The Good Person of Szechwan is concerned mainly with possibility of goodness in the contemporary
world. The play is based on Po-chi-Yis’s poem: That so many ofthe poor should suffer from cold, What
can we do to prevent? To bring warmth to a single body is not much use, I wish I had a big rug ten
thousand feet long Which at one time could cover up every inch ofthe city
Brecht in the play ‘The Good Person of Szechwan’, reveals ‘The human comedy’ through the character of
Shen Teh, He lays bare the contradiction between the God’s world and human’s world. The dilemma
ofShen Teh is, how to remain good in spite of hostile circumstances. The ideals are ordained by the Gods
to Shen Teh. The 133 Gods discover Shen Teh after long search. Though Shen Teh is a prostitute, the
Gods take shelter in her house and decide to help her. Their help to Shen Teh gives them a satisfaction
that there is at least one good person in the world. The irony is that they could not find any other person
except Shen Teh till the end ofthe play. Shen Teh is liked by all, when she is generous. This helping
disposition leads her to the brink ofruin. In order to save herself from the ruin, she disguises herself as
Shui Ta. As Shui Ta she becomes very aggressive and tries to retrieve the business of Shen Teh. In this
process Shui Ta dominates the happenings and Shen Teh is not to be seen on the stage for a long time.
So people in Szechwan gets the doubt over Shui Ta’s attitude and draws him to the court, alleging that
he murdered Shen Teh. Once again the Gods appear as the Judges. But they could not find a proper
solution for Shen Teh’s dilemma and disappear by telling Shen Teh to be good. The human comedy of
how to be good, in spite of difficulties remains unsolved and the problem is posed to the audience.
With the techniques, he shows the injustice against the lower class and class distinction in the play.
In other words, he leads the audience to question the capitalist society. Such techniques as giving a
distant setting, the communication between the actor and the audience and the use of songs and
verses can be observed throughout the play in order to break the illusion. Thus, this paper intends to
analyse the techniques of epic theatre in the play The Good Woman of Setzuan to understand how
Brecht break the automatized perceptions of the audience and show them a different world with the
aim of rebel against the capitalist system.
Shui Ta is produced in the court. He unmasks himself as Shen Teh. She explains to the Gods the
circumstances that forced her to disguise herself as Shui Ta and requests them to offer a solution so that
she can survive without the mask. But the Gods failed to give any solution to her problems and they
leave the place. They once again tell her that she should remain good. Inspite of difficulties. The play
comes to close as Brecht refers this dilemma to the audience in the theatre.
There is lot of irony and satire in the above lines. As a Marxist Brecht is suggesting that how people are
trying to look up instead of searching for the solution on the earth. As a materialist, he is satirising the
concept of heaven by telling that how even the ‘the heaven’ the abode ofthe Gods are disturbed by the
human complaints. The Gods identity is being questioned and threatened. They desire to testify to the
world that goodness still exists and good persons can be traced on the earth. They want that people
should retrieve faith on them
Brecht seeks to depict this contradiction or break between the individual being of the characters and
their philanthropic being
At the end, it is the audience who is asked to find a solution to Shen Te's
problems. How can a good person come to a good end? What in society
might we change to invent a happy ending to this story? Brecht and the Wu
Wei Theater invite us to think with them about this.
it is clear that Shen Te expresses grief for the present human condition. Here Brecht repeats the line
'why don't the gods do the buying and selling?' His repetition of this line shows the importance of this
issue for him. He links buying and selling with injustice and starvation. For Brecht this buying and selling
means the capitalist market and system which is well-known for his audience. In this song then, Shen Te
makes a request against the injustice of The capitalist market as a way of economic production which is
prevailing the world. The Capitalist market spoils people because of its competitive nature. This is seen
in the line "The good can't defend themselves." They cannot protect themselves against the bad. It
means that the good (those who live as philanthropic-beings) cannot protect themselves against the bad
(those who live as individual-beings). Shen Te laments the failure of the philanthropic -being to display
itself in a system of capitalist market. She is mournful of the implicit denial of the philanthropicbeing in
the bourgeois society with capitalism as its defining characteristic.
In trying to find a balance between her noble character and the violence of everyday life, and
also to 'escape' from those who exploit her and bleed her dry, Sen Te invents an imaginary
person, cousin Soui Ta. Whenever her kind heart makes her a 'victim', she impersonates the strict
cousin, who imposes his views with stubbornness and harshness, thus becoming the triumphant
'victimizer'. In this way she is gradually led to some form of discord and estrangement. Bertolt
Brecht chooses a Chinese fairy tale, 'a theatrical parable', in order to present a universal
question, which is always tragically to the point: Is it possible to be kind when living in a world
of malice and exploitation?
Playwright: Bertolt Brecht
