Mother Courage and Her Children

Months later, Mother Courage is traveling through Poland. At a Swedish post, she tries to sell a capon to the Cook. They argue over its value, with Mother Courage stressing how hearty the bird is and how desperately the Cook’s commanding officer must be for meat. While they negotiate, three men enter a nearby tent. Mother Courage realizes that one of the men is Eilif—the others are a Swedish commander and a chaplain. The Commander is praising Eilif for his performance in battle.

Mother Courage, eager to speak to her son, convinces the Cook to buy the capon, then eavesdrops on Eilif’s conversation with the Commander. The Commander plies Eilif with wine, encouraging him to tell the story of how he acquired oxen meat. Eilif brags about tricking a group of peasants into believing that he was offering to buy the ox, then killing them and stealing the animal. He brags that, though the peasants fought back, he was victorious, then insists his actions were justified. The Chaplain disagrees. Laughing, the Commander counters with some scripture, which he manipulates to justify Eilif’s killing of the innocent peasants.

Meanwhile, Mother Courage, listening, plucks the capon’s feathers and complains about the Commander to the Cook. She insists the Commander must be up to something dishonest since he is adamant that he needs brave soldiers. She believes that if he were an honest commander, any soldier would do. The Commander asks Eilif if his father was a soldier, certain that he must have been a courageous one if he was. In response, Eilif sings a song about a wise woman who gives advice to a soldier about how to avoid death. The soldier fails to heed her warning. As Eilif sings, Mother Courage beats out the rhythm of the song with a spoon, then sings along. When Eilif hears her, he leaves the tent to look for her.

They hug, and then Mother Courage berates him for not giving in to the peasants when they fought him.

Three years pass. As the scene opens, an officer tries to convince Mother Courage to buy ammunition from him, insisting he needs money to furnish his men with alcohol. She refuses, insisting it is illegal to buy army property. Swiss Cheese is now an army paymaster, a job that she says he obtained because he is honest and would never steal any of the cash he collects.

While Swiss Cheese is off collecting, Mother Courage speaks with Yvette Pottier, a local sex worker. Yvette begins to speak of the men she has been with, despite Mother Courage discouraging her, fearful of Kattrin overhearing. Yvette, insisting Kattrin should learn from Yvette’s mistakes, conveys her experience via a song about the enemy soldiers who came to her town. She fell in love at various times, but in the end, each soldier left her behind to move on to the next town, forgetting about her forever. When the song ends, Mother Courage reiterates to Kattrin to heed the song’s advice. She admits that she is grateful, at times, that Kattrin does not speak because at least Kattrin’s words cannot get her into trouble.

The Cook and the Chaplain enter. They speak on behalf of Eilif, who is leaving with his regiment soon and wants money. Mother Courage, though she disapproves of Eilif’s financial reliance on her, gives a small sum to the Chaplain. The Chaplain and Cook speak of the war as being right and good because it is a religious war. The Chaplain takes an interest in Kattrin, but Mother Courage firmly tells him to leave her alone. She gives the men brandy and they happily drink. The men and Mother Courage talk about the politics of the various nations involved in the war. As they talk, Kattrin puts on the red boots Yvette has left behind and imitates Yvette’s sexualized way of walking and her mannerisms.

Suddenly, cannons fire; the enemy has launched a surprise attack. The Cook and Chaplain flee, but first the Chaplain asks Mother Courage to give him a cloak so that he can disguise himself from the enemy. Reluctantly, she does so. She then notices that Kattrin is wearing Yvette’s boots and hat and chastises her. Yvette reappears, eager for the business opportunity the enemy might provide. Swiss Cheese enters too, clutching the cashbox. Mother Courage gathers up some ashes and rubs them onto Kattrin’s face, hoping that if she makes Kattrin unattractive, she will be safe from sexual assault by the enemy soldiers. She scrambles to remove the Protestant flag from her wagon and orders Swiss Cheese to hide the cashbox; he hides it in her wagon, which causes Mother Courage to panic.

Three days pass. Swiss Cheese worries that his sergeant will wonder where he is with the cashbox. The Chaplain, too, worries because he cannot practice his religion around the enemy. Mother Courage pretends to be Catholic to keep her canteen in business. She tells Swiss Cheese and Kattrin that she is going off in search of meat to sell and a Catholic flag to fly from her wagon, ordering Swiss Cheese to take care of Kattrin while she’s gone.

Alone, Swiss Cheese tells Kattrin that he has devised a plan to hide the cashbox in a hole near a local river. Kattrin goes to the wagon to retrieve some brandy for Swiss Cheese; when she returns, two men have entered, a sergeant and a man bearing an eye patch. They are in search of the cashbox, which Kattrin understands right away. She tries to warn Swiss Cheese, but he wanders off, oblivious, while the men follow him. Mother Courage and the Chaplain return, and she orders him to display the Catholic flag immediately. Kattrin conveys to Mother Courage what has transpired, and Mother Courage is angry at Swiss Cheese for not guarding the cashbox more carefully. The two men reenter, with Swiss Cheese in custody. They demand Mother Courage tell them whether he is the man from the regiment who possesses the cashbox, but Mother Courage and Swiss Cheese deny knowing one another. Though Swiss Cheese insists he is not the person they are looking for and that he knows nothing of the cashbox’s whereabouts, the men take him away.

That evening, while the Chaplain and Kattrin wash dishes, the Chaplain sings a song about Christ’s crucifixion, and then compares their present situation to his. Mother Courage enters, explaining she has devised a plan to pawn the wagon with its goods to a colonel whom Yvette has taken up with. She is hopeful that she can use the money to free Swiss Cheese. Yvette and the Colonel enter, and Yvette talks the Colonel into the deal, allowing him to think that it is entirely his idea. Mother Courage tells Yvette that she will pay back the Colonel’s loan within two weeks, using the money from the cashbox to do so and to live off in the interim. She instructs Yvette to seduce Swiss Cheese’s captor, the man with the eyepatch, and then convince him to release Swiss Cheese.

Yvette returns to tell Mother Courage that she has been successful in seducing the man, but that Swiss Cheese had already confessed to them about the cashbox and revealed its location. Mother Courage, desperate to save Swiss Cheese, tells Yvette to offer them more money for his release. Yvette is unsuccessful and returns to tell Mother Courage, also informing her that the enemy knows Mother Courage is working with Swiss Cheese and may already possess the cashbox. Yvette instructs her to deny knowing Swiss Cheese.

A sergeant enters with men carrying a deceased Swiss Cheese on a stretcher. When they ask Mother Courage to identify him, she insists that she does not know him.