The Good Woman of Setzuan

by Bertolt Brecht

Other authorsEric Bentley (Editor)

Paperback, 1966

Status

Available

Call number

832.912

Genres

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Grove Press, Black Cat Book (1966), Edition: Revised Englis, Paperback, 144 pages

Description

'Brecht's dark, dazzling world-view...makes an absolutely devastating impact. The play is fuelled by the brilliant perception that everyone requires such a dual or split personality to survive.' Evening StandardThree gods come to earth hoping to discover one really good person. No one can be found until they meet Shen Te, a prostitute with a heart of gold. Rewarded by the gods, she gives up her profession and buys a tabacco shop but finds it is impossible to survive as a good person in a corrupt world without the support of her ruthless alter ego Shui Ta.Brecht's parable of good and evil was first performed in 1943 and remains one of his most popular and frequently produced plays worldwide.This Student Edition features an extensiveintroduction and commentary that includes a plot summary, discussion ofthe context, themes, characters, style and language as well asquestions for further study and notes on words and phrases in the text.It is the perfect edition for students of theatre and literature.… (more)

Media reviews

Love Books Review

"La buena persona de Szechwan" es una obra escrita por el dramaturgo alemán Bertolt Brecht en 1938. La historia se sitúa en la ciudad ficticia de Szechwan (actual Shuozhou, China) y gira en torno a Shen Te, una prostituta bondadosa pero empobrecida. En reconocimiento a su bondad, tres dioses

visitan Szechwan para encontrar a una persona buena. La hospitalidad de Shen Te la lleva a recibir una recompensa económica, y ella decide utilizar el dinero para abrir un estanco y mejorar su vida. Sin embargo, al aprovecharse de su generosidad, Shen Te crea un alter ego llamado Shui Ta, una personalidad astuta y práctica capaz de enfrentarse a las duras realidades del mundo. La obra explora temas como la moralidad, la justicia social y los retos de mantener la bondad en un mundo marcado por las dificultades económicas y la explotación. Brecht emplea su característico estilo de "teatro épico", con un narrador y escenas de interrupción para distanciar emocionalmente al público, fomentando el compromiso crítico con las cuestiones sociopolíticas presentadas. "La buena persona de Szechwan" desafía las nociones tradicionales de moralidad y plantea cuestiones sobre la viabilidad de ser una buena persona en una sociedad que a menudo premia el interés propio por encima del altruismo. La obra sigue siendo un poderoso comentario sobre la naturaleza humana, la moralidad y las estructuras socioeconómicas que moldean el comportamiento de los individuos.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member Alabala

I found it a good play and I wonder why Brecht or the translator has chinese (or they sound chinese ?) names. I do agree that such situations are possible anywhere else in the world and more so in Asia. I read the introduction by Eric Bentley and that too was very interesting how he could actually

work with the playwright on translation of some poems and play from German into English when he was in USA. The Gods did not make good effort to find a good person. And it is so strange that gods did not know what Shen Te was upto. Besides that, Shen Te's good deeds are not beyond anyone's reach. Still, it is interesting to note the two in one characters Shui Ta and Shen Te and how they are complimentary to each other. I find Shen te 's love for the flyer man Yang Sun is inexplicable and blind. Yang sun's comments about women's blindness while they are in love is not a welcome remark. Wong the water seller is an amusing character but not in a position to rise upto the mark as he can not function well as expected by the gods. All in all a good play with a lot of problems related to economy and poverty, lack of resources resulting mean minded relatives end up being dependent. The play is still relevant to situations all over the world.

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4 more

LibraryThing member Devil_llama

A look at what happens when the gods look for, and find, a good person. A common prostitute turns out to be the only good person the gods are able to locate; they help her by giving her coins to pay her rent for giving them a place to sleep. All the townspeople come around with their hand out, and

she must call on a cousin to protect her own interests. A gritty look at poverty and its consequences, the relationship of bosses to workers, and the relationship of the gods to the humans they created. Nobody comes off well, and the reader is left to wonder why we keep on getting out of bed each morning if things are so hopeless. The characters are so broadly drawn, and set in a part of the world so few people understand, or know much about, that he gives us the courage to examine our own mythologies and assumptions by allowing us to see glimpses of ourselves in characters that are plainly not us. Would have been five star without the epilogue.

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LibraryThing member AliceAnna

Excellent play with a wonderful female protagonist. That the whims of the gods and the inability to be "good" and survive turn her into the more practical male counterpart for survival is fascinating to me. But she should have lost the boyfriend. Can you say "jerk?" I knew you could.

LibraryThing member jonfaith

I want to go with the one I love.
I do not want to calculate the cost.
I do not want to think about whether it's good.
I do not want to know whether he loves me.
I want to go with whom I love.

Brecht is brutal here, situating his play in China, dangling the Gods who swing between Divine Indifference

and Hypocrisy and filling the ranks with all the avarice and sloth that floats from our unctuous species. Some (may) find exception with the titular heroine and her Manichean solution to the query -- How To Serve Man: spoiler, it isn't a cookbook. I thought the device employed by the character is brilliant, a heady response to the pop-up morality of Snapchat Elysium. One came imagine Brecht seething.

Sexually frank but lacking overt violence (with one exception) this play becomes a lumpen comedy of manners. Who's laughing?

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LibraryThing member berezovskyi

There are many outstanding reviews for this book, so I'll be short.

I immensely enjoy the mental stimulation this book gave me while I was reading it and keeps evoking some thoughts even after I've read it.

My friend warned me that "a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with

the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage", which I pass to whoever would read this review.

There must be happy endings, must, must, must!

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