Social and historical context of Bertolt Brecht's The Mother.

Social and Historical context of Bertolt Brecht’s The Mother

By Mark Costa

Bertolt Brecht wrote this play in 1931 when Hitler’s power was growing and his capitalist work system was apparent in Russia. When Bertolt released this play, the revolution was growing and with Hitler knowing this after he gained power, Nazi’s were sent to band the play and disable any performances made to Capitalists workers hoping to bring about a communist revolution and when the play was performed in the U.S.A in 1935 it was seen as an offence towards Capitalists, which was the system of American economics. Bertolt was hoping to advertise Communism in his play against Capitalism, which was what the workers in Russia were living in, for as Bertolt was a Marxist and agreed that Communism should be the system of work that Russia was under. The Russian revolution began in 1917, so there would have been communist rebels before hand, nothing that a capitalist country would be in danger of, yet a play of this context could release the workers from Capitalism and rebel for Communism.

Bertolt created certain scenes to teach workers that weren’t educated in the system of communism and for those whom could not read about it such as the scene with Pelegea’s lesson in economics where the communist workers compare her table to the system of work they live in, “Let me ask you: can I do whatever I want with it?” His Marxist context in the play were also used to show the conflict between workers, that were separated by the two systems of work, not knowing which one was right for them. The Communists soon knew workers that decided to ...

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Bertolt Brecht wanted to show the power of education and intelligence for, as this was what Communists would need in order to put up a worthy battle against Capitalists shown on page 119, where a teacher does not value education as much as the communist workers whom would need it in order to rebel.

The first performance of the play was adapted from the novel whereas Brecht did not want any Russian costumes or set as he wanted it to be fully understandable for all audiences and that Communism should not only be in Russia either. The play was written one year before Hitler had control over major authorities and by 1939 the Nazi’s were agitating for war, as they had expanded over time.

Agitprop was the main idea of the play so that it could convince the public that communism is right and capitalism is wrong by using action and communication through the acting and singing of the play. Other uses of agitprop used for communism was newspaper advertisements, play writes and in this play songs. Songs were used regularly because they were seen to be more memorable and with more feeling then just a lecture. Even though the play was banned, songs were used to advertise the difficulties of living within a capitalist country. The revolution grew and grew and if it wasn’t for the songs, illegal pamphlets that were sent out and even maybe this play and others like it then the workers may have never been inspired to revolutionize from a capitalist to a communist country.