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.
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