Oedipus, Mother Courage World Lit. Essay

IB English A1 Standard Level World Literature Title: The significance of religion in the societies in which the plays Oedipus Rex and Mother Courage are set.

Religion as an influence in society in Mother Courage and Oedipus Rex. Both of the plays Oedipus Rex and Mother Courage are in times and societies where religion plays an important factor in the lives of people albeit in different ways. King Oedipus and Mother Courage both have lives that are quite influenced by the prevailing religions of the time. Oedipus is set in Greece at a time where the main social and political force was religion. The gods of those days were the most important influence in the lives of every citizen including the king. Religion was inseparable from everyday life. Everybody believed in the gods completely, nobody dared to question the existence of the gods. On the other hand in Mother Courage the greatest influence in society at that time was the war. However religion was one of the main causes of the war. The people in the play are quite cynical about religion and god. Religion and god are not really important to the normal people, even the chaplain doesn’t seem to actually believe in god or behave according to his religion. Both these plays offer completely contrasting pictures of religion. The significance of religion in Mother Courage is shown as a hindrance by Brecht. It is shown as being of little help, and is often merely a reason to start a war. On the other hand in Oedipus Rex Greek religion underlies every moment of the play's action. However we can draw certain parallels throughout both the plays. In both Oedipus and Mother Courage it is religion which is the cause of the most major events that take place. In Mother Courage the main cause of the war is said to be religion (the conflict between Catholics and Protestants) while in Oedipus it is the gods who cause most of the problems in the Greek cities which forms the basis of conflict throughout the play. Oedipus himself talks about how all his problems were caused by the gods (namely Apollo) at the end of the play, “Apollo, Apollo it was Apollo, always Apollo who brought each of my agonies to birth...” [1] However in Mother Courage it must be noted that while war is supposedly the reason for conflict and the main cause of the thirty year war, it does not seem to have much to do the war in reality. In Mother Courage religion is portrayed through the snivelling, hypocritical figure of the Chaplain, and it has little positive role to play. Also despite the fact that in Oedipus religion is the main theme it must be noted that even Sophocles does not state that religion is a positive thing, he merely shows it as an unavoidable fact of life which could cause you great harm even if you are innocent (namely the citizens who suffer the plague). Brecht portrays religion as a folly of humanity while Sophocles shows it as something that is supreme and all knowing, something that is all powerful and something to which humanity is insignificant.

1- Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex published by Oxford paperbacks. Line 1731Line 1733, Pg. 85. In Oedipus we can see King Oedipus (the protagonist of the story) struggling to accept the fact that his life is decided by the gods. We are shown his desperate attempts to conquer the gods and his religion so that he can change his fate, and we are shown his complete ineffectiveness in the face of his fate and the will of the gods. Another thing we notice is that while Oedipus is trying his best to disprove the sayings of the gods and change his fate, he never questions the existence of the gods themselves. The complete opposite of this is shown in Mother Courage. In Mother Courage rather than showing belief in the gods the characters, especially Mother Courage don’t even give a thought to the gods. They are too caught up in their own materialistic lives to worry about the possible existence of gods or a heaven. However in one scene even Mother Courage starts to think of hell and heaven. “Sometimes i see myself driving through hell with this wagon and selling brimstone. And sometimes driving through heaven handing out provisions to wandering souls.”[2] So we can see that in both the societies and plays we see that the concept of religion and god comes up even if merely as a casual wondering. Another thing we can see in both these plays is the effectiveness of religion as a tool in our daily lives. In Oedipus if Oedipus had never dared to question the ultimate power of the gods then he might never have suffered the way he did, so in a way we can say that if he had used his religion effectively he could have saved his life from all the miseries and suffering. In Mother Courage we are shown how the religious people are completely helpless and how their prayers are quite ineffective all the time. For example: At the very end, the prayers of the peasants are juxtaposed with Kattrin climbing the rooftop, suggesting ineffective inaction among the religious versus effective action by Kattrin. So this is a point of difference in the plays. While Oedipus seems to indicate that praying to the gods and giving them proper respect is necessary for survival, Mother Courage seems to say that religion is merely an obstacle in the path of survival, a distraction which should be ignored and manipulated in any way possible to increase your chances of survival. This shows us how the different societies and different situations in which the plays are set influence the way the people think. In traditional Greek society everything hung around religion, it was the only thing that mattered, everything was based on rituals and the gods. On the other hand in Germany and Sweden the long years of war and the inbuilt cynicism and materialism of the people cause them to view religion as an inconvenience and nothing more, but this doesn’t prevent them from turning pensive and thinking about their gods at times when they feel helpless.

So in conclusion we can see how certain parallels exist in both the plays when we talk about religion, and also how certain features may be said to exist in all societies when we talk of religion (for example even the most cynical people turn to their gods when they feel helpless.). Both the plays have religion as a major theme which affects society as a whole as a cause of war or as a basis for all the daily events. In the end we see that while Mother Courage shows religion as being quite superficial and Oedipus Rex gives it a very superior aura (as something beyond the comprehension of mere humans), both show it as a support net for humans even if it’s only a last resort. I think that this shows us how religion is always inseparable from humanity; even cynics sometimes depend on religion as a lifeline. 2- Pg. 68 of Mother Courage by Bertholt Brecht, published by Oxford.