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Brecht and Brueghel's _Teatrum Mundi_
BRECHT AND BRUEGHEL'S _TEATRUM MUNDI: MORAL
COMMENTARIES IN PRAISE OF FOLLY
In l934 Helen Weigel gave Brecht two of Gustav Gluck's art
histories of Peter Brueghel the Elder: _Brueghels Gemalde_ and _Das
grosse Brueghel Buch_. Brecht met the renowned Viennese historian
in the 40s while they were living in Santa Monica, and it is
possible that this meeting inspired him to write "_Verfremdungs-
effekte in den erzahlenden Bildern des alteren Brueghel_" (Aliena-
tion Effects in the Narrative Pictures of the Elder Brueghel)
which appeared in Bildende Kunst in l957. The article is indica-
tive of the tragic/comic artistry of Brueghel which appealed to
Brecht but also is suggestive of deeper similarities in their
depiction of a Teatrum Mundi--a theatre world of puppet like
creatures filled with animation and comic power.
In discussing Brueghel, Brecht wrote: "Even through Brueghel
manages to balance his contrasts he never merges them into one
another, nor does he practice the separation of comic and tragic;
his tragedy contains a comic element and his comedy a tragic
one."(1) Brueghel, a follower of Democritus, believed that
laughter was healthier than weeping and in his powerful composi-
tions he reveals a panoramic world of human folly. Likewise,
Brecht depicts a humorous world of lowlife figures in which
nature itself is crowded out by intense human activities--a
Theatre of the World in which humanity follows its own foolish
inclination and does just what it pleases.
Brueghel's visual influence is outwardly apparent in
two of Brecht's plays, _Caucasian Chalk Circle_ (l944-45) and
_Galileo_ (l938-39). The wedding scene in the first is very
similar in spirit to Brueghel's paintings _The Wedding Banquet_ and
_The Wedding Dance in the Open Air_ and the carnival scene in the
latter is very close to the intense activity and humorous detail
of _The Battle Between Carnival and Lent_ (see illustration 1). Of
these, the latter is the most indicative of Brueghel's
appreciation for unrestrained pleasures.
The Shrove Tuesday festival is half religious, half profane
and shows the peasants at their most outrageous extremes--the
excesses of a public orgy, and the hypocrisy of fasting and outer
piety. He leaves neither the Roman Catholic nor the Lutheran
churches in a positive light. In stark caricatured contrast, the
Prince of Carnival in all of his corpulent rotundity is pitted
against scrawny Ash Wednesday. Balancing a large patty on his
head and sitting on a keg of beer, the Prince brandishes a
heavily laden spit at his opponent. The Prince, in all his
glorious mendacity, has been compared to Falstaff. In spite of
all of his excesses, he is anything but jovial. His opponent,
Ash Wednesday, is the personification of Lent--a haggard old
woman sitting upon an uncomfortable stool and weakly wielding a
paddle with two meager herring. Everyone on the left side of the
painting overly indulges in eating, drinking, dancing, lovemaking
and theatrical performances. On the right side of the painting,
good deeds are expressed as forced virtue--an old woman draws a
corpse of a man in a cart, people give alms, go to church and buy
candles and the children spin tops, symbolizing the necessity of
being beaten or chastised. In this atmosphere of gaiety, to
borrow a phrase from Brecht's _Galileo_, everyone is allowed to "do
just as one pleases" experiencing all of life's excesses even
with regard to piety.
Brecht's April Fool's Day celebration in _Galileo_ possesses
much of the same sense of folly and intense crowded activities.
Like the Shrove Tuesday Festival, in this carnival atmosphere of
Fools there are no rules. The scene opens with a street singer
telling about the workings of the universe:
When the Almighty made the Universe
He made the earth and then he made the sun.
