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.

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.