The Good Woman of Setzguan Brecht

Shen Te’s male “other” in Brecht’s “The Good Woman of Setzguan” Brecht’s “The Good Woman of Setzguan”, with its intense surrealist element, cruelly unveils the immense ugliness of a capitalistic society, displaying aspects of exploitation and materialism through the prism of each of the two genders. Providing his heroine with a male “alter ego”, Brecht remarkably places the female in a male dominated society projecting women’s need to adopt male characteristics to survive and their endeavor to preserve their love and goodness, attributes inevitably erased in a self-centered and alienated world. Initially, Shen Te’s forced choice to become Shui Ta underscores the impossibility of good and evil’s coexistence. Through Shen Te’s exploitation by the family and the unemployed man and through the extravagant demands of many of her acquaintances, the playwright argues the selfishness and nonchalance which infect people’s public relations, creating an ominous environment for good to exist in. Hence, he provides Shen Te with a male self to supply her with characteristics acceptable for the masculine gender such as forcefulness, aggressiveness and determination, impressively succeeding in good and evil’s parallel existence. Undoubtedly, the writer equips Shen Te with the indispensable weapons – on Shui Ta’s character - to survive society’s cruelty while protecting her humanity, goodness and generosity - on her real character. Further in the play, Brecht brings out love’s obliteration within a selfish world through a woman’s hopeless attempts to conceal her loving feelings and the pain of betrayal behind the mask of a powerful man. Yang Sun’s desperate attempt to use Shen Te’s love for the attainment of his dreams boldly shows the estrangement and inhumanity of the capitalistic society. On top of that, the confection of Shui Ta’s character deftly highlights how much the emotional and sensitive disposition of the feminine belies the non-emotional and tough-skinned