A short commentary on Roland Barthes Mother Courage Blind

by ilkanpasa2270 (student)

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

Ilkan PasaBenjamin/Barthes12833628

A short commentary on Roland Barthes’ Mother Courage Blind, By Ilkan Pasa

There are many men who altered time in creating a different world for everybody else. Some took it for worst, while others changed it for the better. Most of these men were all soldiers of a certain rank or leaders of nations, nonetheless of what they represented or what they done, they all have the same similarities. These men were all leaders. Bertold Brecht was a front-runner of literature, the originator of what we call epic theatre and he was an artistic leader with all of the qualities that was needed to originate this new theatre. Walter Benjamin describes Brechts epic theatre as “appealing to an interesting group of people who do not think without reason” in his essay “What is Epic Theatre” in his illuminations. I will use this as the stronghold to my essay on Roland Barthes Mother Courage Blind and how Bertold Brecht influenced him.

Brecht sets Mother Courage Blind and Her Children during the thirty years war, a war that went on for thirty years without reason, in many cases without a reason for the people living during the war. A war that the poor and working class lost what they did not see while the higher classes won with their losses. Brecht writes this play during 1939, the time where Fascism and Nazism were on a rise and Nazi occupied Germany had just taken over their neighbors Poland. Brecht being a Marxist himself, I could imagine that he used the setting of this play as a left wing political act against the governments of the time. However one may argue that Brecht was himself a businessman, exploring the environment in his play by targeting the people who would be interested, but I very much doubt this was his intention. Brecht was a man of great culture, creativity and a sense of humor who influenced many of his time and still does now.

This is a preview of the whole essay

What Brecht’s implies in this play is how great powers, in this sense the European powers use war as a profit venture. This is one of the main reasons which Mother Courage Blind attracted Roland Barthes. Barthes seemed to love the idea of Brecht displaying this act with his epic theatre and not preaching his thoughts through religion or politics as he states in his essay that Brecht “unites his crucial intention to a true theatre, so that the proposition’s evidence results not from sermon or argument but from the theatrical act itself” . Barthes suggests that Mother Courage is suffering because she is blind to her own senseless acts, but this is what Bertold Brecht actually wants the audience to think as he later goes on to explain in the essay how “we are once mother courage and we are those who explain her;”Barthes appreciates how Brecht’s intelligence in his theatre takes a hold of the audience and makes them lost in Mother Courage which then the audience is brought into her blindness without acknowledging the greatness of the theatre which has a enormous impact on the individual in the audience. Even though Brecht’s Mother Courage is an opportunist and a very inspiring character, it does not take much to see that she is simply a product of her environment and that the character is solely playing the part of a victim to make the audience feel for her struggles, which is what I believe Barthes meant by “we are all once Mother Courage” by Brecht creating this character, it allows the audience to get in and get close with Mother Courage, feeling her emotions and what she is going through. As I have explained before, this play was written in 1939, which means most of the audience had already witnessed the First World War and the Second World War while Brecht was touring Europe. In a way Brecht seems to create this character so the audience could see themselves in Mother Courage and not make the same mistakes as her, because he only allows them to get close enough to judge her and nothing more.

I trust if Walter Benjamin was alive to witness Mother Courage Blind and her Children in theatre, and if he were to write a critic’s essay about it, it would be the very similar to Roland Barthes version. The two men had a lot of similarities and I consider that if it was not for the tragic loss of Walter Benjamin, the two would have been very good friends. While reading Barthes Mother Courage I could sense a certain charismatic male. He explains what he see’s as the only way and does not take in account any other opinions and expects for the reader to understand him and only understand his opinion.

Barthes seems obsessed with the “double vision: of the social evil and its remedies” which is seen in Mother Courage Blind and her Children. The social evil the modern day is drugs, alcohol and violence. These are all things that are frowned upon and the remedies to life that change people. The social remedies in Mother Courage Blind are basically the characters blindness. All things could be made better if Mother Courage actually steps back and looks, but what Barthes does not consider while writing his essay is what he would have done if he were himself in Mother Courage’s shoes himself? Throw in the fact that all Mother Courage knows is war, where as the audience obviously knows that there is an end to the thirty years war, she sadly doesn’t. Brecht Mother Courage has a very important quote towards the end of the play “ hope I can pull this wagon by myself. gotta manage. Not much in it, now. Gotta get back in business” this is the scene just after Mother Courage leaves her late daughter to be buried by the peasants. This quote could show that people are in need of psychological and materialistic support as she looses her daughter but her only concern is getting her business back running again which is what I believe Barthes emphasizes on about his social evil. Although it could be argued that this is all she knows and this is all she’s know all her life. Although I see that Brecht is trying to show how the small people, also known as the working class does not have a say in what happens and all they’ve got to do is get on with what ever is thrown at them, Barthes argues this matter and suggest that if people saw their own stupidity, they will realize their mistakes and change for the better.

Most of Barthes drama works after this had resemblance to what Bertold Brecht had created with his epic theatre. After the war, Barthes helped establish a magazine called “theatre populaire” I believe his main intention in this magazine was to assault the commercial drama of his days yet no one had really created theatre that will attack both social and political issues in the same play. But in 1954 Barthes came across Mother Courage Blind and Her Children while Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble was in France. This is where Barthes saw what he had longed to see from his university days after he had founded a theatre group which performed Greek plays. In Brecht he had found a theatre that brings together both Marxism and aesthetics in the same play. This was the start of a critic being unleashed into the world with the influence of a great leader in his own field.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Barthes, A very short introduction, Jonathan Culler, Oxford University Press 1983

Critical Essays, Roland Barthes, Richard Howard, Northwestern University Press Evanston , California 1972

Roland Barthes, Graham Allen, Routledge Taylor & Francis group London 2003

Illuminations, Walter Benjamin with an introduction, Hannah Arendt, Pimlico London 1999.

Lavers, A (2009). Mythologies. London: Vintage Classics .

Howard, R (1993). Camera Lucia. London: Vintage Classics

What is Epic Theatre, Page 144 The illuminations, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt

Critical Essays Roland Barthes, Page 33, Mother Courage Blind

Critical Essays Roland Barthes, Page 35, Mother Courage Blind

Critical Essays Roland Barthes, Page 33, Mother Courage Blind

Mother Courage Blind, Plays, Bertold Brecht