I'm at the end. Now what?

The ending of the book made Mr. Yang Sun look even more scandalous than he had before. They are not getting for love Mr. Yang Sun wants to be able to get the money that he can get from being with her rather than marrying her because he loves her so much. She’s naïve at one point thinking that he loves her so much and is marrying her because of that. Everyone seems to know what he’s marrying her for. His own mother is telling him that he shouldn’t marry her if she won’t sell the tobacco shop for him. From one source I read, it talked about satire using irony as an instrument for getting the point of the satire across (Blackwell Reference Online). If this is the case, then I think irony of the way the play ends could be a type of satire if I understand correctly. The fact that the play ends kinda in the middle of things and the problem isn’t really resolved could be situational irony because the play ended the opposite of the way I expected. I expected there to be a conclusion to the ending of the situation.

From talking about satire and irony in class, I think I have a little bit of a clearer idea of what it really is. I know that I still have trouble detecting both because I struggle with tone and have always done so since middle school. Maybe the fact that I can’t pick up tone contributes to the fact that I have trouble with reading comprehension, which is linked to why I have trouble finding the satire in the play that we are reading. Also, I was having trouble understanding whether or not the whole play was a satire of something or if individual parts of the play made the play considered a satire or containing satire. Tracy brought this up in class as well. I was confused about whether or not we really need to try to see the whole play as a satire or read the play as a normal play and see if we detect satire in the individual parts of the play. As a whole, this play has definitely been a challenge for me. Even now that we’ve finished the play I still don’t think I understand the satire. Does anyone else get it???

Pavlovskis-Petit, Zoja. "26. Irony and Satire : A Companion to Satire: Ancient and

Modern : Blackwell Reference Online." Blackwell Reference Online: Home. Web. 19 Apr. 2010. .

Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

Test

In the play The good woman of Setzuan written by Bertolt Brecht we see how the gods that appear in this play put people up to do to some things that are so tough for humans to handle. Throughout our whole lives many people worship their gods with all their will. In this play we see how the people are so helpful that the gods could help them with whatever problems it is that they have. The gods first expect for the humnas to work for what they want.
“Well, um, good-will. for instance, might do instead of love?" (80).
The gods sent Shen Te to carry their book of rules across a river and make sure it didn't get wet. In this quote wong is expressing his opinion on what the gods are doing to Shen Te. Wong is asking them to find a better way to care for Shen Te then to make her have to carry the heavy rule book. Wong feels like if the gods are testing Shen Te a little to hard. Just like sometimes us humans feel like god has given up on us but it is all just a test of our faith for him. Wong wonders if there is a simpler way that Shen Te could serve the gods instead of this punishment. Sometimes we as humans look up to the heavens and ask god "Why to me?" the true is that he is always testing us and no matter what the punishment that he gives us we should just put up with it and look forward cause after every hardship there is a great satisfaction. God will never give up on us and he would not test us to hard if he knew that we couldn’t handle it. Sometimes instead of asking why we should look up and thank him for everything that he has provided to us.
Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman of Setzuan. New York: Grove, 1966. Print.

Is she really The Good Woman of Setzuan?

In The Good Woman of Setzuan, Shen Te decides to be two different people. She is herself, but she is also her cousin Shui Ta. When I realized that she was playing to be different people, I was very shocked. It seems awkward that when being herself, she wants to help others and only thinks about how to make their lives better. On the other hand, while she is Shui Ta, she only thinks about how to protect herself and make herself better off(Shui Ta and Shen Te). For example, when the wife and the husband ask, “We want to know if we can leave these things in your new home. Will you do us this favor?”(76) Shen Te responds by saying, “Why, yes, I’d be glad to”(76). On the other hand, when the wife and husband tell Shui Ta that them and the carpenter are going to leave their belongings with Shen Te, he says, “That will not be possible”(78). Another example is when Mr. Shu Fu ofers Shen Te a check for any amount she desires. Her, being Shen Te, refuses the offer and leaves the check blank. But when Shui Ta comes around, he cashes the check for ten thousand silver dollars. So when Shen Te is being Shen Te she helps others without ever thinking about herself and that is why she is The Good Woman of Setzuan, but when she disguises herself as Shui Ta, she only thinks about what is more convenient for her. After reading the play, it seems to me that the only reason why Shen Te helps others is to make a name for herself and make everybody like her. She doesn’t seem to be giving out to tobacco or providing others with a place to sleep from the goodness of her heart. Shen Te is secretly ambitious and she figures that the best way to get money from others is being pretending to be innocent and the most caring person in Setzuan.





Works Cited

Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman Of Setzuan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948.

Was an Alter Ego Needed?

After reading the play The Good Woman of Setzuan by Bertolt Brecht I have a better understanding of what satire is. What seems to be the main satirized idea in this play is that it’s impossible to be a good person because people will take advantage of you. Shen Te, the protagonist of this play, believes this so in order to keep committing good deeds she develops an alter ego, Shui Ta that does what’s necessary to protect Shen Te from those that want to take advantage of her.

The reason I think being a good person is what’s being satirized in this play is that I don’t believe that just because you don’t let people take advantage of you means you’re a bad person. I think its possible to have good people who help others but at the same time know how to protect themselves. However, this isn’t what Shen Te believed; she thought that if she wasn’t selfless and thought about herself once in a while she was a bad person. For example, when she came upon money she just handed it out left and right. When I think about her doing that I don’t think about her being a good person, I think about her dumb and squandering her money. This is a very foolish way to use her money because, beside the obvious reasons, she could be using that money to invest it and create more of it. By generating more money she could her more people. But Shen Te doesn’t think about this, she thinks that if she doesn’t extend her hand to the needy right away she’s being a bad person.

In order to balance some of those “good” deeds she made she created Shui Ta, which, like Kersia explained in her blog, isn’t a bad person, he only does what he feels is necessary and logical in order to help Shen Te. It wasn’t long, however, before she confessed the truth.

SECOND GOD: What have you done with our good woman of

Setzuan?

SHUI TA: I have a terrible confession to make: I am she!

SECOND GOD: Shen Te!

SHEN TE: Shen Te, yes. Shui Ta and Shen Te Both./Your injunction/ To be good and yet to live/ Was a thunderbolt:/ It has torn me in two/ I can’t tell how it was/ But to be good to others/ And myself at the same time/ I could not do it/ Your world is not an easy one, illustrious ones!/ When we extend our hand to a beggar, he tears it off for us/ When we help the lost, we are lost ourselves/ And so/ Since to not eat is to die/ Who can long refuse to be bad? (102)

After doing some research I found evidence that explained Shen Te’s multiple personality disorder. In the article “split Personality” a Rapidly Growing Psychotic Disorder I found that “Typically a patient's primary identity has the person's own given name and is passive, dependent, guilty and depressed. Meanwhile, other personalities - or alters - that surface at different times are more likely to be hostile, controlling and self-destructive.” This exactly how it is with Shen Te. She herself was too giving, too selfless, so she created a more hostile, more controlling alter ego to defend her true self. If she hadn’t thought that not letting people take advantage of her meant that she was a bad person Shen Te wouldn’t have had to create this alter ego.

Work Cited

Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

"split Personality€ a Rapidly Growing Psychotic Disorder." Free Articles Directory | Submit Articles - ArticlesBase.com. Web. 19 Apr. 2010. .

