Mother Courage and Her Children

Reading this play for the first time, I didn’t immediately know what to make of it. None of the characters are realistic or relatable, but this is supposedly what Brecht intended. From what I remember, the 30 and 80 years wars were originally advertised as holy wars between Catholic and Protestant Europe, but were really just drawn out attempts by Spain and the Netherlands to capture as much territory as possible. I guess what the play is trying to say is that all war is really about profit, and it eventually takes away your humanity. Perhaps this is why he portrays Mother Courage as being indifferent about her children’s deaths.