Then round the earth he bade the sun to turn--
That's in the Bible, Genesis, Chapter One.(2)
He is accompanied by his wife on the guitar who is costumed "to
represent the earth in a skeleton globe made of thin bands of
brass."(3) Perhaps Brecht had Brueghel's The Misanthrope in mind
in this depiction of Galileo's topsy-turvy universe (see illus-
tration 2). Brueghel's perfidious purse snatcher, also dressed
as a globe, is meant to stand for the world. The fact that his
cross has fallen is by design and a statement of religious
decay. The same decay is apparent in Galileo. With his wife as
a backdrop, the balladeer mocks Galileo and predicts what will
happen if everyone accepts Galileo's theories and is thereby left
to his or her own excesses:
Up stood the learned Galileo
Glanced briefly at the sun
And said: "Almighty God was wrong
In Genesis, Chapter One!"
Now that was rash, my friends, it is no matter small
For heresy will spread today like foul diseases.
Change Holy Writ, forsooth? What will be left at all?
Why: each of us would say and do just what he pleases!(4)
Following the balladeers verses, Brecht provides a long serious
of stage directions much in the spirit and frenzy of the Carnival
and Lent depiction.
Three wretched EXTRAS, employed by the Chamber of Commerce,
enter. Two of them, in ragged costumes, moodily bear a
litter with a mock throne. The third sits on the throne.
He wears sacking, a false beard, a prop crown, he carries a
prop orb and scepter, and around his chest the inscription
"THE KING OF HUNGARY."
Like the personifications of Carnival and Lent the mock King of
Hungary is depicted in mock attire, seated upon a mock throne and
is virtually powerless.
As the scene progresses the ballad singer continues in the
same cynical vein accusing Galileo of moral corruption. After
all if Galileo is right "no altar boy will serve the mass" and
"no servant girl will make the bed." Lets accept the fact that
"man is weak", cries Brecht with forced intensity, and after all
it is nice to "do just as one pleases".(5)
The stage actions continue:
The COBBLER'S BOY takes three CHILDREN [dressed as grownups]
in hand, forms a chain and leads it, moving to the music, in
and out among the spectators, "whipping" the chain so that
the last child bumps into people. On the way past a PEASANT
WOMAN, he steals an egg from her basket. She gestures to
him to return it. As he passes her again he quietly breaks
the egg over her head. The KING OF HUNGARY ceremoniously
hands his orb to one of his bearers, marches down with mock
dignity and chastises the COBBLER' BOY.
The egg is a common image in many of Brueghel's drawings and
paintings. Usually empty, and often animated, it is symbolic of
the emptiness in such lives. Brueghel also depicts many scenes
with children and often dresses them to look like miniature
grownups, destined to become adult fools just like their par-
ents. In like manner, the adults are often seen at childish
pranks, a situation Brecht employs as the tempo builds and the
merriment and activities increase. A dwarf dressed in the
costume of an astronomer peruses the area with his telescope. In
imitation of the children, a group of grownups form a chain,
moving in and out of the crowd to the music. Several beggars
taunt a rich Gentleman and when he does not bear the gests with
dignity, the King of Hungary ceremoniously breaks an egg over his
head. Merriment. A carnival procession enters the market place
and the crowd becomes uproarious as the first float of the
procession appears bearing a gigantic figure of Galileo.
Brecht's identification with Brueghel goes much deeper than
recreating this outward festival atmosphere, however, and
similarities in technique were exhibited long before his interest
in the master painter developed. Like Brueghel, Brecht was
fascinated by the masses and low life figures and had a predilec-
tion for popular entertainments such as vaudeville, fair shows
and cabaret. Such popular forms also appear in Brueghel's street
scenes. The plays performed in the _Battle Between Carnival and
Lent_, for example, depict two popular masques: "The Dirty Bride"
(in front of the Inn in the foreground) and "Urson and Valentine"
(in the background in front of the corner house) (see illustra-
tion 1). The high spirits and intensity of these lowlife
characters and the painter's comic technique of contradiction
engages the viewer fully. Similar techniques enliven the
playwright's power of comedy. In Brueghel's day, such a peculiar
power would hardly seem unnatural, since painting was still
enjoyed for its literary merit. Like a good book, painting was
meant to be poured over slowly for amusement as well as instruc-
tion. Although such an educational approach is highly unusual in
the twentieth century, Brecht was also determined to save his
audience from sentimentality. In order to better understand the
intense power of these two artists, one must, therefore, look
beneath the surface mockery and gaiety to the artist's social
conscience and the message which they ask their audience to
seek.