The Morality of the Capitalist System

In Bertolt Brecht’s play satire is used to question the morality of the capitalist system. You can’t be good to everyone because people will take advantage of you to advance themselves. For example The family in her shop, her lover, Wong the water man, the barber’s check, the old couple’s loan all are cases where someone had to give, take or loan money in the end making them worse off.
Brecht followed Marxism which influenced the outcomes of the play. His Marxist ideas shows in his criticism of the capitalist system. As Susan mentioned in class Shen Te becomes a capitalist when she owns her own store. The people must give and take because of their financial class. If production was collectively owned like that of the communist system and everyone made the same amount this borrowing and loaning would not happen. People would not have to be mean to each other for their own advancement. In Eric Bentley’s Comments on the Good Woman of Setzuan , he states “It [the play] does presuppose…slave driver capitalist, like those of the factory system in the classic era of capitalism as described by Marx and Engels” (xxi). Shen Te with the help of her bad side Shui Ta becomes a factory owner. Marx and Engels believed that “Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist…They are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overseer, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself” (Marx and Engels). This view of the factory system only expose the owners of factories in a negative light but Brecht shows the owner from two perspectives. In the court we get the views of Shui Ta from the rich and poor. We know there is a good side for Shui Ta and the reason Shen Te must be bad so the reader has sympathy for her. We can all understand that split in oneself to do what it takes to provide. However all this would not be necessary if the division in classes did not exist.
Shen Te is a prostitute, because people in the capitalist system must sell themselves and expose themselves to the competition of the market. Marx and Engels believe, “These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market” (Marx and Engels). Shen Te goes from prostitute which is representative to the common laborer in the capitalist factory system to a factory owner representative of the Bourgeois class that takes advantage of the poorer classes.
The only way to be good and financially well off is through the communist system which does not leave people behind and instead makes them equal. Shen Te tells herself,
“To let no one perish, not even oneself
To fill everyone with happiness, even oneself
Is so good” (62)

Brecht believes the communist system accomplishes this by ridding of class and making people equal.

















Bibliography

Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Trans. Eric Bentley. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999.

Marx, Karl. Frederick, Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Ed. David Fernbach. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. Www.newlearningonline.com. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

Hypocritical Hypocrites

Nobody wants her. She's a woman of the street. She doesn't respect herself so why would anyone else respect her? Nobody knows the real Shen Te, but they are quick to judge. She goes through struggles but nobody cares. She's just a prostitute. Then the gods show up. They change her life. They help her out and she wants to change the direction her life is taking.
When Shen Te becomes economically stable, all of a sudden people that looked down on her are asking her for shelter. When Shen Te needed shelter, they turned her down, and they fear that she will do the same, but she didn't.

SHEN TE: They put me up when I first came in from the country.(To the audience) Of course, when my small purse was empty, they put me on the street, and they may be afraid I'll do the same to them. (To newcomers, kindly) Come in, and welcome, though I've only one little room for you – it's behind the shop. (13)

Shen Te has a warm heart, and she actually worries about the well being of others. But even while she takes care of them, they don't think of repaying her, not even by respecting her shop. The moochers that she let into her house not only took from Shen Te, but also tried to steal from the bakery near Shen Te's shop. This would make Shen Te look bad because she would be known for harboring thieves. But no one took her seriously still after all she did for everyone, so she had to transform into Shui Ta, her “cousin”. When Shui Ta arrived on the scene, the games were over. The hypocrisy levels sky rocketed. All of a sudden, the moochers, along with the non-moochers respected Shen Te, in front of Shui Ta, which is also Shen Te, but hated Shui Ta because of the mean things he did. The only thing wrong with that is that the people getting mad for Shui Ta's actions did the same or something similar to Shen Te. As Shui Ta, Shen Te's confidence went up, and she was able to order people around.
Days after Shui Ta got the thieves arrested for stealing bread, and kicked every person living in the shop out, Shen Te allowed the thieves to keep some of their tobacco in the back room of her shop. Once Shui Ta arrived on the scene, he pretended not to know anything about it and claimed it as his own. He threaten to call the policeman over to make sure that it belonged to him, but the thieves refused and gave him their tobacco. They weren't very happy about this, but when they stole a cigar, or two, or three from Shen Te, they didn't care. They were hypocrites.
The charade continued for quite a while. Shen Te's dual personality, showed her the others' dual personalities. Sure they didn't change their names and appearances like Shen Te did, but they acted differently around Shen Te and Shui Ta. Yang Sun for example, acted like he cared for Shen Te around her, but around Shui Ta, he showed his other side. He showed his selfish side. This benefited Shen Te because she now knew how he really felt about her, but she loved him, and she now had his baby in her stomach. So she couldn't really do much against him. But Shui Ta took care of Yang Sun.
But the play's biggest hypocrisy went further than anything that the mortal character did. In this play, the gods were the biggest hypocrites. It upset them that people didn't believe in them, but they didn't believe there was any good soul. The entire play is filled with hypocrites. People, or spirits, that get mad when others do as they do. The only person who wasn't a hypocrite was the good woman of Setzuan herself. She led by example to all from the mortal humans to the omnipotent gods.
In the last scene, Shen Te reveals herself to the gods who were acting as judges. They find what she did astonishing, but admire her for it. Wong, the water seller sees Shen Te and get excited to know that she is alive. They all missed her, but she knows that without her “cousin” everyone will walk all over her. Even though the play has no clearbv ending to it, which makes it hard to understand the moral, a wise conclusion would be that Bertolt Brecht wanted to persuade his audience to let go of that hypocrisy, and to be more understanding people that are less judgmental. The way he tried to persuade his audience was by showing us the opposite in all of the characters except one. Perhaps we should all take after the good woman of Setzuan, and make the Earth more tolerable.


Works Cited

Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman Of Setzuan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948.

What is the Water Seller's role in the Play?

Yes he sells water, and has a more difficult time selling when it begins to rain, but Wong is not just preoccupied with quenching the thirst of innocent citizens who dare and buy his tainted water. To appear in every slot, every minute of the plot, Wong must be a pretty busy man. Is Wong some kind of facilitator?-By giving the latest news to the three Gods, usually involving Shen Te.

"Wong: She had to call on her cousin again. But not even he could help. I'm afraid is done for.
Third God (a little concerned): Perhaps we should help after all?" (70)

Perhaps we have been sleeping on Wong young fellow bloggers; Wong's purpose is much more pertinent than you might realize. Wong remains steady and consistent in terms of having talks with the Gods. Besides Shen Te, and at the end of the play where the court exposes the Gods to every character, Wong is the main character that interacted with higher beings (the three Gods).

Not bad for a water seller.

A Sudden Change of Heart

In the second part of The Good Woman of Setzuan, Yang Sun becomes more attentive to Shan Te towards the end of the play. Before as we had seen he did not care about her at all. All he cared about was the money that he would obtain from Shan Te once they were married. When Shi Ta wonder on why Shan Te is devoted to Sun he says, “Because I have my hand on her breasts. Give me a cigar” (56). Evidently he does not care about Shan Te enough to say something wordy of the Good Woman of Setzuan. A bit later Sun also makes it clear that, “Ill marry her, then bring me the three hundred. Or let her bring it. One or the other” (56). His cruelty is further demonstrated when it is said that Yang Su tears Shan Te’s weeding dress after they fail to get married due to Shui Ta’s absence. Although some people might not think that this character is not important but I think it is. I think that the author is portraying a very ugly side of men that we like to hide. Yang Su behaves in the most atrocious way the only person that loves him, Shan Te. Instead of waiting or postponing the weeding to another day he simply leaves and drags Shan Te out of the cheap restaurant. After Yang Sun wastes the money that Shan Te gave him she has to find a way to replay it. After Shan Te finds a way of expanding her tobacco industry. She begins to do well for herself but in the mean time her other self, Shui Ta files a police report against Yang Sun against failed marriage and the fact that he obtained two-hundred silver dollars illegally. I really started to notice the change in heart of Yang Sun when he goes back to Shan Te’s tobacco shop dragging his feet in defeat. All he says is that, “the money is gone” (83). Shui Ta offers him a job as a test of his goodwill and he accepts. He even asks to speak to Shan Te, which he had never just thought of her before. He works in the tobacco shop long enough for Shui Ta to promote him due to his effort and hard work. After this it seems like Yang Sun is more interested in the well being of Shan Te than before. It seems like he has suddenly been struck by good will and wants to be with Shan Te. I think this is important because it shows that some people are willing to change if some hope is put on them.

