Mother Courage as a Tragedy/Anti-War Play

Pages:11-12
Manisha Khasa (Department of English, Gaur Brahman Degree College, Rohtak, Haryana)

Like Aristophane’s “Peace and Lysistra”, Mother Courage and her children is an anti-war play. It is an excruciating tragedy. Aristotle defines tragedy as, incorporating, – “incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions.” According to Aristotle, the tragic hero must be a man of exalted rank like Oedipus, Macbeth etc. but Mother Courage is not so, she is from, Brecht’s Marxist standpoint specifically representative of the petite boureoise. But her sufferings depicted in the play and finally her spirit of endurance are exceptional.