Beneath the festival atmosphere of _Battle between Carnival
and Lent_ and _Galileo_ there is a caustic view of humanity which
inspires prolonged and microscopic scrutiny. Read at face value
the _Battle between Carnival and Lent_ is a shockingly realistic
depiction with many deformed cripples who go about on crutches
and callused stumps which once were legs. The message of the
painting taken in total, however, says far more than that such
deformity is painful. On a symbolic level, the deformed bodies
are a cruel proof that man pays the wages of sin by the loss of
symmetry. In _Galileo_, the ballad singer mocks the astronomer's
findings and plays the fool. But in the mask of a fool, he dares
to say that since celestial order has fallen, it would seem
logical to alter the terrestrial order as well. If the stars no
longer move according to god's plan as dictated by the church,
then why should man. Both artists ask that their audience bring
folly to account. Ironically, Galileo's ideas gain popularity
not through the learned as would be expected but through the
outwardly foolish masses.
In both Brecht and Brueghel's carnival atmosphere beggars
mix with seemingly happy partygoers dressed as kings. Beneath
the revelry, however, lies a somber sense of violence--a teeth'-
gnashing rage of poverty, sickness and superstition and fear of
death. The underlying feeling of pessimism is counterbalanced by
the amazing vitality of the whole and a kind of animal vitality
that effects even the beggars and cripples. It is this vitality
and the amusing contrast with the seriousness of the incidents
which give the characters their comic nature. A humor which is
not without its pain.
Brueghel never intended his art to be bootigh or funny. He
did intend his work to be gheestig or spirited. When art
historians such as Carl Van Mander refer to him in this manner
they do not limit the definition to inventive and brilliant, but
encompass the artists superiority not only mentally but morally.
Throughout his career Brecht also insisted upon comedies right to
make a serious statement about society. Like Brueghel, he is
not a comedian for comedies sake. Neither does he develop comic
characters simply to achieve his famous _Verfremdung_. Brecht's
technical and theatrical effects are effective because they
enhance a more important social purpose. To achieve this end
both artists mock the serious and make the serious comic.
Brecht's, like Brueghel's comedy, is more of an interpretation of
society than a theatrical, or in the case of Brueghel, visual,
form. It therefore depends upon the paradoxes and absurdities of
that society for its success. In the unprettified visual reality
of Brueghel things are never simply what they appear on the sur-
face. In Brecht's world there is a dialectic between Sein und
Schein (being and appearance). And in both worlds, if there is a
message of hope, it is with regard to the necessity for man to be
constantly alert and responsible to the crucial matter of
survival of man's dignity. Brecht and Brueghel express this idea
again and again in images of violation.
Two obvious Brechtian examples are _The Rise and Fall of the
City of Mahagonny_ (Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) and the
ballet _The Seven Deadly Sins of the Petty Bourgeois_ (Die Sieben
Todsuenden der Kleinbuerger), sometimes referred to as a post-
script of the opera. In the opera Brecht exhibits the inhabi-
tants of the city in four basic states of man: eating, whoring,
fighting and drinking. In the ballet, he depicts the seven deadly
sins of commercial society, which represent the healthy but
dangerous instincts of Anna's nature. In like manner, Brueghel
depicts lust, anger, gluttony and avarice in such works as "The
Feast of Fools," "The Land of Cockaigne " and his series on the
Cardinal Sins. In these plays and paintings the artists amass
examples of the folly of man in which everyone is intent upon his
or her own foolish or evil business. They do not preach but view
such folly as a natural and intrinsic part of life. Although the
church in Brueghel's day, or even Brecht's, may require retribu-
tion in hell for such sins, the artists skepticism allowed them
to give free vent to their imaginations. Because they view vice
as intrinsic in human behavior, and unrestrained pleasure as
deserving of appreciation, it is sometimes difficult to realize
just where their sympathies lie. This makes their works all the
more amusing.
