Three gods recruit a water seller to help them find a good human being, if there is any such thing left. They find their prize in prostitute Shen Te. When the gods award her a sizable amount of money, she opens a tobacco shop and vows to be a good person forever. People immediately take advantage of her. Suddenly she's a male version of herself, Shui Ta, a cousin and instead of mercy, he/she begins handing out unbending justice. Brecht doesn't allow us to get too involved in the characters. He's more interested in getting us to think.
In my personal opinion I looked apon the book as having the theme, ‘Identity in a capitalist world.’ As the book was written in the second world war, I can see how Brecht assumed everyone in the world would turn into capitalists. Therefore Brecht made up a character Shen Te, that can adopt a dual identity. Shen Te acting as the good person and Shui Ta ( Shen Te redressed) acting as the bad person. This dual identity allowed her to get the best of everyone. The 3 gods act as judges to find out and tell her the dual identity was necessary to survive.
One of the techniques Brecht used to portray this theme of identity, was to try and get the audience to identify with, and get emotionally involved with the main characters.
He concentrates less on what the characters are saying and more on how it is being said.
Another technique Brecht uses is to look and learn. By this I mean he allows the audience to sit back and look at the characters and play with a critical detachment.
A suttle, yet effective technique Brecht uses, is his use of language. He speaks in the third person, making the play less personal and allows the audience to get a better outlook on the play, rather than getting wrapped up in the story line.
He also uses interruption quite frequently, for example by making characters narrate. I.e ‘SUN, to the audience: Shen Teh pregnant! That makes me livid!’ (p.92-Line 15). Brecht also uses sattire (humor through immitation) for example; ‘No shop left and no wedding either’.(p.66-Line 19).
Although the good person of Szechwan was about a prostitute, the ultimate message that Brecht was trying to put across was, The only thing that can save the world, is a revolution through political change.
