The Good Woman of Setzuan - The role of Gods

The Good Woman of Setzuan by Bertolt Brecht

Q. The role of Gods in Bertolt Brecht’s play, The Good Woman of Setzuan

Answer: In Bertolt Brecht’s play, The Good Woman of Setzuan the gods stand for the moral standards set by the individual regardless of the state of his life. Their investigation reveals whether it is really possible for anyone to reach the standards of love, justice and respect. If anyone can, they say in the end, and then all can. Such moral demands, regardless of the social constraints of each individual, remind us of Kant's explicit necessity, which seeks to treat each individual so that his actions may be taken as examples of universal and benevolent law.

Such nationalism should seek ideological apology for capitalism, emphasizing personal struggle, both in the field of economics and in the case of moral self-fulfillment. Brecht wants to examine the Kantians ’claims against the real background. Idealism thus explains the frustration of the individual in the pursuit of righteousness by concepts such as divine providence to test the individual for retribution or punishment. Shen Teh's strangeness is that instead of embracing the perfect paradox of the perfect God (gods) to create an imperfect world and trying his best in such a world, he expects the gods to share his active, dynamic goodness and back him up. They will make a single-handed effort to change the plight of the residents of Setzuan. Wang, for example, equates himself with an inability to properly observe all divine commands; but he doesn't.

She must fight and solidify himself around the world as the price of the exploitation of his own flesh and blood. At the beginning of the play, Wang took the religious expectation of the gods that they would fulfill a duty to eradicate the heresy of earthly life. For two thousand years the gods have heard that life is too difficult to meet their needs. Brecht shows what can actually be expected from the return of the gods. Wang tries to mediate between gods and mankind as a representative of human society, but there are other things to think about mankind. The gods can't even find a way to stay with them; they are dependent enough on people, as important as men let them be.

The gods represent stagnation and oppose their inertia for any social change. Shen Teh's benevolence, as proof of his thesis that they can be good to anyone in the established world, is also useful for the family who fed Shen Teh. Like the trees, Wang mentioned, she cut them down because she was useful. But she again grew in the form of Shui Ta, becoming dual, an example of Luther's statement that man is always just and sinful at the same time. In Luther's thought, the conflict was resolved by divine grace, promising deliverance from the sins necessary for human life and not forgiving the sinner. Shen Teh expects something like this from the gods when she admits that as a poor man she was too young for their project.

But there is no grace to give them. The gods, by their incredible generosity, enable Shen Teh to transform himself completely from a marginal petty bourgeoisie (self-employment with no capital) (capital involved in business assets; no employees) and from there to Shui Ta, a capitalist (wage-labor). Exploiter) turns into. But at the same time his natural benevolence is associated with virtue. She is supposed to live by divine law in order to let go of divine superstitions uninterruptedly.

In fact, God's main task seems to be to look for the qualities of the people he encounters. When they look for goodness, generosity, and honesty, they are confronted with people who have all the evils and think that there is no salvation. When a poor prostitute takes the gods inside, it seems that there is some hope for mankind and the gods give her some money to start a life that can lead to prosperity. However, it did not work out as the gods had hoped, and many tragic events followed. The third God is one of the gods who came down to earth to determine if there really are any good people on earth. Where the first God often concentrates solely on carrying out missions, and the second God blaming humanity for their own problems, the third God is probably the quickest world to advise the most sympathetic to man and to lend a helping hand to the corpse. The third God is a little more nervous and insecure than their countrymen but nevertheless promises to find prosperity in humanity.

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