The GOOD Helping The EVIL

Ever since Shen Te has been given those thousand silver dollars from the Gods, she has made it her duty to help and please the needy. But, is helping somebody do bad still a good duty? She has given up her last to help Yang Sun become a pilot again, which is a good duty to do for someone. But, in order to fly the director at Peking airfield has to fire a well-rounded pilot. Yes, this will help Yang Sun financial and will give him another start in life. On the other hand this will affect the other employee who is going to be fired. What if he has family who he needs to support?
When Yang Sun is talking to Shui Ta about how the five-hundred silver dollars is going to help him fly, he states, “Not as these things go. He’ll have to fire one of the present pilots—for negligence. Only the man he has in mind isn’t negligent. Not easy, you understand. You needn’t mention that part of it to Shen Te” (53). Shen Te who is disguising herself to be Shui Ta finds this out and refuses to go with Yang Sun.
When Shui Ta goes in the back and unwraps himself to become Shen Te, she becomes a whole different person. She returns to the front of the shop willing to leave with the Barber, who wants to marry her not just for her money, but then is quickly pulled towards Yang Sun. Why? As Shui Ta she can refuse Yang Sun, but as soon as she removes the mask, she falls straight for Yang Sun, knowing his plans to just use her. Why doesn’t she just take the money back, and let him leave. What is the difference, she is the still the same person inside with or without the mask.
To me, she is desperate for love. This may be the first time she has ever fallen in love with somebody and she just doesn’t want to lose that bond. Being a prostitute was a job and she never had a chance to fall in love. Now that she has she is scared to let go. She loves the feeling of being needed, instead of being used and doesn’t want to lose that. Therefore, she has to disguise herself to be Shui Ta, in order to do something productive without being ran over, like here tobacco company.


Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman Of Setzuan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948.

Making Better Decisions

The Gods have chosen Shen Te because she is a good person. She has proved that she is not selfish by putting others before herself. She feeds rice to the poor, provides shelter for people who treated her wrong, and lends money to those who ask for it. All of Shen Te’s accomplishments are not enough because she can’t manage to have a successful life.

It seems that Shen Te is well respected in the district she lives in because of what she does for the rest of the people that live there. Every day, she feeds rice to those less fortunate and has gained the name of the Angel of the Slums (41). Feeding those who are less fortunate has gained her some respect from people like the barber, Shu Fu, but not from everybody. When Shu Fu discovered that Shen Te was about to lose her Tobacco shop he immediately offered to help without asking for something in return. He first let her know that he was aware of the unfairness behind her losing her shop, then made sure Shen Te knew that he respected the way she sacrificed herself for others, and then Shu Fu offered a blank check to her disposal (73). This check was the solution to keeping her Tobacco shop, but it wasn’t what Shen Te wanted.

Even though Shen Te is about to lose her Tobacco Shop, she faces other people’s problems. Wong, the water seller, came up to her for help. The Carpenter had lost his shop, was drinking, and his children were on the streets (75). Shen Te quickly finds a solution to the Carpenter’s problem. She manages to find shelter for the Carpenter’s family at Mr. Shu Fu’s cabins, but gets nothing in return. Shen Te’s personal problems are still active. The Carpenter is not going to worry about Shen Te losing her Tobacco shop, nor is going to compensate her for finding him shelter.

Another occasion when Shen Te tries to help others, even if she is not helping herself, is when she gives Yang Sun money. She knows that Yang Sun needs her money to be a pilot again, and she is willing to lose her shop to help him out. There is nothing more she wants than seeing her loved one’s dream come true. Shen Te knows that Yang Sun only wants her money because he confessed to Shui Ta that he was aware of the influence he had over Shen Te.

Yang Sun: “Shen Te is a woman: she is devoid of common sense. I only have to lay my hand on her shoulder, and church bells ring. (56)

What Yang Sun doesn’t know is that Shen Te is aware of his intentions, but knowing Sun’s intentions will not benefit Shen Te.

Shen Te’s good spirit only affects her because she is not doing anything to help herself in the long run. She is not benefiting from all the great things she does to help others. What she needs to do is bring out the Shui Ta she has deep inside herself. If she does, Shen Te will have the strength to make decisions that will make her better off.

Work cited: Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman of Setzuan. New York: Grove, 1947. Print.

Dramatic Irony

The author uses irony to create his satire. More specifically, Brecht uses dramatic irony. This kind of irony is created when there’s “a situation in which the audience knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know” (Irony).

The characters don’t have all the information the audience has. We, the audience, know that Shui Ta and Shen Te are the same person, but of the characters, no one, except for Mrs. Shin, knows that Shui Ta and Shen Te are the same person. They all ask Shui Ta, “where is she? Where is Shen Te?” (101). Not even the gods appear to know these characters are the same person. We see their ignorance about this fact when one of the gods asks, “What have you done with our good woman of Setzuan” (101).

Because they don’t know the entire truth the people of Setzuan have accused Shui Ta of “doing away with [his] cousin Shen Te to take possession of her business” (97). When everyone is in the courthouse, we see the dramatic irony clearer than ever, speciallywhen Shui Tas asks everyone to leave so that he can make a confession to the gods. Everyone believes that “he’s guilty?” and that “he’s confessing!” (101), but because we know the whole truth, we know that he will confess not that he’s guilty of Shen Te’s murderer, but that he is Shen Te herself.

Works Cited

1. "Irony". Examples-Help! 2006. Web. April 19, 2010. <http://www.examples-help.org.uk/irony.htm>.
2. Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman Of Setzuan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948.

Why two people?

In Bertolt Brecht's play, The Good Woman of Setzuan, we are introduced to a prostitute named Shen Te. At the beginning, we see that Shen Te is very kind and she basically lets people run over her. She does everything to please others including allowing many of her relatives to come in and stay in her very small and crowded tobacco shop. But, then she sort of disappears and a new character is introduced -- Shui Ta, her cousin. Shui Ta comes in and sort of just takes control of everything and is basically the complete opposite of Shen Te. Later, when Shui Ta is accused of murdering Shen Te and trying to take over her business, we see him confess that he is Shen Te. Shen Te had simply dressed and created an alter-ego. But, why?

On page 103, Shen Te gives this long explanation as to why she fabricated the story of having a cousin. She says, to the Gods,

"But to be good to others/And myself at the same time/I could not do
it/Your
world is not an easy one, illustrious ones!/When we extend our hand
to a
beggar, he tears it off us/When we help the lost, we are lost
ourselves/And
so/Since not to eat is to die/Who can long refuse to be
bad?"

Through this, Brecht tells what I believe is the whole point of his play. No one can avoid being bad. Even if someone tries to be perfect and good, something inside of them is always going to be bad. People are always going to somehow be prideful, lust what others have, and lie to get their way. As the story developed, it was hard to understand why Brecht would choose to make one woman seem crazy by having two personalities but then I realized what he was trying to do. I believe that his use of an alter ego was his way of using satire to prove a point. Although at first I didn't understand the satire in it, I then understood that it was that people have to create different personalities to live in the world. We don't need two personalities though. Everyone has both already. Sure most people prefer to be "good" rather than "bad" but everyone has their moments. The purpose of this play was to show that there aren't just bad people and just good people. Everyone has a little of each inside of them, you just have to accept it and learn to live with it to survive in this world.

