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Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan deals with the fluidity and duality of gender in a world dominated by males. The yin yang philosophy which is employed to delve into Shen Te's character, a prostitute and the title character of the play will be an area of my study.
Circumstances and her own overly kind nature compel Shen Te to disguise herself as a male counterpart, that is, her cousin, Shui Ta. In my essay, I will explore how the play reveals the harsh reality of being kind and generous in a world which takes such positive qualities for granted.
The three gods who visit the town to find goodness are not offered help by the other citizens but are given shelter by no one other than Shen Te.
This fact in itself exposes the irony of the concept of morality and goodness. Out of all the people, being a poor prostitute, she helps them.
The gods bless her with money with which she buys a tobacco shop.
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However, her naive and helpful nature soon begins to hinder her well being. Her neighbours and customers at the shop do not respect her goodness due to which she suffers not only financially but also feels disappointed at being treated wrongly. "The little lifeboat is swiftly sent down. Too many men too greedily hold on to it as they drown." This is said by Shen Te on page twenty one of the play.
She soon realises that in order to survive, one must adopt a smarter and stronger approach.
This leads her to disguising herself as a male cousin, Shui Ta. This step of an otherwise simple and kind female indicates the extent of frustration and humiliation harboring in her.
Her goodness no longer serves her and is no more her priority. Crime and police supervision in her shop breaks her ideal image of her shop, making it difficult for her to run it. The underlying cause behind her idea of a male disguise is the unjust treatment of a female in a brutal world which overlooks women and the unfairness of inequality between the two genders.
The concept of yin and yang can be seen in Shen Te when she acts like a man to get her payments and run her shop properly. The way she transits from a meek female to a strong and aggressive male shows the presence of both, the yin and yang energy in humans.
Her dominant yin energy which makes her feminine and soft is replaced by the masculine yang in her which makes her pretend to be a male. The change in nature intimidates everyone who previously used to take advantage of her generosity. This can be see when the carpenter says, "I demand someone call Miss Shen Te. She seems to be a better person than you.", to which Shui Ta replies, "Certainly.
She's ruined." Shui Ta, who is ruthless and hard hearted , does all that Shen Te could not do. He kicks out the family which dominated her and becomes a successful entrepreneur by taking advantage of people. In other words, he is exactly what the world is, selfish and smart.
This is only possible because of Shen Te's suppressed feelings of wanting to rebel and change her miserable situation. It is because of her own desire to take control of her helpless nature that she is able to act like a male and get things done her way.
However, since Shui Ta is actually Shen Te, his character is not only that of a shrewd male but also has traces of Shen Te's caring nature which is seen when he puts out rice for the hungry and repays the debts to the carpet dealer and his wife, thus, showing compassion and humanity.
This binary of yin and yang serves as a balance to Shen Te's life, which gives her emotional as well as financial upliftment. The ease with which she switches between roles of a male and a female shows the fluidity of gender in the play.
The irony with which Brecht portrays the idea of morality and goodness can be seen when Shui Ta is arrested for the disappearance of Shen Te. The gods do not try to understand her reason for disguising herself as a man and continue telling her to be good even as she has struggles to be good at the cost of her survival.
This can be seen by the statement of the third god when he says - "The world can stay as it is if enough people are found living lives worthy of human beings." The gods' insistence to be good and their support of Shen Te's good side is what forced her to create an alternate identity in order to ensure her survival.
Capitalism and industrialisation become the root cause of suffering for poor people like Shen Te. This conveys that a capitalist society does not allow the existence of both survival and goodness simultaneously. The hypocrisy of moral principles can be seen in the dilemma that a woman faces - Shen Te who, in order to survive must either be a prostitute which is deemed bad by the gods or disguise herself as Shui Ta - Shen Te's fictional cousin who is ruthless and overall, a 'bad person'.
A significant stage of development of Shen Te's character is seen when she says that Shen Te and Shui Ta are both part of her.
This can be seen in the courtroom scene when she says, "Shui Ta and Shen Te. I am both." This declaration is more of a revelation of her ownself. Her subconscious mind is finally at peace for being in a state of hormonious balance in which both her feminine and masculine energies exist cohesively. She feels complete and comfortable with her identity till she is told by the gods to use the Shui Ta identity only once a month.
This brings her into a state of crisis where she is torn apart between not just Shui Ta and Shen Te, but also, between what is right and what is wrong. The identity which she created for her survival to compensate for her weakness is not accepted morally.
The paradox here is that if what she as a woman did to survive in this bad world is morally wrong, then how can the world be right in treating her wrongly as woman. And why is her male persona Shui Ta wrong in being the way the world is. The moral policing should be applied on those who are unfair to good people rather than those who are harmless and are just trying to survive in this harsh world.
The idea of survival over morality is the dilemma that Shen Te faces on two parallels, one, as a good human who is not getting her due and is being treated unfairly because of her goodness and the other as woman in a patriarchal world. "Alas! Your world is difficult! Too much misery! Too much despair! A load of good intentions weighed me down to the ground."
This statement by her sums up her entire frustration. Her actions and modus operandi lead her to develop an identity which helps her function better in the world and gives her a sense of contentment with her energies being balanced. She not only overcomes her obstacles in her day to day life but also has her self esteem and confidence boosted as a strong and independent woman.
The Good Person of Szechwan. (2019, Nov 26). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-good-person-of-szechwan-essay
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