Lennox (1978) argues that Brecht was "unable to see real women in all their dimensions", may - be due to a “terror of women like that possessed by many men”. Granted this, Brecht's representation of women in terms of stereotypes is only slightly modified by his "political concerns" (ibid.). Brecht's policy of “making strange” (Williams 1987, pp. 279) therefore opposes the representation of stereotypes, insofar as stereotypes can be defined by their familiarity. Williams (ibid) states that Brecht's aim was to show men "producing themselves and their situations", in accordance with the Marxist theory of history where man "makes himself". To assess whether Shen Te represents a weakness in Brecht's play, one must therefore ask whether she performs herself and her situations or whether she conforms to stereotypes. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Setzuan's The Good Wife is one of Brecht's fables in which the familiar, simplistic elements of good, evil, justice, etc. are present but shown in a new way, as “cases of debate” (Williams 1987, p. 284). In this frame of mind, Lennox perhaps does not understand Brecht's demand that his spectators think "above the flow of the play" (ibid.: 279), as is the presentation of the familiar (in this case, stereotypes about women). the aim of “making it strange” and presenting the issue for debate. Lennox states that, in Brecht's work, women are represented in two ways; as a child-woman or mother. From this perspective, Shen Te fulfills the role of mother, for example by providing rice and shelter to others. When Shen Te discovers that she is pregnant, her altruism is manifested in her promise to the child to sacrifice her goodness and be a “tigress to everyone else” (Lennox, 1978, p. 92). Lennox argues that this represents a selfless willingness to sacrifice her defining characteristic (her goodness) to fulfill her role as a mother. By having Shen Te behave in a stereotypically feminine manner, Lennox argues that Brecht fails to alienate (or "strange" to use Williams's phrase) women's behavior in the same way that it alienates other human activities. Brecht therefore does not view their problems in the same way as those of society as a whole. If the man's goal is to define himself in his situation, it is the woman's goal to fulfill her role and Brecht considers "the tragedy of their situation in their inability, because of the conditions in which they exist, to fulfill their role correctly” (Lennox, 1978). As a stereotypical woman, Shen Te struggles to fulfill her role as a mother due to the conditions (of society) in which she exists. However, it differs from the female stereotype with one major exception:; Shui Ta. Shen Te may have the problem of being a stereotypical mother who struggles to fulfill her role, but as Shui Ta, she seeks to define her situation through efforts to create conditions in which others people can be good (create a tobacco factory, provide jobs). In political terms, Shen Te may therefore fulfill stereotypical gender roles, but, due to her circumstances preventing her from successfully fulfilling said role, she seeks to change her situation and does so as a man. The Marxist tradition according to which a man defines himself (for in creating Shui Ta he is entirely defined) and his situation is respected since Shen Te/Shui Ta represents the struggleto create change. Lennox considers this a weakness because Brecht does not lead his audience to "think about the historical causes of gender-related psychological traits" and thus confirms this behavior as natural. However, this point fails to acknowledge that Shen Te is not behaving normally; she pretends to be a man to create altered situations. Such behavior does not meet the definition of a stereotype, regardless of its potential to be sexist. Lennox makes many arguments to show Brecht as sexist, including an analysis of his personal life, but the aforementioned argument seems unfounded because it can reasonably be argued that Shen Te is an illustration of expected female behavior rather than an embodiment of that behavior in any field. natural way. Whether Brecht was sexist or not, Shen Te's portrayal can be assessed from the above reasoning as a political force for those willing to read "above the flow of the play" (Brecht, trans. in Williams 1987, pp. 281). Having the character shown on stage would allow for such a critical stance as the audience questions why Shen Te changed; Lennox's argument relies on a false analysis of Shen Te and Shui Ta as distinct embodiments of human nature. Such analysis can significantly change perspectives on the play, as the different translations of the title show; The Good Person can be said to indicate the idea that Shen Te and Shui Ta are separate, The Good Woman shows us that Shen Te acts like Shui Ta rather than becoming himself. In this way, dividing the person illustrates how morals and ethics create an incompatibility with the situation of capitalist society which results in a woman's inability to fulfill her role as a mother. Given this, Brecht would have had no desire to present Shen Te as adhering to natural laws, but rather as a character confined