These two key elements of Aristotelian tragedy cannot be found in Brecht’s “Mother Courage and her Children”. None of Mother Courage’s actions throughout the text could be described as “noble” or of any significant magnitude, and she could hardly be described as an admirable figure. Furthermore, it is well known that Brecht deliberately simplified the language used in the story, and did not enhance it artistically in any way. Mother Courage involves absolutely no “catharsis”, in fact Brecht designed the story in such a way that the plight of the characters would be kept completely distant from the audience, and so arouse as little emotion as possible in the audience.
Aristotle did not claim that it was necessary in a tragedy for the main character or protagonist to die or have an unfortunate event happen to them at the end. The surviving tragedies written by Aristotle all involve an element of fate, and that no matter how the main character had acted, it would not ultimately have changed their situation at the end of the story.
“Mother Courage and her Children” agrees with the Aristotelian definition of tragedy in this sense as in the text Mother Courage does not die, and neither does a particularly unfortunate event happen to her at the end. There is also an element of fate detectable in Brecht’s text, as although Mother Courage did not submit her children to the war, all three eventually were taken casualty by it. This adds a feeling of inevitability to the storyline, that no matter what decision she had made, the outcome would not have been any different.
Shakespeare’s tragedies are noted for their suspenseful plots, insights into human nature and poetic dialogue. All Shakespearean tragedies involve a main character who is put into a situation of conflict which he or she must resolve, and a combination of bad luck and misjudgement lead to their death. In Shakespeare’s dramatic tragedies the main characters bring their fate on themselves through bad decisions made because of flaws in their character.
Brecht’s text disagrees with Shakespeare’s idea of tragedy on some points. There is no suspense in “Mother Courage and her Children”, in fact at the beginning of each act the audience is told what is about to happen. And there is nothing poetic about the dialogue, most of the dialogue in the play is the rough, uneducated slang of the lower class.
Mother Courage brings her situation on herself at the end due to a flaw in her character, the flaw to put business ahead of all else. That flaw causes her to make several bad decisions through the play. At the end of the story her decisions lead to her losing all three of her children but still continuing with her life as though nothing had changed. This theme of bad decisions leading to bad consequences that runs throughout “Mother Courage and her Children” agrees with the Shakespearean definition of tragedy. “Mother Courage and her Children” gives an insight into human nature. Greed, honesty, perseverance and the desire for power are discussed several times throughout the book.
According to the definitions of dramatic tragedy by Shakespeare and Aristotle, who are among the greatest writers of tragedy of all time, “Mother Courage and her Children” would be considered largely not to be a tragedy. It directly contradicts Aristotle’s view that tragedy should involve significant figures and noble actions and his view that tragedies should be written using artistically enhanced language. Neither does Shakespearean tragedy have much in common with “Mother Courage and her Children”. However, the few similarities between Aristotelian, Shakespearean tragedy and Brecht’s play are too large to say that “Mother Courage and her Children” is not a tragedy.