To what extent are Mother Courage and Paulina strong female characters?

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World Literature Assignment - To what extent are Mother Courage and Paulina strong female characters?

        To define the words ‘strong’ and ‘character’, the dictionary offers these definitions;

Strong - 1- having great power, energy, effect, flavour etc.

             2 - not easy to break, damage or defect.

The word strong can be used in many contexts. It relates to Mother Courage and Paulina as I am exploring to what extent they are both strong in terms of how they both cope and achieve from their backgrounds.

Character - 1 - all the qualities that make a person of thing what he, she or it is.

            2 - a person in a play, book, film etc.

        Both definitions of the word character are relevant to Mother Courage and Paulina. First, they are both in plays, and secondly I am exploring what their main qualities are.

        “Death and the Maiden” was written in 1991 by Ariel Dorfmann. Paulina, the main female character, thinks she has found the man who subjected her to rape and torture in which seems to be the country of Chile, while it was under the rule of the dictator General Augusto Pinochet. The events that follow help Paulina to try and make the doctor, Roberto, confess to being the one who treated her in this fashion while she was being held hostage.

        “Mother Courage and her Children” was written in 1938-9 by Bertolt Brecht. The play follows Courage through twelve years of the thirty years war, these being 1624 - 1656. It follows her journey across Europe and how she comes to lose her children to the war. Throughout the play she will not part with her favourite possession and livelihood - the cart.

        Both Mother Courage and Paulina have basic character strengths.

        Paulina uses her vocal and mental skills to create an atmosphere where Roberto feels pressure, as so to make him confess. If this confession is true or not is insignificant, as Paulina achieves her goal.

        Although she doesn’t reflect the usual temperament of a female character, she however manages to express herself through her hidden femininity.  She ensures that Roberto and Gerardo understand how damaging rape and torture can be. This can been seen in her monologue in Act 1 Scene 2:

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        “I’ve never told Gerardo, or my sister, certainly not my mother. She’d die if she knew exactly what I’ve got in my head.”

        The use of the gun strengthens her character as it makes the men fear her. It prevents the men from retaliating her, especially when she fires the gun at point blank. The stage directions show the reactions from both men.

        “Gerardo takes a step backward and Roberto looks desperate.”

        The reaction form Gerardo is patronizing to Paulina, but in spite of this, she still refuses to pass over the gun. She keeps her character strong although Gerardo ...

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