as Wong wants to go to the judge, to
claim compensation, she wants to act as an eye witness. Others, who had actualy seen the incident, avoid
going to the police. Yang Sun's mother, Mrs. Yang comes. She tells Shen Te that Yang Sun needs five
hundred Silver dollars to fly again. Shen Te gives her the two hundred dollars, given to her, by the old
couple, for payment of rent. She is thinking of how to raise the remaining three hundred dollars, that yang
sun would need to pay to the people who would allow him to fly once again. She feels overjoyed that her
lover would be able to fly again and she sings.
Scene IVA - in front of the inner curtain space Enter Shen Te, carrying Shui Ta's mask. She sings.
With Shui Ta's mask on .....
"'You can only help one of your luck less brothers
By trampling down a dozen others.
Why is it the gods donot feel indignation
And come down in fury to end exploitation
Defeat all defeat and forbid desperation
Refusing to tolerate such toleration?"
Why is it ?
Scene V -- Shen Te's tobacco shop
ShuiTa is reading the paper and Mrs. Shin is cleaning up. She is talking of Shu Fu's interest in Shen
Te. She goes out but again sneaks into the backroom to eavesdrop as Yang Sun enters the shop.
Yang Sun's character as an unscrupulous, selfish man comes out in his conversation with ShuiTa. He
will pay five hundred silver dollars to the director of the Peking airfield to get the job of a pilot. The
director will dismiss one of the present pilots, on a false charge of negligence. Mrs. Mi Tzu comes and
agrees to buy the tobacco shop, which yang sun wants to sell for the remaining three hundred dollars.
ShuiTa wants to sell the shop for five hundred dollars. Mrs. Mi Tzu wants to pay only three hundred.
Yang Sun doesn't care even when ShuiTa tells him that Shen Te has to pay two hundred dollars to the old
couple, who lad lent her the amount. Yang Sun doesn't want the promise to pay back to be honoured, since
there is nothing in writing. Shui Ta tells him that two people can't travel for nothing, so he has to have
more money. Now Yang Sun makes his intention clear, that he will leave behind shen Te, and is very
casual in his answer to Shui Ta's query, as to how Shen Te is going to live. Shen Te is sure to sell the
shop, being a woman that is the belief of Yang Sun. He helps himself to a box of cigar and leaves the
shop.
Shu Fu comes next, with offers of help. He is ready to give to her, his cabins behind the cattle run as
shelter for the homeless. Wong comes in with a police man to request Shen Te, to give evidence on his
behalf, against Shu Fu. ShuiTa tells Wong that Shen Te won't do it. Shu Fu tells Yang Sun, as he comes in
that he is engaged to Shen Te But it does not take Yang Sun, long to make Shen Te change her attitude.
He appeals to her emotions and sentiments. Shen Te's softer side responds and throwing reason to the
winds, she goes out with Yang Sun.
"I want to go with the man I love.

14
 I don't want to count the cost
I don't want to consider if its wise.
I don't want to know if he loves me
I want to go with the man I love".
Scene VA — In front of the inner curtain.
Shen Te is on the way to her wedding.
She has met the old woman, the wife of the carpet dealer. She wants back the two hundred dollars.
She had lent to Shen Te. She is sorry she had forgotten them, and now she has promised to pay them back.
She thinks Yang Sun would rather work in the cement factory, than owe his flying to a crime.
Scene VI — The private dining room in a cheap restaurant. Shen Te and others with a priest. Yang
Sun talking to his mother, downstage.
Yang Sun tells his mother that Shen Te says she can't sell the shop for him, as she has to settle the
loan of somebody else. The mother says then he should not marry her. She goes out to find ShuiTa.
Mother and son want to talk to him. Shen Te fondly says that she wasn't mistaken in him i.e. Though for
Yang Sun giving up flying must have been a great blow, still he is bearing up well. They drink a toast
together. Mrs. Yang comes back and says that the expected guest has not arrived. The priest wants to
leave as he is getting delayed. The mother and son, it is clear, are not interested in the marriage until
ShuiTa comes with the remaining three hundred dollars. Both are talking about Yang Sun's job as a mail
pilot in Peking. Shen Te says Peking is out of the question now as she has promised the money to the old
couple.
Yang Sun shows her the two tickets to Peking. He has sold his mother's furniture to buy these tickets.
The waiter comes for money for the wine, consumed. The priest leaves. Yang Sun asks the guests to
leave. Since in plain terms the wedding will not take place, as ShuiTa has not arrived with the money.
Yang Sun roughs up the bride, sings the song of St. Nevercome's Day. It sings of impossible hopes and
unfulfilled dreams. Yang Sun, his mother and Shen Te sit looking at the door.

