In The Good Person of Szechwan, one aspect that captured my attention is the personification of the three gods. This is rather odd because gods are usually seen as being omniscient. Rather than being omniscient, they "lack the knowledge of economics" or "get black eyes". Near the beginning of play, people essentially disregarded the three gods, and could represent the lack of faith in the Szechwan province.
It seems like Wang is the only person that communicates with the gods consistently. Does this mean that Wang is the most faithful person in Szechwan? Another think is that the gods simply only see themselves as observers. Are they trying to retain some power?
I feel like this story would be significantly different if the gods were not personified. How does the personification of the three gods affect the play as a whole? I believe that one main factor it adds is the courageousness of the Brechtian style of acting.
2 comments:
So far reading The Good Person of Szechwan, I have found that the gods serve an incredibly important purpose to the Brechtian style of writing. One of Brecht's main objective in all of his plays is to convey some sort of critique on the societal or political problems of that time. I feel that Brecht uses the gods as one of the many vehicles to communicate his thoughts on the government, society, and the economic situation during that time period. Much of this is projected through the god's actions and words. Therefore, if the three gods were not personified, we would lose the important element of Brechtian writing that allows the audience to reflect upon their own lifestyles and how it is effected by the critiques on civilization displayed in the play.
That makes sense. Thank you for clearing that up for me. I am still taking this "Brecthian" idea in a bit.
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