Although the work makes use of the popular imagery of fools
and folly, Brueghel's _Feast of Fools_ distinguishes his treatment
of the popular theme from that of his contemporaries: the use of
personification and symbolic use of gesture (see illustration
3). In his painting, Brueghel personifies the accompanying text:
You numbskulls who are plagued with vanity
Come to the fore if you like to go bowling
Although one love honour and another his money
The world praises the greatest numbskulls.
Numbskulls are found in every nation
Even though they do not wear a fool's cap on their pate
Who take such pleasure in dancing
That their foolish head spins like a top.
The foulest numbskulls waste all their substance
There are some who take others by the nose
One sells trumpets, another spectacles
With which they deceive many nitwits.
Yet there are numbskulls who behave wisely
And grasp the true sense of numbskulling
Because they enjoy their own foolishness
Their numbskulls will hit the goal pin best.(6)
Bowling is the chief attraction at the _Feast of Fools_ and the
folly of such sport is brought about by the pun on the Flemish
word sottenbollen which is translated as "numbskulls." Each of
the characters comes to the feast carrying his own _sotteball_. At
the center of the picture a male and female fool are shown
pulling each other by the nose. The Flemish proverb of the time
"to lead someone by the nose" meant to deceive or fool one
another. The figure waving the spectacles in the right portion
of the engraving is also representative of deceit since spec-
tacles were associated with blindness and deception. The selling
of spectacles was linked to fraud and duplicity. The flemish
word "fluten" meaning to fraud or betray is represented by the
flute player of the engraving.
The _Feast of Fools_ originated as an integral part of the
ecclesiastical life in southern Netherlands from the thirteenth
to the sixteenth century. The celebration consisted of an
inversion of the church hierarchy in which the lower clergy took
control of the cathedrals and held mock services as well as
drunken revels. The feast eventually became associated with
scandalous and indecent behavior because of the license it gave
to the populous to do as it pleased. Ultimately the church
stopped sponsoring the activity because of improper conduct.
Although Brueghel's depiction does not document an actual
feast of fools celebration--the picturesque pleasure garden
setting bears little resemblance to the streets and alley ways in
which the actual event would have occurred and the figures in the
depiction wear costumes of court fools which would have been used
by later rhetorical society celebrations--it does present the
characteristics of the type:
All of these figures seem filled with mindless high spirits,
manifested not only in their loose and uncontrolled attitud-
es but in the naive stupidity of their expressions. Time
and again their features are distorted by exaggerated cries
and shouts, or by pointless laughs and grins.(7)
All of the types compose an allegory which can be defined in
terms of gesture. The image of the court fool was already a
widely accepted symbol of moral failing and Brueghel used it to
discuss sinful or anti-social behavior. One of the most promi-
nent gestures of the engraving is the "fig" gesture made by the
fool in the foreground on which an owl is perched. Throughout
Western Europe, this gesture was associated with the act of
sexual intercourse. The owl was generally used as a symbol of
evil, sometimes associated with the sins of lust. Just as
prominent is the "nose thumbing" action of the fool. Such an
action does not have a sinful or evil connotation, however it was
associated with mockery. Other meaningful gestures include the
"moon-casting" gesture of the fool left of the nose-pulling
couple (associated with images of defecation and excrement) and
the mouth-stretching gesture of the fool on the upper left
(associated with insult and offending). These gestures do not
possess an exact common meaning, but rather serve as a means to
characterize the fools of the allegory as uncouth and obscene.(8)
Virtue, in Brueghel's world, does not consist of avoiding
temptation and folly, but in the individuals ability to under-
stand it. His obscene grotesque fools are an effective illustra-
tion of the moral dangers of human folly. Brueghel has an
advantage in that the gestures which he depicts have common
meaning. However, he does not leave the meaning of the engraving
to visual interpretation. The text beneath the depiction
transcends the definition and suggests that folly is an integral
part of human experience: "Those who recognize the contingency of
the human condition, the necessary nature of human error, will be
better able to understand and thereby rectify the lapses of their
own behavior."(9) Brueghel did not simply tell a story, but
illustrated an educational principle.