Works Cited:
Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ariannameli/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

She's being naive

In the last few sections of the play I didn’t find any humor in it what so ever. In fact these sections make me angry. I don’t understand how Shen Te can be so ignorant and blind even after she heard Yang Sun tell Mr. Shui Ta that he wasn’t really in it for the love, but for the money that she could give him for his pilot job in Peking. The conversation starts on page 55 when Yang Sun talks to Shui Ta to get him to pay up the rest of the money for him to go to Peking and become a pilot.

Shui Ta: Two people can’t travel for nothing.
Yang Sun (not giving Shui Ta a chance to answer): I’m leaving her behind. No millstone around my neck!
Shui Ta: Oh.
Yang Sun: Don’t look at me like that!
Shui Ta: How precisely is my cousin to live?
Yang Sun: Oh, you’ll think of something.
Shui Ta: A small request, Mr. Yang Sun. Leave the two hundred silver dollars here until you can show me two tickets for Peking.
Yang Sun: You learn to mind your own business, Mr. Shui Ta.
Shui Ta: I’m afraid Miss Shen Te may not wish to sell the shop when she discovers that…
Yang Sun: You don’t know women. She’ll want to. Even then.
Shui Ta (a slight outburst): She is a human being, sir! And not devoid of common sense!
Yang Sun: Shen Te is a woman: she is devoid of common sense. I only have to lay my hand on her shoulder, and church bells ring.
Shui Ta (with difficulty): Mr. Yang Sun!
Yang Sun: Mr. Shui Whatever-it-is!
Shui Ta: My cousin is devoted to you… because…
Yang Sun: Because I have my hands on her breast. Give me a cigar. (He takes one for himself, stuffs a few more in his pocket, then changes his mind and takes the whole box.) Tell her I’ll marry her, then bring me the three hundred. Or let her bring it. One or the other. (Exit.)

Yang Sun out right tells Mr. Shui Ta that Shen Te is dumb and that he is not really in love with her, but he is just going to use her to get what he wants. Shen Te hears all of these things and still decides to marry him. How can she be so naive when she already knows that the only reason Yang Sun is there is to get the three hundred from her and then he is going to take his mother with him to Peking. Not worrying about how Shen Te is to make a living after giving everything she has to him. She even goes all the way to actually getting ready to marry him.
How can she want to be with a man who has no love for her and not even look at the man who is willing to give up all he has for her and her good will, I guess a little bit of the irony here is that Shen Te has fallen in love with Yang Sun, Who doesn’t love her back, and Shu Fu has fallen in love with Shen Te and she doesn’t love him either. But yet in the end Shen Te is forced to choose Shu Fu in order to keep her business running and because he is the only one who offers her the money to pay for- anything she needs. Which leaves Yang Sun in the same predicament that he started of in, with no money to become a pilot and looking for a way to get the rest of his money, but not only that she thinks she is pregnant with Yang Sun's son. Which if she tells Shu Fu of this it will mess up her chances of getting the money and the help she most desperately needs to get back on her feet and to pay back everyone who she was in debt to.

Can you really be GOOD?

The Good Woman of Setzuan tackles some real issues throughout this play but I think what's the most interesting topic of satire is whether a person can, in all actuality, be a good person. The only person who's perceived to be a good person is Shen Te, and she can't even be a truly good person without changing into someone who can be mean. In fact, I think this whole book is satirizing that aspect of human nature. I don't know of anyone who is consistently nice all the time and that is their actual true character. For example in the play, Shen Te is constantly being a "nice" person and allowing people to run all over her (56). But she doesn't have the courage enough to stand up for herself without changing into a whole other person. My question is, is Shen Te truly a nice person? She's simply putting on a mask, she's not changing into an entirely different person, so can she really be good if it's still her who has committed the crimes and who has been selfish and mean towards others (103)? I think that this situation shows us that for some people it is hard to be nice yet firm at the same time, just like Shen Te. I don't think she's a bad person just because she made mistakes under the mask of Shui Ta, but can she really be the good woman of Setzuan if she lied, cheated, and schemed? I think the play is trying to say that it's almost impossible for someone to be good all the time, but it's not fair that someone be good all the time. Even the gods didn't expect her to be good all the time, which is why they didn't get mad when they found out she wasn't being good all the time. No one in life is perfect, and putting too much pressure on someone so that they can be a good person can have an adverse effect on someone, like it did with Shen Te. She couldn't handle being nice to everyone and being run over and having the title of being such a good woman, and the pressure pushed her into having to be Shui Ta.

 Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

The Woman Behind the Mask

If I were to say the word mask, what would be the first thought that comes to your mind? If words like hide, conceal, and protect came to your mind, then I'd have to say you were fishing in the right pond. Looking at Bertolt Brecht's The Good Women of Setzuan, we look at characters, Shen Te and Shui Ta, who are synonymous, Shen Te being a woman and Shui Ta being a "man". As the reader, throughout the play, we are aware that the two are the same people, while the characters in the play are ingnorant of this fact. In the novel, Shen Te uses a mask as a means of stepping out of her admirable shell and stepping into a character that allows her to indulge in less saint like behaviors and take on the characteristics a selfish person. It's the accepted view that the purpose of a mask is to hide, protect, or conceal a person's identity.
In the play, I found it ironic that Shen Te wears a mask to hide her identity and ends up pregnant, which is impossible for the man, Shui Ta, which she pretends to be, so it becomes only a matter of time before she is found out. Looking back at the play, the text says:

SHUI TA: I'm dizzy.
MRS. SHIN: After all, you are in your seventh month. But old Mrs. Shin will be there in your hour of trial!
SHUI TA: Can I count on that?
MRS. SHIN: We all have our price, and mine won't be too high for the great Mr. Sui Ta!
SHUI TA: It's for the child's sake. All of this.
MRS. SHIN: "All for the child," of course.
SHUI TA: I'm so fat. People must notice.

When looking at Shen Te's situation, it made me think that she has a multiple personality disorder, which is a condition where a person exhibits multiple distinct or discrete personalities. In Shen Te's situation, the multiple peronalities are directly linked to the mask that she uses to change her persona and become Shui Ta. From the beginning of the play we see Shen Te in her attempt to be the most admirable person possible, but after seeing that it is impossible to be congenial all the time, Shen Te resolves to becoming her alter ego, Shui Ta.
But when does a mask cease to work? From a religious stand point, I don't think it's ok to pose as something you're not and sooner or later, what's done in the dark will come to the light.


Work Cited
"Dissociative Identity Disorder" Wikipedia. 17 April 2010. Wikipedia Foundation, Incorporated. 19 April 2010.

Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman Of Setzuan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948.

Alter Ego

Bertolt Brecht's The Good Woman of Setzuah introduced a very confused, yet determined character. Shen Te, the prostitute whom the gods have deemed the only “good” person in the world, seems to have the problem of being too good. She is unable to deny those who need assistance, even though they take advantage of her goodness. Throughout the play, not once does Shen Te display any aggravation or complain about giving everything she's worked for to those less fortunate; she helps everyone to the best of her ability without hesitation. Shen Te's cousin, Shui Ta, on the other hand, is not bad, but he is rash: He does what he feels is necessary and logical in order to help his Shen Te. It is not until the end of the play, however, that we come to know that Shui Ta is really Shen Te in disguise.