Scene VIA — Wong's den

The gods appear in Wong's dream.
The gods speak of their faith in Shen Te. Wong tells them of her trouble. But they donot agree either
to intervene or help. Wong asks if we cant help ourselves, what hapens. The gods say that man must try
and suffering ennobles. They scold Wong for his lack of faith and he believ, everything will be all right in
the end.
Scene VII The yard behind Shen Te's shop. A few articles of furniture on a cart.
Shen Te and Mrs Shin are taking the washing off the line. Mrs. Shin asks Shen Te to keep the shop,
but Shen Te says she has to sell it to pay back the old couple, Mr. Shu Fu comes admiring all the
benevolent activities of Shen Te. He doesn't want her to sell the shop and offers her a blank cheque.
Shen Te is not willing to cash the cheque, as in that case she might have to marry him. It seems Shen
Te is pregnant. She is very happy at the prospect of a child's arrival. She imagines a little boy to be present
and introduces him to the audience. She has hopes of a bright future for the child and walks up and down,
holding him by the hand. Wong comes holding a child, the carpenter's who has lost his shop and is
looking for help from Shen Te. She promises them shelter in Shu Fu's cabins, and wants to help Wong.
She asks him to sell everything on the cart and go to the doctor for treatment of his hand hurt by Shu Fu.
The child is left behind by Wong.
A husband and wife come with a large sack. They want to leave it with Shen Te. If any enquiry is
made, Shen Te should say it is hers.

15
 Shen Te mildly disagrees but gives in eventually. The child eats from the garbage. Other parasites
come to seek help from Shen Te. She decides to take the help of Shui Ta, to be able to defend her son. Mr.
Shui Ta enters after sometime and asks everybody seeking help, that they may stay in the cabins, if they
work for Shen Te.
He tells Mrs. MiTzu that the shop will not be sold and she will get her six months rent by seven in the
evening. Mrs. Shin realises that Shen Te herself is masquerading as Shui Ta.
Scene VIIA - The gods appear in Wong's ream who is sleeping in the sewer pipe- his den.
Wong speaks of Shen Te's problems in following the book of rules, of the gods. She was trying to
cross the river and something was dragging her down. It was the book of rules provided by the gods.
The gods are not prepared to compromise on the rules and they wearily continue their journey.
Scene VIII— Shui Ta's tobacco factory in Shu Fu's cabins.
Many people present, including the sister-in-law, the Grandfather, and the carpenter with his three
children. Enter Yang Sun and his mother.
Mrs. Yang Sun speaks of the strong and wise Mr. Shui Ta, who has transformed her son from a
dissipated good-for-nothing into a model citizen. He had given Yang Sun a choice of either going to jail,
or working in Shen Te's factory. Thus he might pay off through his, wages, the two hundred dollars, taken
from Shen Te, Yang Sun has proved himself to be an honest worker and he gets promoted to be the Yang
Sun. So it was the srength and wisdom of Mr. ShuiTa, which has brought put the best in Yang sun.
Scene IX --- Shen Te's shop, now an office with club chairs and finecarpets. It is raining.
Shui Ta is telling the old man and the old woman, that it is not sure when Shen Te will be back. The
old woman says that they have got two hundred dollars, which they believe is from Shen Te. They want
her address, to be able to write and thank her. Shui Ta can't give it. So they leave, disappointed.
Mrs. Shin says the old couple have lost their shop, as they couldn't pay taxes, the money arrived too
late. Mrs. Shin assures Shui Ta/Shen Te that she will help her during the birth of her child. As they are
close to each other, Yang Sun enters and is surprised to see their intimacy. He tells ShuiTa that police
want to close down their factory, as the number of....
....workers are more than twice the allowed number. In the meantime people outside are calling for
Shen Te. Wong enters excitedly. People say something has happened to Shen Te. Recently rice was there
on her door step for the poor, people conclude from this that She is still in Setzuan. Wong says that before
she disappeared, Shen Te had told him, that she was pregnant. That rouses Yang Sun's intest and he thinks
that Shen Te has been detained by Shui Ta, who had gone to the backroom in the meantime. The sound of
sobbing is heard from the backroom. As Shui Ta returns, Yang Sun: threatens him with police action and
goes out. Shui Ta brings in Shen Te's underwear etc. and hides the packet under the table. Shut Fu and
Mrs. Mi Tzu come in, Shui Ta discusses with them the expansion of the business.
Yang Sun comes in with Wong and the police man. They search the backroom for Shen Te. No one is
there. But Yang Sun comes across the packet containing Shen Te's clothing, there is an uproar outside-
The tobacco king Shui Ta is suspected of murdering Shen Te, hiding the body and keeping the clothes.
Shui Ta is arrested.
Scene IX- Wong's den - For the last time, the gods appear to the waterseller in his dream. The gods
show signs of a long journey and fatigue and plenty of mishaps. The first no longer has a hat; the third has
lost a leg, all three are barefoot.
Shen Te, Wong says, has been kept prisoner by her cousin. He requests the gods to find her.
The gods says that Shen Te is the only person who has stayed good. But she has vanished, and with
that the gods have lost hope. The world is unlivable and their rule book will be for the scrap heap.
But the first god encourages others. They had wanted to find one good human being. They have found
Shen Te. Of course they have lost her. But they must urgently find her out.

