Shen Teh's Need to Please

As I was reading The Good Person of Szechwan I was very intrigued by Shen Teh's need to please others over herself. She does this first when she allows the gods to stay with her even though she had to give up money to do so. After opening the tobacco shop she also takes in the large family. She allows them to take advantage of her. Yes, she is being kind in taking them in, however she had barely even opened the shop and they were there. She needs to dress in disguise and act as a man in order to kick the family out when she can no longer support them. Later on she only thinks of the other people when she makes the decision to leave Sun and pay back the elderly people, putting herself back into poverty.
This compulsion to please seems to have a cultural basis. These people, who all live in different levels of poverty, all expect Shen Teh to assist them. In addition to this, however, there seems to be an internal need to please within Shen Teh. This could likely stem from her history being an outcast in society because she was a prostitute. She uses helping people and being called an angel of the slums to be accepted in a way that she has never done before. If she stopped helping others she could become an outcast once again. I would like to know what other people think about Shenn Teh's extreme need to put others before herself. Is she just a good person or are there bigger cultural factors in play? Is Brecht trying to tell us something through this character trait?