When Shui Ta reveals himself as Shen Te to the gods in the courtroom, the gods are still convinced that she is good. Even when she confesses:

SHEN TE: … I am she!... Shen Te, yes. Shui Ta and Shen Te. Both./ Your injunction/ To be good and yet to live/ Was a thunderbolt:/ It has torn me in two/ I can't tell how it was/ But to be good to others/ And myself at the same time/ I could not do it/ Your world is not an easy one, illustrious ones!/ When we extend our hand to a beggar, he tears it off for us/ When we help the lost, we are lost ourselves/ And so/ Since not to eat is to die/ Who can long refuse to be bad?/ As I lay prostrate beneath the weight of good intentions/ Fuin stared me in the face/ It was when I was unjust that I ate good meat.../ Why are bad deeds rewarded?/ Good ones punished?/ I enjoy giving/ I truly wished to be the Angel of the Slums.../ The time came when pity was a thorn in my side/ And, later, when kind workds turned to ashes in my mouth. And anger took over/ I became a wolf/ Find me guilty, then, illustrious ones.../ For your great, godly deeds, I was too poor, too small. (102).

Shen Te is trying to explain that no one can be good because it is too hard on them. Helping others is good, but you can only help so many and for so long. This is why Shen Te came up with an alter ego: Shui Ta. Because she would disguise herself as Shui Ta, she was able to release some of the anxiety that she dealt with as Shen Te. Also, as Shui Ta, she was able to preserve some of what Shen Te had worked hard for herself without ruining the good image she had as Shen Te. Even then, the gods accept Shen Te and her alter ego and head back to heaven to announce that there is a good person in the world and leave her, only advising that she not use Shui Ta so often.

This whole episode was meant to show that there are good people, but people are also self absorbed. The gods understand this, and this is why they did not reprimand Shen Te. Her intentions were good, but she could not get past the fact that she herself needed things too. A good person is one who puts other before themselves, which Shen Te did, but she could not keep it up which is why she concocted the alter ego of Shui Ta. Either the gods saw nothing wrong with this, or they were exhausted in searching the world for a good person and settled for Shen Te.


Work Cited
Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

Who Is Good?

Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan is a very humorous play. The idea of three gods in search of a good person in order to prove that religion still exists is hilarious, especially when the gods say that this dispute is being held in heaven as well. What raised the bar, however, is the fact that the only “good” person they can find in several towns is a prostitute and she is the one that is giving the gods hope that there are good people still in the world. The whole idea of a prostitute carrying out gods will makes for a good plot, especially when the gods know her profession.
FIRST GOD: ... You proved that good people still exist, a point that has been disputed as of late—even in heaven.

SHEN TE: Stop, illustrious ones! I’m not sure you’re right. I’d like to be good, it’s true, but there’s the rent to pay. And that’s not all: I sell myself for a living... I should love to stay with one man. But how? How is it done? Even breaking a few of you commandments, I hardly manage.

FIRST GOD (clearing his throat): These thoughts are but, um, the misgivings of an unusually good woman! (10)

It is as if the first god wishes to quickly leave before they find out that Shen Te is not a good woman after all; they’re willing to settle for “good enough” and quickly leave before they can change their minds. Then they are stopped and obligated to give her money, even though it is not allowed of gods. The first god, after throwing money in her hands, that “...there’s no law against it! It was never decreed that a god musn’t pay hotel bills!” (11).

The satire continues as we are introduced to characters who are only concerned about themselves. Shen Te does good with the money, although she is often accused of letting people walk all over her. She decides to invest in a tobacco shop (apparently people need their cigarettes when the economy’s down). When Shen Te needs someone to vouch for her reputation, a lady off the street helps her concoct a “cousin” to put all the weight of the business on. But Shui Ta, the invented cousin, turns up on the doorstep of the tobacco shop. He turns out to be very harsh compared to Shen Te and ends up kicking them all out just to have Shen Te welcome them back with open arms soon after.

This is a funny play that can go in any direction. Shen Te does appear to be good, but I wonder what will happen when she marries. She claims that she is in love, but she only just met the man. When she was under the tree with Yang Sun, he caressed her cheek and said,” You’re easily satisfied, I must say” (36). Shen Te is good in the eyes of the gods right now, but she may not be able to keep it up for long.

Work Cited
Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

Yasin's Lust

In Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk, Yasin is a character that takes after his father, Ahmad, but not in the dealings of business or being someone of high respect. Yasin takes after his father’s vices: partying and women. In the novel, we immediately see that Yasin is a lustful creature. Every time he talks about a woman, it is entirely sexual. He describes their bodies and treats them as objects, always referring to them with obscenities. When he attempts to rape Umm Hanafi, his father feels that it is best to marry him off to one of his friend’s daughters. Ahmad does this in hopes that Yasin will settle down and stop tainting his name; if he is married, he will be seen with more respect than being a single, licentious rapist.


Before his marriage, Yasin was entertaining himself with a woman named Zanuba. He was vey lustful with her and would call her whenever he was in need of pleasure. However, when he gets married to Zaynab, he comes to realize that Zanuba means nothing to him emotionally and now that he has a wife, nothing to him at all (even physically).

“When Yasin thought about his bride, a bestial tremor passed

through his body. Then he remembered the last night... with

Zanuba. He had informed her of his impeding marriage and told her

he was saying goodbye to her... Zanuba no longer meant anything to

him, nor did any other woman. He had lowered the curtain on that

side of his life forever. He might return to drinking, because he

thought his desire for that would not die, but as for women, he could

not imagine his eyes straying when he had a beauty at his disposal.

His bride was a renewable resource and a spring of water for the wild

thirst that had troubled his existence so frequently” (299).

Ahamd was right: If Yasin were given a beautiful wife, he would settle down and then have someone to submit to his lusts. Yasin and Zaynab’s marriage was proving just this until Yasin’s lusts began to resurface. There were times when she would satisfy them, “...her vivacity and desire had increased. When he would think that sleep had become a necessity after such a long period of activity, before he knew it her leg would be flung over his as if of its own accord. So he told himself, ‘How amazing...she’s the one who’s realizing my dreams for our marriage’” (308), but most of the time he was just disappointed that he had left his lustful life behind.

To Yasin: “Marriage’s external appearance was beguiling, tempting enough to die for, but inside it was so staid and sedate that a person might become indifferent of disgusted” (307). He began to lose interest in having a permanent woman at his disposal. Ahmad’s idea had failed because Zaynab was unable to satisfy Yasin’s thirst for lust. Yes, she did try to satisfy him as best she could, but Yasin wants more than one woman can give him and this is what Ahmad failed to take into account. One good thing, in Ahmad’s view, did come from Yasin’s marriage: Yasin’s honor was secured. Because he got married, his offenses of sleeping with other women are not as costly as they would be if he were single.

Work Cited
Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. Toronto: First American Edition, 1991. Print.