16
 Scene X — Courtroom All the people, we had come across previously, are present, except Shui Ta &
Shen Te.
People are discussing, the old man says Shui Ta has too much power, not good for one man. The
unemployed man says he is going to open twelve super tobacco markets. We hear that one of the judges is
a good friend of Mr. Shu Fu's. Another, Says one of the judges accepted a great fat goose.
The judges enter- they are the three gods in judges' robes. They talk among themselves that they will
be caught, as their certificates have been badly forged. One god says that his predecessor's 'sudden
indigestion', will be commented upon. Another one says that he had just eaten a whole goose. People in
the courtroom are excited about the new judges. ShuiTa is brought in by the policeman. And he staggers
as soon as he sees the new judges. ShuiTa is brought in by the policeman. And he staggers as soon as he
sees the new judges He picks himself up, and pleads not guilty to the charge of doing away with Shen Te,
To take possession of her business.
The first witness is the policeman. He speaks highly of ShuiTa and that he was incapable of the crime
of which he is accused.
Next Shu Fu and Mrs. Mi Tzu also are all praise for ShuiTa. According to them Shui Ta holds
important posts in the council of commerce and committee on social work and does charitable work. Then
come the carpenter, the old man, the old woman, the unemployed man. The sister-in-law and the niece.
The policeman introduces them as the riffraff. They say he has ruined them, he is a cheat, liar, a thief,
blackmailer and murderer.
Now Shui Ta is asked to give his statement. He defends himself against the voices accusing him of all
kinds of charges. Thoug Yang Sun speaks against him, later on he comes to his defence.
Shui Ta may be accused of anything, bot not of murder, Yang Sun leaves just fifteen minutes before
his arrest. Shen Te could be heard sobbing in the backroom. Shui Ta is accused of spoiling all the good
intentions of Shen Te. Wong says that the gods idea was to make the shop a fountain of goodness, but
ShuiTa, went and spoilt everything. Shui Ta says all that he had done was to save Shen Te, and that he
was her only friend.
Now everybody wants to know where Shen Te has gone. Shui Ta says, she had to go, otherwise,
people would have torn her to shreds. He wants to make a confession but only in the presence of the
judges. The court is cleared. He removes his mask, and there stands Shen Te. She sings a song. In that she
says it was impossible for her to be good and stay alive at the same time. When she wanted to be good,
she was thoroughly exploited and robbed. She had to be unjust to survive. She asks why are bad deeds
rewarded and good deeds punished. She sincerely wished to be the 'Angel of the slums'. But pity became a
thorn in her side, and she became a wolf.
"But know/All that I have done I did/to help my neighbour/to love my lover/And to keep my little one
from want/For your great godly deeds I was too poor, too small".
The gods are shocked. They are overjoyed to have found her. Shen Te insists that she is both the good
and the bad person. But the gods refuse to pay heed. She is confused, they say, they cannot renounce their
rules and the world should not be changed. They are now about to leave. To Shen Te's frantic queries of
how she could remain good in the face of the adverse circumstances, they only repeat that she must
continue to be the good woman of Setzuan. They concede that she may take the help of her "bad cousin",
only once a month, and not once a week as she wants.
The Epilogue enquires from the audience, how a better ending could be arranged. Is it possible to
change people, can the world be changed? Several alternatives are proposed- Divine intervention,
Atheism, Moral rearmament. Materialism. The people must find a way, which is sure to be there "to help
good ones arrive at happy ends".
In a foot note Eric Bentley (Translator) wrote - "whichever actor delivers the epilogue, should drop
the character he has been playing".