by society's expectations of natural behavior. Brecht may indeed have been sexist, and Lennox leaves us in no doubt that he was a womanizer. However, whether he chose a woman becoming a man to show us the variability of human nature or whether he presented us with his sexist view of a normal woman who is exceptional in her ability to think (the inclination to think is what Lennox says defines the woman in a 1922 Brecht poem as rare and "emancipated") is irrelevant because of what he does with the character in showing the audience alternatives to human nature which do not take gender into account. The argument that Shen Te's performance constitutes a political force is largely supported by Zimmerman's argument (out of print, but partially cited in Lennox) that the play wishes to: show that, under capitalism, the efforts of women …to realize it the qualities can only appear in terms of a “masculine principle”… which distorts this awareness… to show that the male/female polarity is simply another ideological instrument of capitalism” and that in merging these values, “polarities can be transcended”. Brecht's main criticism of Lennox is that his sexism is not a matter of different concerns but "severely undermines his whole conception of human liberation" (Lennox 1978, p. 84) because he fails to "consider questions involving the liberation of half the human race.” ”, but we must remember that Brecht, in his plays, does not think about the problems but presents them. For example, the epilogue asks viewers to find a way for "good men to come to happy endings" (Brecht, 1966) rather than seeking Brecht to proposehimself suggestions. Ruppert (1976) suggests that Setzuan's appalling conditions are representative of this fact, citing Esslin's point that: no matter what [Brecht's] political beliefs were outside of his work...the truth can only be contained in the concrete action of his pieces...but these never give concrete evidence of feasibility...they are completely negative attacks on the existing order. This split of Shen Te/Shui Ta is therefore representative not only of the struggle between morality and survival, but also shows a woman struggling in terribly bad conditions. conditions are good. Even though this is a stereotypical desire of women, it works for Brecht in his attempts to attack the existing order; his last cries of “help!” » As the play ends, the tragedy of the play is highlighted when Shui Ta is exposed as a woman, once again suffering from her expectations. Evaluating Shen Te's portrayal as a political force means that it must now be analyzed for possible weaknesses, and the previous point provides a useful starting point. Shen Te cries for help at the end of the play, and the empathy this provokes was clearly unwanted by Brecht (Bentley notes that the epilogue was not added until after the play's Viennese premiere, when Brecht was motivated by media misunderstandings). Brecht's goal of having viewers analyze rather than feel was therefore not fully satisfied by Shen Te's character and required an epilogue delivered "out of character". This unwanted response may be due to Shen Te's familiarity; she is not "made strange" because she is as much of a stereotypical mother role as Lennox argues, and was therefore too familiar to the audience and l ' therefore led to feeling empathy for her in the end. Bentley (ibid.) discusses the different options for delivering the epilogue, stating that the Shen Te actress usually delivers it, but as an actress. This further emphasizes how disjointed or broken Shen Te's character must be in the end, and thus implies an inherent weakness in Shen Te's character or actions, as these are incapable of providing the desired response on their own. . That Shen Te fails to pursue self-interest as a woman reinforces this dramatic weakness by perpetuating her “mother role” stereotype (Lennox 1978); her cries for help at the end show that she hasn't broken that stereotype and grown as a person, she hasn't changed as she continues to have the conflict between being good to her- herself (and now her child) and being good to others. Providing a more emancipated version of a woman capable of thinking and changing could have eliminated some of this dramatic weakness, for example if Shen Te had learned from her experiences as Shui Ta and became a compromise between the two (e.g. more confident, better at business, but still kind). Instead, she returns to the role of mother, making it difficult to believe in her character when she cries for help, as audiences have seen her help herself in the role of Shui Ta. However, the lack of credibility of the characters is not really dramatic. a weakness for Brecht as it would be for other playwrights. The very nature of the play is to make the action seem strange to the audience, and although Shen Te may contain some stereotypical traits, she is not a straightforward character due to the way Brecht requires her to be performed. For example, the actress steps out of character to deliver the epilogue, and partially steps out of her role to address the audience with asides analyzing other characters in the play ("of course, when my little bag.