Angel of the Slums

The second half of The Good Woman of Setzuan by Bertolt Brecht is a little more serious and teachy than the first half. But there was one thing that I found a little humorous. On page 57, Mr. Shu Fu states that Shen Te in known as the “Angel of the Slums.” I found this to be humorous because, just a few days ago, Shen Te was a prostitute that they looked down upon. And now they call her an angel. Now that she is giving them things and has cleaned up, she is an angel.
Before, they would not have taken time to get to know her. They would have had once glance at her and have made their judgment. It is ironic how the people of Setzuan consider her holy and congregate against Shui Ta to get her back, but only a little while ago. They had considered her dirt. The family that expected her to house them had, themselves, kicked her out when she had no where else to go. Now, the people were demanding so much of her. They thought her to be some saint.
The only person that calls her bad is the one person she puts above everyone else: Yang Sun. “And since you always do the wrong thing, it's lucky your cousins coming...”(66). It is crazy how the person that just received two hundred silver dollars from this girl says that she always does the wrong thing. If there is anything that she did wrong, it was falling this guy.
Although Yang Sun is the only person who seems to out and out show his lack of respect and appreciation for this “Angel of he Slums”, the other people of Setzuan seem to disrespect her and feel that they have some sort of entitlement to her charity. The family are the main ones. They are continuously rude to her. She gave them a little, and the nearly make her undone. The question that is risen (and that we discussed in class) is: Was it a bad thing for Shen Te to be so good to people? Shui Ta tells Yang Sun, “She is a human being, sir! And not devoid of common sense!”(56) The people seem to forget that she is a human being. She needs to provide for herself and her shop. She can only do so much. But they seem to not consider this and abuse her kindness. If she is an angel, shouldn't they all aim to please her, instead of disrespecting her?


Work Cited
Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

Strength

Throughout Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk, both the men and the women in the novel display a certain type of strength. With the men, this is displayed by taking on the roll of a superior. With the women, it is a sense of fulfilling one's duty to their husband. When it comes to the protests in which the Egyptians hold in order to rid themselves of British rule, Fahmy is the first to display a different type of strength: the will to fight for what he believes in. Fahmy is a character that we first see as calm and tolerant, but as the novel comes to an end, we can see that he becomes somewhat of a hero, especially to his father Ahmad (which is shocking because Ahmad is a character who holds the largest superior attitude out of all the men). To him, superiority matters not; it is not what he considers a strength. Fahmy chooses instead to be heroic in standing for what he believes in and trying to free his country of the suppression of British rule. This is what sets Fahmy apart from his father, Ahmad.

When Ahmad is returning home from a night’s entertainment, he is stopped by a British soldier. This is the first time we see Ahmad submit to someone else’s orders rather than give them. “... [The soldier] seized him by the shoulder, forcibly turned him around, and shoved him in the back. Al-Sayyidd Ahmad found himself moving toward Palace Walk with the other man behind him. He surrendered to his fate, but his joints felt like rubber” (443). This is the first time Ahmad displays a sign of weakness. We are not used to seeing Ahmad in a vulnerable position. There is a point in during his walk where he wishes that he could communicate or even understand what his British captor was saying. He thought:

“Where was Fahmy to interpret for him? He was stung by painful

homesickness. Where were Fahmy, Yasin, Kamal, Khadija, Aisha,

and their mother? Could him family imagine his disgraceful state?

Their only image of him was one of venerable and exalted power.

Would they be able to imagine that a soldier had shoved him in the

back almost hard enough to make him fall on the ground and herded

him along like livestock?” (445).

Ahmad is in an uncompromising position and feels weak; it is the first time he will admit that one of his sons would be able to handle a situation better than he.

For the fist time, Fahmy is exercising his strength to go against his father’s will. This is not only a rebellious display against his father, but more of a commitment to his principals. He takes part in the protests although his father forbids it and gains a sense of patriotism and self worth from it. “He had not defied his father verbally but had acted against his will and had done so repeatedly. Moreover, he had refused to swear an oath the day his father had asked him to, announcing with his tears that he would stick to his principles despite his father’s wishes” (484). Fahmy even goes as far as to ask for his father’s approval to participate in the protests. Although Ahmad is still resistant, Fahmy decides to go along anyway. The fact that Fahmy had the courage and strength to put his life at risk and go against his father’s will was very brave and heroic of him. Throughout the novel we have seen that Ahmad’s relationship with Fahmy was one of the strongest and for Fahmy to risk that, and in this culture, is a very powerful thing.

When Ahmad finds out that Fahmy was killed in one of the protests he feels a pang of guilt and sadness. “...he would scrutinize Fahmy’s life in the prime of his youth, the hopes he had aroused and the memories he had left behind, giving free rein to tears so he could totally exhaust them” (497). Ahmad is worn down and realizes that his son died doing something brave for his country. This is the turning point for Ahmad; it is sad though, that it finally stuck at the expense of his son’s life. By the end of the Palace Walk we have seen the characters develop into something greater. Fahmy, a submissive son, finally stands for what he believes is right. Ahmad, a strict and egotistical father, realizes that being harsh and following the rules is not the way to earn respect and it is certainly does not compare to the strength that his son showed.

Work Cited

Mahfouz, Naguib. Palace Walk. Toronto: First American Edition, 1991. Print.

I thought God took care of us?

Growing up in a Christian household, my family always made it seem as of God was this amazingly rich higher being. They always told me that he had a palace waiting for me in heaven and that his huge kingdom had golden roads and crystal waters. As a young girl I was obviously excited and couldn’t wait to get to heaven so that I could finally be rich. But, at the beginning of Bertolt Brecht’s play, The Good Woman of Setzuan, the Gods exchange a few words that confused this long time belief.

SHIN TE: But everything is so expensive, I don’t feel sure I can do it!
SECOND GOD: That’s not in our sphere. We never meddle with economics.
THIRD GOD: One moment. Isn’t it true she might do better if she had more money?
SECOND GOD: Come, come! How could we ever account it Up Above? (11)

The first thing that came to mind when, on page 11, the Second God mentioned, “Up Above,” was heaven. But, the way they said it made it seem as if they didn’t have very much money to spare and that they stayed away from everyone’s finances. This was nothing like what I had been taught when I was younger. It really confused me at first because I kept asking myself, “Isn’t God SUPPOSED to take care of us?!” But, then I remembered that my AP English teacher, Susan Davis, told us that this play was a satire when she handed it out. But growing up, my parents always told me that it wasn’t right to “play” with things about God. So, why is Brecht doing it? Is it okay to say these things about God? Or am I just misinterpreting Brecht’s writing when he’s not really doing that what I’m accusing him of?

Works Cited
Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lexrex/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Gods

In the play The Good Woman of Setzuan written by Bertolt Brecht we see how the people are hopeful that gods will help them with the problems that they have. What I find to be the satire about this is that most people only talk about one god but in this play there seems to be multiple gods. This quote reminds me so much of Greek Mythology and that’s one of the reasons I was attracted to it.
“And I hear from the cattle merchant- who travels a lot- that some of the highest gods are on their way here at this very moment. Informed sources have it that heaven is quite disturbed at all the complaining. I’ve been coming out here to the city gates for three days now to bid these gods welcome. I want to be the first to greet them” (5).
For many years we have heard of how gods help the less fortunate and it was believed in Greek Mythology that gods would take the form of a human and visit earth every time that they pleased. Gods are suppose to be the saviors and just fix anything that is wrong anywhere. This quote reminded me so much of Greek mythology because of the fact that there were three gods coming down to earth in a human form. That is something that I had only heard of from previous Greek mythology books that I had read my freshman year. For example in the Odyssey we see how one Greek go, can’t really remember which one, comes down to earth and takes the form of a human to speak to Odysseus’ son. That’s the same thing that this quote shows gods come down as humans and the humans are hoping that they can fix everything. The only difference is that with the Greek gods people didn’t know about them and here in this play people knew that the gods were coming.

Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Woman of Setzuan. New York: Grove, 1966. Print.

What are they aiming at?