For Brecht gesture played a special role in achieving
_Verfremdung_ since it was capable of raising simple gesticulation
to the level of social gest. Only the social gest was relevant to
society because it allowed "conclusions to be drawn about the
social circumstances."(10) Brueghel's work appealed to Brecht
because his paintings had not been stripped of social individ-
uality and because the social gests were vibrantly common and
vulgar. In "On Gestic Music" he wrote:
A good way of judging a piece of music with a text is to try
out the different attitudes or gests with which the perform-
er ought to deliver the individual sections: politely or
angrily, modestly or contemptuously, approvingly or argu-
mentatively, craftily or without calculation. For this the
most suitable gests are as common, vulgar and banal as
possible. In this way one can judge the political value of
the musical score.(11)
In _Mahagonny_, Brecht uses a paratactic structure of indepen-
dent musical scenes. Unlike Brueghel who exhibits all of his
gestures simultaneously in one panorama of human activity, Brecht
depicts one at a time. He brings them together into an effective
parable, or in the case of _Mahagonny_, into a moritat which is
interwoven into the fabric and mood of Begbick's warning: "Bad is
the hurricane/ Worse is the Typhoon/ But worst of all is man."(12)
Reminiscent of the Bankelsanger's picture sheets which depict the
action of moritat scenes of terror and disaster, Brecht's tales
of Mahagonny are illustrated with slides and titles. As a
hurricane moves toward the city of pleasures everyone is fright-
ened of death, except Jimmy Gallagher who welcomes the violence
as a release from boredom. Jimmy has a "vision in which the laws
of human happiness are revealed to him" and bids all of Mahagon-
ny's citizens to do everything that is forbidden.(13) As tension
mounts a map appears on the screen with an arrow indicating the
path of the hurricane. Slowly it moves toward Mahagonny: All are
watching the arrow horrorstruck. Suddenly, a minute's distance
from Mahagonny, the arrow stops. Dead silence. Then the arrow
makes a rapid half-circle around Mahagonny and moves on.(14) One
year later Mahagonny is booming the new rule is to do just as one
pleases:
One means to eat all you are able;
Two, to change your loves about;
Three means the ring and gaming table;
Four, to drink until you pass out.
Moreover better get it clear
That don'ts are not permitted here.
Moreover better get it clear
That don'ts are not permitted here.(15)
With titles and often with pictures, Brecht summarizes the basic
gestures of the following scenes of pleasure: EATING LOVING,
FIGHTING, DRINKING. In the manner of Brueghel, who illustrates
his intentions, Brecht's pictorial presentations are interposed
between the audience and subject matter, leading to the V-Ef-
fect.
Brecht intended the titles to create a kind of moral
tableau. In his notes to _Mahagonny_ he wrote:
We had to make something straightforward and instructive of
our fun, if it was not to be irrational and nothing more.
The form employed was that of the moral tableau. The
tableau is performed by the characters in the play. The
text had to be neither moralizing nor sentimental, but to
put morality and sentimentality on view. Equally important
was the spoken work and the written word (of the titles).
Reading seems to encourage the audience to adopt the most
natural attitude towards the work.(16)
Later in his notes to _Threepenny Opera_ he clarified this
point further:
The screens on which the titles of each scene are projected
are a primitive attempt at literalizing the theatre. . . . -
Literalizing entails punctuating 'representation' with
'formulation'.
