Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht Essay

This commit from fetch Courage and Her Children, by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Michael Hofmann and tooshie Willett, is located in the prologue and the opening word picture of the play, at a point where the germ dispels the novels of chivalry and keep an eye on we suffer to the highest degree war. The play is set in the cardinal years war but was pen at the beginning of World state of war II. The beginning of the play is set in Poland, where a sergeant and recruiting officer be on the outskirts of town standing in the bitter cold. In this extract, we are equal to(p) to observe a recruiting officers troubles in enlisting new sol tumblers and the lengths in which he will go to dupe new recruits. He and then complains that in that respect is no honour and upstandingness among humanity. This establishes the character as hypocritical and desperate.The prologue of the play begins with a vocal music telling us of the daily hardships war shadow bring, non excluding d eath. The song lacks adjectives, pickings a very brief bluff view. It also takes a very judge view of war and this is shown through the filling of words. However, the song is delicately laced with brainpower that lessens the impact the song may have given. It describes the soldiers very impersonally, referring al carriages to them as wizard(a) group, one army. Small, dispensable objects with no key joined together. Their belongings are exposit as lumbering and straggling which gives the project of a strong animal (bear?), with more than brawl than brains. This image is intensified by the next line How can you reproof them into battle as you usually defeat large animals. This gives the impression that soldiers are senselessly following the commands of their superiors because loyalty demanded it of them.The second stanza of the prologue dialogue just about soldiers and their empty stomachs before war. It does not specify whether this is because of lack of food or becaus e war is so desolate that they cannot nominate their food down. The line Courage has comical with which to lace it talks of giving remarkable to soldiers so they will not sapidity anything and since courage is defined as the absence of fear, the soldiers are therefore brave. The line marching to death is also used. This links with the soldiers cosmos courageous because you have to be courageous to march, discerning that at the end awaits death.The barbarism by the Recruiting Officer consists of mainly one long rambling sentence. This implies that the brawl is verbalise by an uneducated soldier. It also suggests that the legions cannot find enough recruits to enlist that it has to mark soldiers in positions that they have neither the office nor motivation to do well(p). Also, the soldiers may not have acquired enough training to know how to do their job well. The second half of the speech speaks of the recruiting officer dulling the wits of a potential recruit by alco holic beverage so that he would sign on to become a soldier. The recruit then runs away and the recruiting officer complains of the lack of honour and upstandingness among humanity.This speech speaks of the difficulty of recruiting people to die for their country and because of the lack of availability, they settle for standards well below normal.In the prologue, a cycle of ABAB CDCD and so on is used. The set rime structure is used to capture earshots attention and to give a rhythm by which to read the poem. This provides a flow from one line to some other that keeps the ref interested. The last four lines of apiece stanza are indented, drawing the readers attention and marking it as significant. The germs choice of diction creates a vivid scene of imagery where soldiers are fighting disease and starvation quite an than the enemy. The line With crawling lice and looted cattle shows the poor state of hygiene and wellness the troops are in. This immediately dislodges the myt h that war is all fame and glory. Instead, a heap of unhygienic environment that many soldiers have it off in during war is created.This extract, especially the prologue, spares no time in easing the reader into the reality of war. Instead, it plunges them into one of the worse aspects of war. The recruiting officers speech reveals much about human behaviour which the reader can relate to and this entices them to read on. The extract provides a very good introduction to the throw for the reader and effectively summarises the hardships of war. The purpose of this extract is to introduce the reader to various move of war in a way that will neither alarm nor quality the reader. This is achieved by various literacy features such as imagery, diction and repetition and by the hypocritical speech made by the recruiting officer.