In the American society, we go through a hierarchy. The people at the top are doctors, lawyers, or scientists, while the people at the bottom are the homeless, the drug addicts, and women of the streets, or prostitutes. In his play, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Bertolt Brecht appears to switch this around, and makes the prostitute the person at the top of the list. Even though the play doesn't take place in America and it isn't related to American culture, this is still very strange.
Shen Te is a prostitute in Setzuan. The play revolves around her and the three gods. These three gods came to Setzuan to see who still believed in them. The gods say:

SECOND GOD: What did I tell you?
THIRD GOD: It could be pure coincidence.
SECOND GOD: The same coincidence in Shun, Kwan, and Setzuan? People just aren't religious anymore, lets face the fact. Our mission has failed. (7)

The gods feel like no one cares anymore and they are looking for a good person. When Wong, the water seller, is going from house to house asking people if they had room for the gods in their homes, everyone said no because they didn't want to, except Shen Te. Being a prostitute, she works by attending to men, and even though a man would be at her house that day, she said that she would let the gods come in. When the gods do enter her house, they declare her a good woman, and she denies their declaration. She tells them her story and why she does the things she does, and the gods feel sorry for her and try to help her pay the rent on her house.
What is strange in this play is that the gods claim that people aren't religious anymore. That they don't believe the gods exist, but they are right in front of them. If seeing is believing, what's the problem? Why aren't the people religious? It is clear that there is a problem with a dam, but even now if there's an earthquake or a hurricane, we don't stop believing in God. I will admit that there are times in my life when I ask why so many bad things happen, and even if I say well these are the consequences that we pay for our action, there are times where the people that suffered the consequences did no bad deeds. For example, the earthquake in Haiti. Those people go through hurricanes and all sorts of things every year, they are the poorest country in the west, but they still have tragedies. How could they deserve punishment year after year after year? This also happens in my personal life when I ask why did that happen? And as much as I try to figure out what I did to receive a punishment of the caliber, I can't figure it out. This is what might be happening in Setzuan, but just because I can't figure it out, I don't stop believing in God, so why have the people of Shun, Kwan, and Setzuan stopped believing in their gods?
One person, at least, still believes in the gods, and she is also a good person even though her profession indicates otherwise. When the gods reappear in Wong's dreams he tells them of all of Shen Te's good deeds, and the gods are happy. That is another strange thing in this play. As humans we tend to rely on God, those of us who believe, but the play makes it seem like the gods rely on humans.
I don't really know where this play is going. Hopefully we'll know once the second half of the play is read.

Works Cited

Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

I don't think I get it

As I read the play and tried to understand the plot, finding the satire in the things the characters were saying got more and more difficult. I did not understand what the satire was. So to begin, I looked up what the word satire meant and how it’s used in most cases to understand more closely. Satire is defined as “a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of the satiric attack.” The definition made me understand what the meaning of satire was a little more but it didn’t make me detect any of the most obvious satire in the book. The only few things that I could find that appeared to be remotely satirical was the way the gods treated the people as they went through the people to find out who was the best person. One particular part was when Wong says, “You’ll be staying with a single girl—the finest human being in Setzuan!” and the third god says, “That’s nice.” I thought with this line Wong was ridiculing the fact that the gods are trying to find the finest human being. The rest of the book seemed normal conversation to me. I didn’t detect any satire in the rest of the things people said. Overall the book seemed like a normal story to me. I never detected any satire and I think I probably just don’t fully understand what satire is.

"Satire." The Nellen Family Jewels. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. .

Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. United States: S.n.], 1957. Print.

Helping others

The beginning of The Good Woman of Setzuan was somewhat confusing. At first we see the three Gods going around asking for a place to stay, but no one gives them a room. Then, Shen Te, who is a prostitute decides to offer them a place to stay. To me it seems that the point is to show how ironic it is that sometimes the people who we consider to be bad in society end up being the better people. Or it could also be that the people who have the most never help out while the people who have less always try to help. As Shen Te says, “ Isn’t it funny how people who don’t have very much like to give it away?”(36) It seems that Shen Te really enjoys giving to others even when that means that she might not have enough for herself.

Another thing that was confusing, was the purpose of the carpenter and the landlord lady coming into the shop to ask for money. It seems that this could represent how selfish the world is and how some people just like asking for more and more even when that means that other people will be harmed. It could also show how far Shen Te will go just to help others. Now she is about to lose her shop because she is too busy giving away products instead of selling the. Now, people also just come in and expect things to be given to them without putting any effort into their work. The question is whether there should be a limit to how nice and helping one person can be?


Works Cited

Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

Don't Be Prejudiced

Something that has really been frustrating me about the play we are currently reading, The Good Woman of Setzuan, by Bertolt Brecht is that I don’t understand the satire that it presents. I think that part of this is due because I tend to associate satire with comedy. Although satire can be comic it isn’t all the time; also what I think is comic depends on my own personal taste.

So basically, as I’ve been reading the play, I’ve been looking for examples of satires. The only one I’ve recognized, though, is the one that Susan pointed before we started reading the play: how Wong the water seller of Setzuan is looking for a good person to take the Gods in for a night and that good person ends up being a prostitute, Shen Te.

This is a satire because the author is showing us through irony how people are stupid in having a preconceived idea of what a good person is. Unfortunately society tags people and places them into very broad categories, two of these are good and bad. People like prostitutes are classified into the bad category. However, its unfair to tag someone as being a bad person simply because they live this kind of life style. Sure, you could argue that even if they are extremely poor they could find other ways to make money, but that still doesn’t make it ok to judge them without even knowing them. The following scene proves that Shen Te, in spite of being a prostitute is a good person:

WONG: Godless rascal! Have you no religion, gentleman of Setzuan? Patience, illustrious ones! There’s on ly one person left. Shen Te the protitute. She can’t say no. Shen Te! Shen Te, it’s Wong. They’re here, and nobody wants them. Will you take them?

SHEN TE: Oh no, Wong, I’m expecting a gentleman…Oh very well! I’ll hide till my gentleman has come and gone. Then I’ll take them. (8)

Wong the water seller meets the Gods when they are entering the city of Setzuan. They tell him that they need a place to stay and Wong says

WONG: The whole town is at your service. (6)

However, Wong asks many people to take in the Gods and they all decline. Shen Te on the contrary accepts. She also does this in spite of having to work. She knows that she has to work in order to eat but she chooses to not send the Gods away. Now that we know this we can easily see how Shen Te is a great person in spite of being a prostitute. This shows us that we should never judge a person before we get to know them.

Works Cited

Brecht, Bertolt, and Eric Bentley. The Good Woman of Setzuan. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.

Possible Satire...

"Mr. Shin: I've got to have it. Strip the clothes from my back and then cut my throat, will you? I know what I'll do: I'll dump my children on your doorstep!" (13)

Not only this strange piece of (what I regard as sacarsm) writing boggles my mind a bit, but the obvious recognition of the book's characters; they are all named after their occupation: Brother, Wife, Husband, and my favorite- An Old Whore. At this point I don't know what exactly the writer had in mind when "naming" his characters. Is it all part of the satire play? Or are they just names in the simplest form created for the audience to be able to follow along easily? I as a reader found myself lost and could not picture the characters in my head...maybe the names are too generic?

Deep Value

“The World can stay as it is if enough people are found living lives worthy of human beings” (7).