The most vibrant use of this type of literalization is scene
l3, the "Vielfrass" punctuated by the title EATING (see illustra-
tion 4). Here Jake eats himself to death before Caspar Neher's
pictorial representation of the gesture which looms overhead (see
illustration 5). Brecht and Neher's vivid eating scene provides
a frightening picture of a glutton who stuffs himself to death
because hunger is the rule. "We never even hinted" writes
Brecht, "that others were going hungry while he stuffed, but the
effect was provocative all the same. It is not everyone who is
in a position to stuff himself full that dies of it, yet many are
dying of hunger because this man stuffs himself to death. His
pleasure provokes because it implies so much."(17) The eating
scene provokes laughter in the same manner as Brueghel's text to
_Feast of Fools_.
EATING
A number of the men, including JIM are seated at tables
laden with joints of meat. JAKE is seated at a center table
eating incessantly. On each side of him a musician is
playing.
JAKE:
Two calves never made a man fatter:
So serve me a third fatted calf.
All is only half.
All is only half:
I wish it were me on my platter . . .
Watch me! Watch me! Would you have guessed
How much one person can eat?
In the end I shall have rest.
To forget is sweet,
To forget is sweet.
More please! Give me more!
More please! Give me more!
More please! Give me more!
He topples over dead.
The men form a half-circle behind him and remove their hats.
MEN:
Smith lies dead in his glory.
Smith lies dead in his happiness.
Smith lies dead with a look on his face
of insatiable craving.
For Smith went the whole hog
And Smith has fulfilled himself:
A man without fear,
A man without fear.(18)
The expression on Jake's face is like the expression upon Brueg-
hel's peasants in _Feast of Fools_, or more to the point, in _The
Land of Cockaigne_ (see illustration 6). The rhyme underneath
the print literalizes the depiction and reads:
All ye who are lazy and gluttonous, be ye peasant, soldier
or scholar, get to the land of Cockaigne and taste there all
sorts of things without any labor. The fences are sausages,
the houses covered with cakes; capons and chickens fly
around ready-roasted.(19)
In the Netherlands this dreamland of surfeit is called _Luilekker-
land_ (Lazy-and-lickerish-Land) and it can only be reached by
eating ones way through the _Rijstenbrijberg_ Rice-Pudding Mountain
a job which has just been finished by a red and blue clad glutton
in the background of the picture. Once you reach your destin-
ation no more work is necessary. You simply lie down and food
will either run about to get to you or fall from the heavens into
your mouth. Brueghel's trio of fat actors--a peasant, scholar
and soldier--have discarded their book, lance and flail and are
weighed down past all enjoyment. The empty eggshell dancing in
the foreground is "a symbol of their lives: empty eggshells all
of them."(20) Like Jake in _Mahagonny_, the actors find no relief
from stuffing. "The full stomach reigns supreme and as though
for eternity."(21)
When the four lumberjacks first appeared in Mahagonny they
are greeted by Lady Begbick who offered them the "latest crop of
Cuties." Their fare was graphically displayed for them by Moses
who brought in stand-up depictions of the girls and set them up
like _Moritatentafeln_ before the purchasers. Begbick's pitch was
heartfelt:
Gentlemen, every man carries an image of the ideal in his
heart: one man's voluptuous is another man's skinny. The
way this one can wriggle her hips should make her just about
perfect for you Joe.
Now, in LOVING, sex is not so simple. All of the men of Mahagon-
ny are lined up upon a long bench awaiting their turn. Lady
Begbick serves as pimp, directs the pleasure traffic and admonis-
hes the lovers to make haste. Here in this dehumanized
atmosphere of business, Brecht develops one of the most tender
loves scenes of our time (see illustration 7):
See those cranes in great arcs swinging,
The clouds beneath them now have drawn alongside,
Moving with them, as if leaving one life,
They enter another. Thus, as they drift,
At the same height, and equal too in swiftness,
As if mere chance had brought them together.
