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.
What do you think Brecht is up to here? Why would he do this?
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