Ans:-
Ans:- In The Good Woman of Setzuan, Bertolt Brecht uses the parable of Shen Te, a put-upon woman singled out by the gods as the only good person on Earth, to contemplate whether one can ever truly be plainly, wholly “good.” Throughout the play, as Shen Te struggles to be good to others and to herself -and she fails repeatedly -Brecht altimately shows how the constraints of contemporary society make it impossible for a person to ever be entirely good. Ultimately, Brecht suggests that in a world where true, unimpeachable goodness is impossible, the pursuit of goodness is more important than actually achieving goodness itself.
Early on in The Good Woman of Setzuan, a trio of gods descends to Earth in search of one good person who can convince them to let the world remain as it is. The gods seem desperate to find this one person -so desperate, in fact, that they choose a kind but imperfect woman, Shen Te, as their paragon of goodness after she lets them shelter in her room for the night. Throughout the rest of the play, Shen Te, burdened by the gods’ favor,tries her best to be “good” in the face of increasing pressure and mounting problems. At several important points in the action, Brecht demonstrates moments in which Shen Te falls short of pure, total goodness – but her actions prove that aspiring to be good is just as worthy as achieving the elusive title of “good person.”
“Goodness” as a theme is addressed in Scenes 6 and 6a by Yang Sun and by the gods,
respectively. The Song of St. Nevercome, sung by Yang Sun, reveals that he believes it is futile to try to be “good.” He sings sarcastically, “Oh, hooray, hooray! That day goodness will
pay!” and describes the day that will never come as when “all men will be good without
batting an eye.” To him, this day is unachievable. The gods cite goodness as a strength,
telling Wong that they cannot intervene in Shen Te’s life because “The good man finds his
own way here below! The good woman too.”The theme of love as a weakness is emphasized with regard to Shen Te and Shu Fu in the beginning of Scene 4. Shen Te is walking home from Yang Sun’s house and everything seems pleasant to her because she is, as she says, in love: “They say you walk on air when you’re in love but it’s even better walking on the rough earth, the hard cement.” In Scene 4, Yang Sun will reveal to Shui Ta that he plans to abandon Shen Te and take her money. After he leaves, Shui Ta says, “One weakness is enough, and love is the deadliest.” Meanwhile, Shu Fu speaks of his love for Shen Te for the first time: “I begin to suspect I am in love with her. She is overpoweringly attractive!”
Love is represented as a weakness in Scene 6. After the would-be wedding guests depart, Yang Sun makes a fake announcement, explaining that the ceremony is postponed because Shui Ta has not arrived, but “also because the bride doesn’t know what love is.” He is making the point to Shen Te that if she loved him, she would sell her shop to support him in his dream of becoming a pilot in Peking. Nevertheless, it is clear to the audience that it is Yang Sun himself who does not know what love is, since he has betraved Shen Te.
The Good Woman of Setzuan suggests that a society’s morality is determined by its economic systems. This theme is introduced in the prologue. When Shen Te complains to the gods, “But everything is so expensive, I don’t feel sure I can do it!” the second god responds, “That’s not our sphere. We never meddle with economics.” However, the first god immediately contradicts him and they decide to give her some money to make it easier for her to be good. This irony blurs the distinction between the morality of “goodness” that the gods are searching for and economics.
The play’s title is often translated as “The Good Woman of Szechwan,” rather than
“Setzuan,” but Szechwan is a province, while Setzuan is a city. According to translator Eric Bentley, Brecht identified the location of the play as “a city,” so he must have meant Setzuan.