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 A critical analysis of the play - The Good Woman of Setzuan (1938-41)
Brecht's theme in this play is to show how easily goodness may be exploited by grasping
unscrupulous people. Good must fight evil on its own terms to survive. ShuiTa represents shrewdness and
practicality in the play, which shields Shen Te representing vulnerable goodness. The double identity of
the protagonist is at the core of the play. Shen Te/ ShuiTa represent both goodness that succumbs to undue
threat, and tough strength.......
....that withstands unreasonable and undue pressure on charity and kindliness. It is a split personality
portrayed by Brecht that shows the two sides of the same character. Shen Te becomes ShuiTa, to save
herself and her unborn child from excessive goodness, born of her generous self, that becomes helpless in
the face of the cons taught of marauding self seekers and hangers on. Shen Te's query as to how she is
going to maintain goodness without constant help from her bad cousin, the gods turn a deaf ear. Shen Te
is betrayed by her emotions. "I don't want to count the cost
I don't want to consider if it's wise
I don't want to know if he loves me
I want to go with the man I love"
(Scene V - Shen Te)
"When I heard this cunning laugh, I was afraid
But when I saw the holes in his shoes,
I loved him dearly
(Shen Te - Scene VII)
The gods representing conventional religion are treated ironically. They leave only holy sentiments,
and do not offer any permanent solution.
Joan Riviere observes that womanliness is a cover up to conform with social constructions of
feminity, a masquerade, whereby the woman as a category does not exist except by miming and parodying
that which is expected of her.
(Joan Riviere-Womanliness as masquerade in Formation of Fantasy - Ed-Victor Burgin, James
Donand, Cora Kaplan
(Methuen; London and New York 1986 Pages 35-44)
Shen Te is a split personality comprising of a good exploited female and a bad exploiting male.
In her first persona as Shen Te she is attractive for her helplessness and innocence and in the second
as ShuiTa she is attractive for her power.
Her profession is forced upon her due to the prevailing economic conditions - ("How am I to pay my
rent?" p.10) "To be good while yet surviving split me like lightning into two people" (p. 105)
The issue is not what is good or what is bad, but whether it is possible to be good under prevailing
circumstances. In the play an experiment is conducted whether it is possible to remain good under such
trying conditions.
The world is a place full of grasping, unscrupulous people and to defend itself good people must fight
evil on its own terms, and never surrender as victims. ShuiTa in the Good Woman represent shrewd
toughness aligning itself with defenceless goodness represented by Shen Te. From the feminists point of
view the exploitation that Shen Te suffers from is more sexual than economic. As a woman Shen Te
through her essentially feminine, socially correct, image of being 'an Angel to the slums", pleases her
suitors and father-gods, who respectively reap economic and moral advantage from the attitude and the
meek gestures from their feminine victim.

