"How Does The 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle' Fit Into Brecht's Idea Of 'Epic Theatre'?"

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                              Essay on “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”

        “How Does The ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’ Fit Into Brecht’s Idea

                                              Of ‘Epic Theatre’?”

        “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” by Brecht is an example of “Epic Theatre.” Epic theatre is an anti-natural style of theatre, which brings forth a moral to the story rather than entertaining the audience. By the end of the play, the audience should leave the theatre without a sense of satisfaction because most problems are left unresolved. The audience should also be questioning their society. The person who just views the play would likely take it as fantasy and not reach the true depth of the play. The theme throughout the play is natural justice versus class justice, and that people should stand up for their rights.

         Brecht uses his own style to make “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” a form of Epic theatre, he sends out a moral to the audience, his moral is that resources should go to those best able to make use of them. Other plays may just be acted to entertain an audience. In epic theatre the moral revolves around the play while on the other hand in natural theatre, the characters revolve around the play and the audience feel the characters’ emotions and feelings. The characters in other plays will be realistic, but in “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” the characters are unrealistic but the have to pretend to be realistic, the characters have no emotions, the emotions are shown through the singer. Brecht doesn’t really describe the characters or their background life, the audience is left to figure it out themselves, and he keeps the audience distanced from the characters. The audience doesn’t feel the characters’ emotions and their relationships with other characters. Most of the characters in “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” aren’t given names, most of the characters are called by their appearance or their occupation, the characters names are like, “The peasant woman” or “The first man.”  

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          “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is unlike most other plays because a singer tells most of the story, while in other plays there is usually a narrator. Brecht uses anti-natural techniques like creating characters that are representative, rather than realistic, the characters class or rank determines the way the characters behave. In “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” the working class people are represented by Grusha while the upper class are represented by Natella Abashvilli. Brecht shows that the “upper class” are selfish and only thing about themselves, and the “poorer class” are caring and thing about other ...

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