That cloud and crane should in their flight be sharing
The lovely sky which they so swiftly course,
That neither linger in his flight nor tarry,
And nothing see but how the gentle wind
Makes heave the other like a wave that brushes
Both, as flying side by side they lie--
So into nothingness may the wind convey them,
If neither of them changes, wanes, disperses,
So long will nothing touch them--wound them,
So long they'll drift from all those places
Where rains may threaten, or shots re-echo.
So under sun and moon's indifference changes,
Merged, they fly, each a portion of the other.
Where to? Nowhere. From whom fleeing? From all.
How long together? One brief while. And parting when?
Soon. Such is for lovers love Brief stay.(22)
As indicated by the words of the song, Jimmy can find only
temporary comfort in the arms of Jenny and even during those
moments he is always aware that it will soon come to an end so
there is no peace or genuine pleasure.
Brueghel's depiction of Lust in the engravings of the
_Cardinal Sins_ is far more terse in statement and cryptic in
detail than Brecht's cynical romantic approach and bears a close
resemblance to the works of Hieronymus Bosh (see illustration
8). Lust is personified by a naked woman who is being caressed
and kissed by a demon with a hog-like snout. From the dark
hollow tree another demon emerges offering the couple an aphrodi-
siac. In the background a procession parades past the hollow
tree. An adulterer rides a hellish skeleton beast and is
chastised by monsters--a successful parodying of the common
medieval practice of making an adulterer ride through the streets
of a town on an ass with a paper pinned to his hat indicating
his sin. In the background Brueghel shows the pleasures and
allurements of lust: a fountain of youth, a love bower and a mill
which grinds old women into young maidens. "Lust stinks" reads
the Dutch text, "she breaks man's strength and weakens the
limbs."(23)
Brecht maintained that there was nothing to stop the theatre
from having its own form of "sport" to enliven its activities and
so it is not surprising when the stage crew sets up a boxing ring
in Mahagonny, to establish the true sporting spirit and naked
struggle of FIGHTING (see illustration 9). But here the true
sporting spirit is not very sporting and Alaskawolf Joe is no
match for Trinity Moses. Jimmy in honor of their past together,
places his bet on Joe, knowing fully well that murder is what
this fights about. In response Joe swears that he is determined
to do all that any man could do in order to protect his friends
investment. Later, Jimmy will be accused of driving his best
friend to sudden and certain death.
In Brueghel's depictions, fighting and war are incited by
anger one of the cardinal vices. For anger "makes the mouth
swell, embitters the mind, troubles the spirit, blackens the
blood." Thus reads the text beneath Anger. In this and other
engravings and paintings of war, Brueghel graphically depicts
the obscene cruelties of which angry men are capable. Angry men
are no better than animals of prey.
In Brueghel's world, fighting and wars are also generally
engendered by greed. Because it is such a powerful incentive and
because it often leads to other cardinal sins, Brueghel has given
it considerable time in his works: _Avarice_ and _To Creep into a
Rich Man's Hole_ (see illustration 10).
Brecht too has more than understood the power of money, and
it is the central motivation in Mahagonny as well as a majority
of his texts. Although the final scene of vice in Mahagonny is
entitled drinking, there lies beneath the surface a far greater
vice--money. Jimmy Gallagher stands drinks for everyone and in
the end suffers from the greatest sin of all. He is unable to
pay his bill. This scene moves the play toward Jimmy Gallagher's
death and the destruction of Mahagonny.
Jimmy is charged with many crimes against humanity: seducing
the Girl Jenny, driving his best friend to sudden and certain
death, and finally with the capital crime of failing to pay his
bills. The last results in his electrocution. The disintegration
of the city of Mahagonny parallels Jimmy's death. His body is
carried by rioters in a procession amidst increased confusion,
inflation and hostility. Placards summarize the contradictions,
but also the just demands which the characters have tried to
articulate:
FOR THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS
FOR THE NATURAL DISORDER OF THINGS
FOR THE UNJUST DIVISION OF TEMPORAL GOODS
FOR THE JUST DIVISION OF SPIRITUAL GOODS
FOR PURE LOVE
FOR BRUTE STUPIDITY
Across the stage on the screen appears an enlarged photograph of
Mahagonny in flames (see illustration 11). The city of nets,
established to amass a fortune at the expense of others, meets
its end because of this evilist and most pleasant of vices.
