Verified Document

War Brecht And Montaigne Have Essay

The play continues in a similarly tragic manner as all the children are shot without having any real guilt to defend themselves against. The play ends symbolically with Mother Courage pulling the cart in which there are now fewer supplies and no children, an overwhelming imagistic that the war practically takes away everything you have dear and leaves you empty.

While Brecht's play is very direct and uses a lot of imagery in order to describe the tragedy of Europe during the war, Montaigne uses, in fact, a parallel analogy by describing, in fact, the cannibals and wars in that society. His description of the devastation of wars in Europe during his time (Montaigne dies at the end of the 16th century, so he is not able to live and describe the Thirty Years War) are in fact comparisons of wars in another society.

According to his work "Of Cannibals," wars in the cannibal society are "noble and generous, and have as much excuse and beauty as this human infirmity may admit: they aim at nought so much, and have no other foundation amongst them, but the mere jealousy of virtue."

With this comparative sentence, Montaigne follows on Brecht's footsteps in showing that the wars in Europe are exactly different from this. They do not have virtue as their primary motivation: they are rather political or religious confrontations, fights about enrichment (note again the fact that the Thirty Year War is as much directed against peasants as against anything else) and about growing one state against the lands of another. Despite many of the confrontations during that time in Europe being religious confrontation, there is really no sign of virtue in these: both the Catholics and the Protestants (as Brecht is keen to point...

Nevertheless, Montaigne is keen to underline that in the cannibals' barbarian approach, the killing of a prisoner tends to take a ritualistic approach. This does not necessarily justify the killing, but it certainly look more justifiable than the killing that occurs in Brecht's play. Here, all three children of Mother Courage are killed in absurd circumstances, without voluntarily participating to the conflict. Montaigne and Brecht are keen to emphasize that the conflict in Europe during these times is perhaps even more barbaric than that occurring in cannibalistic societies at any point.
In my opinion, both Montaigne and Brecht do an excellent job of painting European history at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, although, in both cases, this is done in a subtle manner, with the focus on different things. With Montaigne, through his comparative perspective, his focus is more grand and an overall view is presented through his comparison of similar events in a different society, usually perceived as more barbaric. With Brecht, the focus is more on the individual suffering that the respective historical period brought in Europe and on the individual dramas that many of the citizens lived through.

Bibliography

1. Bertolt Brecht: Collected Plays, vol. 5. Vintage Books, 1972

2. de Montaigne, Michel. On Cannibals.1580. On the Internet at http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/montaigne.html. Last retrieved on June 21, 2009

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

1. Bertolt Brecht: Collected Plays, vol. 5. Vintage Books, 1972

2. de Montaigne, Michel. On Cannibals.1580. On the Internet at http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/montaigne.html. Last retrieved on June 21, 2009
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

War Society Modern World War Has Been
Words: 1559 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

War Society Modern World War has been an integral part of the development of our civilization from the earliest times. It is estimated that there are more than 14,000 wars that have occurred since events began to be recorded and this has resulted in the death of billions of people. It was an essential part of the survival and behavior of human beings and the society at large. This attitude continued

War of the Roses
Words: 1770 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

War of the Roses can be considered to be the bloodiest conflict fought in England to date. Beginning in 1455 and ending in 1487, the conflict was rooted in a struggle between the heirs of King Edward III and King Henry IV, who were divided into the House of Lancaster, represented by a red rose, and the House of York, represented by a white rose, hence, the conflict being commonly

War and Death When Considering
Words: 3476 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Paper

This is not to suggest that either the United States or the Soviet Union were necessarily desiring this conflict, because "based on the scattered evidence now available from Soviet archives," Stalin was "wary and reluctant" in his support of the North, and only finally agreed to offer military equipment and advice when it became clear that China would intervene should the Soviet Union fail to offer support (Cumings 144).

War on Drugs for Roughly
Words: 1625 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Paper

Books and television shows, such as the Corner, provide illustrations that can give a level of insight as to why this is the case. It is not drugs alone, but also the drug culture and the level of poverty that stands at the heart of the problem. You cannot simply remove drugs from the equation. Even if you confiscate drugs then the street price rises and more drugs are

War on Terror Although the Rhetoric on
Words: 1503 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

War on Terror Although the rhetoric on the War on Terror has subsided somewhat since Bush left office, terrorism itself remains an unfortunate reality around the world. The War on Terror was largely a propaganda machine, which perpetuated a cultural climate of fear. As Coaty points out in Understanding the War on Terror, fear-mongering is destructive rhetoric. In the end, too much fear-driven crisis leads to uninformed and ill-devised political strategies.

War on Terror & Human Rights the
Words: 1468 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

War on Terror & Human Rights The so-called "war on terror" -- initiated by former president George W. Bush after 9/11 -- has not succeeded in ending terrorism but it opened the door to numerous violations of human rights. A survey of verifiable, peer-reviewed sources in the literature show clearly that the Bush Administration and members of the military under Bush's command carried out human rights violations in the name of

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now