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 Elizabeth Wright says "on he whole Brecht's female characters are shown as admirable to the extent to
which they develop their womanliness into a form of political strength" characters of Kattrin/ in Mother
courage, Grusha (in Caucasian chalk circle), Frau Sarti (in Galileo) illustrate this point. Shen Te isa
prostitute - she is presented as a person who would be good. Were it not for the social and economic
conditions". I should certainly like to be (good) but how am I to pay my ................rent"? She exposes
herself to ruin in her feminine self, so she needs a bad male counterpart for survival Class oppression is
related to sexual repression. The subordination of Woman is advantageous to man from all classes. To
quote once again from Elizabeth Wright — "Shen Te is placed in a subordinate position by a number of
different systems and not just by a single mechanism - That of a woman with property within capitalism
and its market economy. Her oppression is economic as a prostitute, psychic as a romantic beloved, social
as a pregnant mother. There is here an ensemble of social practices that mutually reinforce one another.
Moreover the varius reactions to her in each of these positions ally with each other to disempower her in
specifically concrete ways. In her 'feminine' masquerade she is repeatedly called to account while ShuiTa,
as a man inspires confidence without further credentials......
Brecht sees the sexist behaviour of Yang Sun (you want to appeal to her reason, she hasn't any reason
1) primarily as economically determined, an effect of capitalist rather than gender oppression".
Brecht's portrayal of Shen Te is based on the male dominated Society's image of the ideal woman. Her
great moment is as the mother of the future combatant -- "An airman" - that is how Shen Te presents her
small son to the audience" Salute a new conqueror/of unknown mountains inaccessible countries! once
across the wastes where no man yet has trod! Carrying letters from man to man.
The gods want her to "freely follow the impulses of her gentle heart' and Shen Te does precisely that
The audience may feel with wong the water-carrier that the absolute ideals set before man should be
more related. The devotion to an impossible ideal makes Shen Te transform herself to her ruthless
counterpart.
The "almost unattainable absolutes should be replaced by more human qualities" (Ronald Gray) But
the gods insist on the retention of the rules without relaxation. "When the audience is asked to find a
solution of its own it has the whole range of political nostrums to choose from. Politically the play does no
more than state, the basic problem underlying all politics; how to create a just society out of a crowd of
largely unjust individuals. The answers range from total subordination of the individuals through
democratic-voting procedures to total anarchy, but since the play offers no basis for choosing between
these, it does no more than raise the issue. But that is presumably what Brecht meant, when he called it a
"parable play". The distribution of wealth is unequal both within the industrialised countries and in the
global relation between them and the third world. Whatever else it does Brecht's play remains to point a
moral, as, in its day, the parable of the good Samaritan did".
(Ronald Gray -Brecht/Cambridge University Press)
The element of split personality in The Good Woman, hampers the dramatic conflict in the play. Shen
Te and Shui Ta being identical, they cannot clash openly on the stage, as such the tension cannot properly
build up. The predicament of Shen Te, "reveals the solution implied by Brecht as fragmentary and wholly
insufficient"—
The message sought to be conveyed in The Good Woman, that a socialist society would solve
problems such as Shen Te faces, is rather obtrusive.
In summing up how the modem readers and spectators should evaluate Brecht, Peter Demetz writes in
his introduction Brecht - a Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice Hall 1962).
"It may be quite fruitful to take Brecht's own advice seriously. When he was young he always spoke
of an Epic "Smoking Theatre, a place where people could watch plays as if they were bicycle races, or
boxing matches. Spectators on their toes, critically aware of the technical implications, never permitting
their cigars or cigarettes to go out. This sporting attitude may be the only one open to us who are involved
in political conflicts and are yet unwilling to make political categories the last criterion of the arts. Deeply
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inhaling the smoke, we may discover that Brecht, inspite of his commitment speaks to us as the creator of
vital characters like mother courage, Shen Te, Galileo, Azadak, Puntila and Grusha as the bitter
Artisophanes of this age of little laughter"

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 LIST OF RESOURCE BOOKS

1) Plays for the Theatre - (Ed by Oscare Brockell & Lenyth Brockett)

2) Twelve Modern Dramatists - (Raymond Cowell)

3) Brecht - The Dramatist (Ronald Gray)

4) The Cambridge Companion to Brecht - (Ed - Peter Thomson Glendyrsacks)

5) Brecht - a collection of criticial essays (Ed. - Peter Dometz)

6) Drama from Ibsen to Brecht - (Raymond Williams)

7) The Political Theatre - (Erwin Piscator)

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Notes

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Notes

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