The failure of the protagonists to achieve their goals in Bertolt Brechts Mother Courage and Her Children and August Strindbergs Miss Julie.

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The failure of the protagonists to achieve their goals in Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ and August Strindberg’s ‘Miss Julie’.

Ambition can define the intentions of a character in literature. In the texts ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ and ‘Miss Julie’, ambition is the force that can make or break the protagonists- Mother Courage and Jean respectively. While the degree of desire in both characters is similar, their ambitions steer off along two separate tangents. While Mother Courage’s ambition is to survive the war and use it to her advantage, in ‘Miss Julie’ Jean’s ambition is to rise up in class and take advantage of Miss Julie by using her as a catalyst. The failure of the two protagonists in achieving their goals can be attributed to their personalities, their social status, as well as certain incidents in the plays.

In the play ‘Mother Courage and her Children’, the protagonist Mother Courage is seen to be the cause of her own downfall.  She, a “small time war profiteer”, has simple goals; to survive the war with her children and her travelling rummage business, and to make the best of what was given to her. These goals are emphasized by Mother Courage at many instances in the play, as is seen through the Sergeant’s reaction when he says, “Could do with a swig yourself, ma. That’s life. Plenty worse things than being a soldier. Want to live off war, but keep yourself and family out of it, eh?Mother Courage shows a distinct love for her children and a keen eye for their safety.

“Sergeant: I could use something else. Those boys are as healthy as young birch trees…

Mother Courage: Nowt doing, sergeant. Yours is no trade for my kids.” 

This compassion was also focused towards her “dumb” daughter Kattrin as is shown through Mother Courage’s words- “What happened? Someone assault you? ... I’ll bandage it and in a week it’ll be all right. Worse than wild beasts, they are.” However, this compassion can be seen as contradicted by its depth, as Mother Courage shows no more than a subtle acceptance of the hurt inflicted on Kattrin. There is no sense of anger towards those soldiers who hurt her, nor any desire for vengeance. Mother Courage has a short span of attention and often lacks attention entirely. This is evident as she is blind to the bitter truth voiced behind her-

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“Sergeant (looking after them): Like the war to nourish you? Have to feed it something too.” 

On the other hand, in ‘Miss Julie’, Jean’s plight was different from Mother Courage’s. Jean as a valet expresses his desire as wanting to become part of the upper class, with wealth and nobility to his name through his words- “I want to climb up, up to the top and look round… plunder the bird’s nest up there where the gold eggs lie.”

Jean wants to have a title as is expressed when she says, “I’d be a count, and you’d ...

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