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1228

Palak Sahu

Mr. Rengleen Kongsong

Modern European Drama

16 April 2022

Critically comment on ‘The Song Of Defenselessness Of The Gods And Good Men’ in Bertolt

Brecht’s play, The Good Woman Of Setzuan.

Bertolt Brecht’s play, The Good Woman Of Setzuan, sets up a conflict between morality and

survival in the mid-20th century. The play, characteristic of Brechtian theatre, is thought-

provoking and makes its audience reflect back and reason upon the issues the playwright

presents. It transcends time and offers a critique of capitalism, materialism, and fascism.

Throughout the play, one explores how everything is priced both literally and figuratively, be it a

natural resource such as water, one’s personal self, or moral and kind actions. In the modern

world, one’s success with material wealth always comes at the expense of the other. Morality

comes at the expense of survival, for one to survive and thrive in a capitalist world, one has to

trudge and succumb to selfish and inhumane demands that society demands.

Brecht, as a Marxist playwright, highlights the issues of inequality in society. He begins the play

with criticism of materialism, where, he explores that a free-flowing natural resource such as

water is priced, and the water seller Wang has to sell it for his own survival. He comments that in
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his province ‘there is nothing unusual about poverty’ making the readers think that poverty has

teethed its fangs everywhere. As an atheist, he brings up the question of the presence of God.

Wang and the people of Setzuan believe that “only the gods can still help us”. This statement

highlights the helplessness of the people and their faith in God, who they believe can be the only

savior of the doomed humanity. However, as the story unfolds one realizes the irony behind this

remark, the Gods who everyone believes will provide for them need human assistance in putting

up at a place. ‘The whole town’, as Wang says fails to be at the service of the Gods, except for

one woman. The men in Setzuan ‘have other troubles’ and don't want to spare a moment for the

Gods. This hints at a major theme in the play which is ‘the man alone can save himself’.

The Song of the Defencelessness of the Gods and the Good men is sung by Shen Te, the only

woman who decided to offer Gods a space in Setzuan, though hesitatingly. She is described as

‘the best woman- the best human being- in Setzuan’. She alternates her character with an

imaginary character, Shui Ta, her cousin who is exploitative and ruthless. The two are binary

opposites and sing the song. The song offers the gist of the play and it is a depiction of the

authorial intention of writing the play. A major characteristic of Brechtian theatre is alienation,

which can be described as a technique designed to distance the audience from emotional

involvement in the play through jolting reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical

performance. Through using such techniques, Brecht aimed to involve the audience in the

process of the play's production and what it was communicating. The audience of Epic Theatre is

invited to consider and enjoy how the theatre fabricates its fiction, rather than passively

accepting an illusion of reality on stage. It makes the audience think critically about the message

portrayed and wants them to ‘cry tears from the brain’. One such device was music and songs,
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songs and dances are likely to provoke a more objective viewing and the song of The

Defencelessness Of The Gods and Good Men is one such example.

The song is suggestive of the issue that in this modern capitalist society, one finds that in order to

survive, business, exploitation, and/or profiteering are essential. On a personal level, this pushes

the need for being good in contradiction to making a living, and this is the dilemma faced by

Shen Te. The song and the play problematize the concept of goodness in itself. It posits the

question of what it means to be good in a world of bourgeois value? It questions how one can be

moral in a world of sickness and poverty where the poor cannot remain good for their needs to

survive, the good and moral men are indeed defenseless against their miseries and the capitalism.

Shen Te sings, that, only by finding strong helpers, can a man prove himself useful. It brings in

mind of the audience an earlier said line, “Few people can help us, you see, but almost everyone

can hurt us”. It shows that there are very less people in the world who are willing to help their

fellow beings and this is highlighted in the later stanzas of the song. When once the play began

with Wang’s faith in Gods, it now stands questioned by the Marxist playwright; Shen Te says

that “Good men can't help themselves and the gods are powerless”. This makes us question the

existing notions of God, the survivalistic definition of a God who is all provident, omnipresent,

and all-knowing. Throughout the play, the three gods have been depicted as cardboard characters

who are deeply disconnected from reality and their subjects and are completely defenseless

against the miseries of life. The three gods resemble the modern-day politicians of India who are

indifferent to the situations and crises in their land. The First God’s insistence on ‘we have to

find one” shows how they are not concerned with the doomed humanity and morality as a whole
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but would rather focus on finding just one moral person to breathe an air of satisfaction. Their

remarks earlier in the play suggest their negligence. When the almighty gods should be looking

after their people, they say “we like to look at people. That’s what we’re here for”. One would

think that and want that the gods provide a problem to their solutions and miseries but Brecht’s

depiction tells us otherwise.

Brecht brings out strong military imagery when he talks about the use of mines, cannons,

battleships, bombers, etc for Gods to use to defend the humans from this wretched life. This

brings out images of World War and the Holocaust where humans have killed their fellow beings

and have shown no signs of morality. Can these heavy weapons not protect humans from the bad

and the evil? Are they just designed to kill fellow human beings? The Gods are indeed

defenseless and powerless for they can't save us, humans.

Shen Te, as Shui Ta, comments that good men cannot long remain good in the country. She

critiques poverty and says that for your plate to be full, you need to fight. It brings to mind the

theory of ‘the survival of the fittest’ by Darwin which was critiqued by the Church and theists. It

is true, in the modern world, that the commandments of God are no use against want. In the hour

of want or lack, one cannot stick to morality, “For there was never yet philosopher That could

endure the toothache patiently” as Shakespeare rightly said in Much Ado About Nothing. Shui

Ta asks why not the gods appear in markets, which is a capitalistic institution, and distribute food

to the needy? If there was equality everyone would sleep satiated and full.

In his famous poem, ‘The Mask of Evil’, Brecht writes:

“On my wall hangs a Japanese earring

The mask of an evil demon, decorated with gold lacquer

Sympathetically I observe

The swollen veins of the forehead, indicating

What a strain it is to be evil”

Hence, one realizes that although being evil is demonic, being good isn't rewarding either. Hence

the good and moral ones stand defenseless.

As mentioned earlier, Shen Te epitomizes goodness and sacrifice, Shui Ta epitomizes existence,

self-centrism, and survival. In the last lines, as Shen Te puts on Shui Ta’s mask, the tone darkens

as she remarks, “To procure dinner, you must be as hard as builders of empire”. It brings out the

dark reality that for one to survive, one must be as hard as stone and trample others. It shows

how materialistic the world is. For someone to help the poor and the needy, they need material

wealth and for that, they need to be hard as a stone which is quite paradoxical. Shen Te at the

start of the play asks God, “How can I be good when everything is so expensive”. These ideas

are summed up and highlighted in this song, of how material wealth plays an important role in

goodness and morality in a capitalist world. The concept of goodness is toppled upside down.

Brecht uses the epic theatre form to make his audience ponder over such difficult questions.

The last cries of the song, ‘Why then don't the gods speak up in their heaven And say that they

owe the good world to good men?’ remain unanswered as the gods disappear in thin air in the
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later part of the play which marks their indifference of them to our survival and that they are

powerless and defenseless to protect us.

In Shen Te’s world an in the modern world, the moral men and the gods stand defenseless.
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References

Conrad, Joseph. (2010). Heart of Darkness. London: Harper Collins Press.

Bhabha, Homi. (2004). The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge.

Booker, Keith. (1996). A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism.

Brannigan, John. (1998). New Historicism and Cultural Materialism.

Said, Edward. (1994). Culture and Imperialism. London:Vintage.