The world in, The Good Woman of Setzuan, is a very complicated place where all types of people live under the rule of the almighty gods. I can totally see how much it does relate to our own world. One thing that I found interesting was how three gods appeared in the play right from the start. Now this made me wonder if it has to do something with the divine trinity of the Catholic Church. The gods from the start seem to be on a mission. They want to either keep or destroy the world. They go to Setzuan where they believe they might find a good person. They come across the water seller and they immediately notice that he really isn’t a good fellow. What I like about the gods is that they don’t loose hope in finding a good person, but they leave it up to the measly water seller to be in charge of finding some descent person they can rest with. After many tries they come across Shan Te, a town prostitute, who gets rid of her nights entertainment to fulfill the gods needs. I had been missing out on the irony but when I came across the fact that the gods where going to stay with a prostitute I understood a bit more of the play. What I don’t understand is how the gods allowed for the water seller to give them a place to stay? If they knew he was a crook why would they ever trust him to find them a place to stay? What was more ironic was how much they really liked and enjoyed Shan Te’s company. Even though she was a prostitute they still stayed the night with her and in the morning had good conversation. This made me wonder if the three gods were looking for a good person that wasn’t defined by their occupation. Eventually the gods found out that she was a prostitute they reply with, “That’s not in our sphere. We never meddle with economics” (11). I really liked how the third god accepted that Shan Te was a prostitute. He might not have officially accepted that it was okay to earn your living by selling yourself but he didn’t criticize. He made it seem like it was just something you did for money and your morals had nothing to do with it. I do agree by what the gods had to say about jobs and how they don’t have to reflect on your persona. They even decided to give her money because she needed it. It seemed to me that they thought money was something trivial which is a good thing.

Omniscient?

As I read this section of the book, the idea that I continually saw to be satirized was the idea of the gods. In my personal beliefs, 1) I only believe in one God and 2) He's omniscient. So in my personal life, I carried that over as I was reading this book, and I took it to be fact that the gods in this book would be omniscient as well. But, as I read a lot of the scenes where the gods were involved, it seemed that they themselves didn't know what was going to happen even more than any other character would. This happens several times, but the exchange between the gods and Wong on page 40 is where I really started to have doubts:

Wong: It does. She's doing good deeds all the time.
First God: Ah? What sort? What sort of good deeds, Wong?
Wong: Well, she has a kind word for everybody.
First God (eagerly): And then?
Wong: Hardly anyone leaves her shop without tobacco in his pocket--even if he can't pay for it.

I decided to just put a snippet in there, but really what I was trying to say is that if they don't even know what's going on down on earth, what makes them such an authority to tell what's good and bad, or who's a good or bad person? For me to believe that you're some kind of "god", then show yourself approved. Maybe I need to know a little bit more about this culture before I say that, but right now, I'm not convinced that they're true gods and true judges of character. That doesn't mean that I don't believe Shen Te is a good person because I think she is a wonderful person. In fact, I think she's the best and most moral person in the book so far.

So, personally, I think the whole idea of the omniscient quality of a god is being satirized in this section of the book.

Decisions

When we are first introduced to Shen te, Wong, the water seller of Setzuan, is looking for a place stay for the Gods. According to the Gods and Wong only a good person would accept them and give them a place to stay. When Wong asks Shen Te she first refuses and claims she was expecting a man. But, then after Wong begs she agrees to hide from the gentleman until he leaves and then gives the Gods a place to stay.
Once she takes in the Gods, the Gods began to thank her and this when figure out that she is a prostitute. After the God begin to thank her and recognize her as a good human being, she disagrees and explains that she sells herself to pay the rent. Around Setzuan she is not know for being rich or a good woman. Her cousin Shui Ta says, “My cousin has the worst possible reputation: that of being poor” (28). When the Gods are leaving they give her more than a thousand silver dollars to her for the room; therefore, she has a chance not to be know as a poor prostitute. After she buys her tobacco shop, she begins giving out free tobacco, rice, and money to the needy. After she becomes broke and doesn’t have enough money to pay for her shop’s rent. After placing an ad for marriage to receive enough money to pay her rent, an elderly couple, the Old Woman and Old Man, give her the money to pay the rent.
After she receives the money for six months of rent, she turns around and gives it to Yang Sun’s mother, so that Yang Sun can become a pilot. She completely forgets that the money was for her rent. Why is she just handing out money? When she is singing, The Song of The Defenseless, the first stanza says:
In our country
A useful man needs luck
Only if he finds strong backer
Can he prove himself useful.
The good can’t defend themselves and
Even the gods are defenseless.
To me there is line to be drawn when it comes to helping people. You have to make sure you are situated financially before you begin helping others. She is just coming up from being a prostitute to being an owner of a tobacco shop, why doesn’t she care about herself. To me she is being dumb by not situating herself first. Yes, it is good that she is being a good person of Setzuan, but if she keeps acting the way she is, she is going to end up on the streets again. Then whom is she going to be able to help from there? If she continues to help useful man, without money she will become defenseless also.

The Contemptuous Saint

WONG: ...There's only one left. Shen Te, the prostitute. She can't say no....
WONG: Shen Te, it's Wong. They're here, and nobody wants them. Will you take them?
SHEN TE: Oh, no, Wong, I'm expecting a gentleman.
WONG: Can't you forget about for tonight?
SHEN TE: The rent has to be paid by tomorrow or I'll be out on the street.
WONG: This is no time for calculation, Shen Te.
SHEN TE: Stomachs rumble even on the Emperor's birthday, Wong.
WONG: Setzuan is one big dung hill!
SHEN TE: Oh, very well! I'll hide till my gentleman has come and gone. Then I'll take them.

Often in society, judgmental and cruel, the majority has a tenancy to look down upon those in rather questionable circumstance or indulging in questionable activity. As the “authorities” on life and morality, we often find ourselves condemning others. But, who are we to condemn another human being when it God in the end who makes the final judgment? There are people in society that have adopted the view that once a fabric is stained, it is worthless and forever the garment of contempt. In Bertolt Brecht's The Good Women of Setzuan, Shen Te, a mere prostitute, like prostitutes in general, are condemned for their contemptuous profession.
In Bertolt Brecht's The Good Women of Setzuan, when Wong goes door to door looking for someone to take in the gods, we see just how people are when it comes to doing for others and get a better overall view of the way people are in today's society. Who's to say who's a admirable person or not? Obviously, no being made of flesh and blood. It was a was ironic that as Wong went about looking for a single admirable person to take in the gods, he found himself intrusting Shen Te with the gods. It is ironic that prostitutes are viewed as immoral people, but in this case, she is the only truly admirable person Wong could find. I found it fascinating that she hid until the gentleman came and went, missing out on her money needed to sustain and maintain her living situation. In my eyes, that's a selfless act that deserves respect.

The Prostitute is The Good Woman

As Wong is looking for someone that will take the gods in, we see that no one seems to want to take them. Finally, Shen Te, a prostitute, accepts to take them in. The author writes:

WONG: Shen Te, it’s Wong. They’re here, and nobody wants them. Will you take them?

SHEN TE: Oh no, Wong, I’m expecting a gentleman…Oh very well! I’ll hide till my gentleman has come and gone. Then I’ll take them. (8)

The fact that the good woman that takes the Gods in is a prostitute is ironic; I find this to be satire. Even more ironic is that the gods think she’s a great woman, despite her profession and even reward her with money.

Later, she proves even more her benevolence. When Mrs. Shin asks for help to feed her children, Shen Te gives rice. When the family that took her in when she first arrived from the country and put her out when her out “her purse was empty” (8) comes asking for asylum, she says to them, “Come in, and welcome, though I’ve only one little room for you it’s behind the shop” (13). Even though they threw her out, she took them in welcoming, proving how good of a person she is. Once again she proves herself to be a fine woman when a man asks for a cigarette, and she gives it to him for free because he says it will make him new man.

Usually, we tend to think of prostitutes as bad women or at least as woman who are not the best kind of person. Yet, here we are presented with the idea that a prostitute can be the best human being. Wong says to the gods that she is “the finest human being in Setzuan!” (9).

This goes against what we would normally think. The satire here challenges and attacks very passively the idea that a prostitute can’t be a good woman. It tries to change that idea by showing that a prostitute can be a good human being.