It is in the natural course of societies to develop systems in which one group of people rise to dominance while the rest live below them. It is thought that this pattern of societal construction is a result of biological impulses to compete and exclude those who are less competitive, but thinkers like Karl Marx place the blame elsewhere. Marx, in collaboration with Frederick Engles, argues a belief in the Communist Manifesto that the imbalance of groups in a society is a result of the capitalism. Playwright Bertolt Brecht references this idea in his play The Good Person of Szechwan. Through his development of a dominant male persona, Shui Ta, for a submissive female character, Shen Te demonstrates how the misogynistic ideals of capitalism
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As she begins this task she is manipulated into giving most of her money away and almost loses her business. When Shen Te finds she cannot rationally make decisions about her business and her life, she creates a new persona, her “cousin” Shui Ta. Shui Ta is simply Shen Te dressed as a male, but when she becomes this new character, her thinking is rational and people do not treat her as vulnerable enough to be taken advantage of. While Shen Te wishes to give everyone as much as they need, regardless of whether or not they have earned it, Shui Ta gives to others only what they can reimburse him for. It is clear that Shui Ta is Shen Te’s voice of reason and is assumed to be much more capable of thriving economically than she. With the development of these two characters, Brecht, a famously Marxist playwright, calls upon the concepts of Marxist communism in Shen Te while criticizing the cruelty of capitalism in Shui Ta. It is made clear that Shui Ta is the more economically sound of the characters and stands a much better chance of survival in this capitalist …show more content…
The disparity between his treatment of Shen Te and of Shui Ta shows how capitalism encourages a schism between the perceptions of men and women in the economic sphere. Sun, who promises to marry Shen Te only to take her money, manipulates her kindness without remorse, but respects Shui Ta as a business man. Upon Shui Ta and Yang Sun’s first meeting in scene five, Sun speaks to Shui Ta as his equal while describing his fiancé in a derogatory fashion. He speaks of Shen Te’s sexual behaviors to mock her looseness. Outraged, Shui Ta cries “You seem to forget that she is flesh and blood and has a mind of her own!” With little sympathy, Sun relies saying, ”It astounds me what people imagine about their female relations…You want to appeal to her reason? She has no reason,” (Brecht, 57). It is at this moment in the plot that Brecht’s criticisms of capitalism come to a head. Brecht uses Sun’s bigotry as a critique of the way men fail to given women credit for intellectual ability in the workplace. In his description of Shen Te, Sun makes it clear that she is only a sexual object in his life. This view of women is common in male-dominant
As she begins this task she is manipulated into giving most of her money away and almost loses her business. When Shen Te finds she cannot rationally make decisions about her business and her life, she creates a new persona, her “cousin” Shui Ta. Shui Ta is simply Shen Te dressed as a male, but when she becomes this new character, her thinking is rational and people do not treat her as vulnerable enough to be taken advantage of. While Shen Te wishes to give everyone as much as they need, regardless of whether or not they have earned it, Shui Ta gives to others only what they can reimburse him for. It is clear that Shui Ta is Shen Te’s voice of reason and is assumed to be much more capable of thriving economically than she. With the development of these two characters, Brecht, a famously Marxist playwright, calls upon the concepts of Marxist communism in Shen Te while criticizing the cruelty of capitalism in Shui Ta. It is made clear that Shui Ta is the more economically sound of the characters and stands a much better chance of survival in this capitalist …show more content…
The disparity between his treatment of Shen Te and of Shui Ta shows how capitalism encourages a schism between the perceptions of men and women in the economic sphere. Sun, who promises to marry Shen Te only to take her money, manipulates her kindness without remorse, but respects Shui Ta as a business man. Upon Shui Ta and Yang Sun’s first meeting in scene five, Sun speaks to Shui Ta as his equal while describing his fiancé in a derogatory fashion. He speaks of Shen Te’s sexual behaviors to mock her looseness. Outraged, Shui Ta cries “You seem to forget that she is flesh and blood and has a mind of her own!” With little sympathy, Sun relies saying, ”It astounds me what people imagine about their female relations…You want to appeal to her reason? She has no reason,” (Brecht, 57). It is at this moment in the plot that Brecht’s criticisms of capitalism come to a head. Brecht uses Sun’s bigotry as a critique of the way men fail to given women credit for intellectual ability in the workplace. In his description of Shen Te, Sun makes it clear that she is only a sexual object in his life. This view of women is common in male-dominant