Mother Courage and Her Children

“SERGEANT. What they could use around here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization. And when do you get organization? In a war. Peace is one big waste of equipment. Anything goes, no one gives a damn.”

Here, the Sergeant insists that it is war—not peace—that nations should strive for. War, with its associations of recklessness and disorder, is argued to be orderly and civilized. Through such characters who subvert the connotations of war and peace, the play can criticize war’s utility.

“MOTHER COURAGE. They call me Mother Courage ’cause I was afraid I’d be ruined, so I drove through the bombardment of Riga like a madwoman, with fifty loaves of bread in my cart. They were going moldy, what else could I do?”

Mother Courage’s moniker is paradoxical: She insists that fear drives her to be courageous. She is repeatedly unapologetic for her relentless pursuit to make a living during the war. The play immediately raises questions about what it means to be brave in times of war and as a mother.

“MOTHER COURAGE. A soldier’s life is not for sons of mine!

RECRUITING OFFICER. Why not? It means money.”

Mother Courage protests Eilif’s joining the service, though her pleas have little impact on him. The Recruiting Officer’s reminder to Mother Courage that the perpetuation of the war furthers her “career” as a supplier appeals more effectively to her reasoning.