Underneath Brecht and Brueghel's depictions of gluttony,
avarice, lust, and anger is a deeply pessimistic view of the
world. It is impossible to laugh at the robust humor without
looking beneath the surface at the tragic implications of such
folly and ignorance. Self-indulgence only leads to ruin. The
glutton Jake eats himself to death; Joe is killed in a boxing
match, and Jimmy has found only temporary solace in the arms of
Jenny. Ultimately he is destroyed because of the greatest crime
of all: he is penniless. In Brecht's parable of greed and
exploitation the fate of Mahagonny was sealed the moment of its
creation. A society based upon greed and exploitation, no matter
what the rules, can provide no real freedom and no real plea-
sure. Neither God nor man can destroy what Mahagonny has
become. Only the city's own internal contradictions can do that.
Brecht and Brueghel's pictures are so bold and vital they
contain revolting pictures of nightmare horrors. In their
inferno world one begins to feel like the men of Mahagonny, "You
can't drag us to Hell, because we're there already." Whether
whoring, drinking, or eating, man possess a boundless sense of
energy--the driving force of life itself. In their Theatrum
Mundi (Theatre of the World) they depict puppet-like creatures
filled with animation and comic power. The number of fools is
infinite in this vast stage of human life--an absurd but irresis-
tible spectacle.
But the folly is a part of human nature and individuals can
only overcome it by reaching an understanding of it. This theme
not only applies to Brecht and Brueghel's work but to their
viewers as well. When we laugh at their satire and admire their
technique and approach, we are forced to try to understand the
folly represented there. Jimmy Gallagher many never understand
the forces that destroy him, but the audience can. And if we can
understand, perhaps we can begin to recognize our own brute
stupidity--an initial step to overcoming it.
Rebecca Hilliker
University of Wyoming
NOTES
1. "Alienation Effects in the Narrative Pictures of the
Elder Brueghel" in _Brecht on Theatre_, trans. by John
Willett(New York: Hill and Wang, 1964) p.157.
2._Galileo_ in _Seven Plays of Bertolt Brecht_, edited
by Eric Bentley(New York: Grave Press, 1961) p.379.
3. _Galileo_, p.379.
4. _Galileo_, p.379-80.
5. _Galileo_, p. 380.
6. Adriaan J. Barnouw, _The Fantasy of Peter Brueghel_
(New York: Lear Publishers, 1947) p.64.
7. Keith P.F. Moxey, "Pieter Bruegel and _The Feast of
Fools_" in _Art Bulletin_ 44 (1982) p.642.
8. Moxey, p.643-44.
9. Moxey, p.644.
10. "On Gestic Music" in _Brecht on Theatre_, trans. by
John Willett (New York: Hill and Wang, 1964) p.104-05.
11. "On Gestic Music," p.105.
12. _GW_ 2, 526.
13. Bertolt Brecht, _The Rise and Fall of the City of
Mahagonny_ trans. by W.H.Auden and Chester Kallman
(Boston: David R. Godine, 1976) p.59.
14. _Mahagonny_, p.67.
15. _Mahagonny_, p.68.
16. "The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre" in _Brecht
on Theatre_, p.38.
17. _Brecht on Theatre_, p.36.
18. _Mahagonny_, p.68-9.
19. Barnouw, p.46.
20. Burnouw, p.46.
21. Wolfgang Stechow, _Pieter Brueghel The Elder_
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1970) p. 120.
22. Frederic Ewen, _Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art,
and His Times_, (New York: Citadel Press, 1969) p. 194-5.
23. Barnouw, p.22.
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