Love is Weak
When doing a thorough analysis of a play, the first thing you must figure out before anything else is put into proper context, is the theme. The theme, which is an artistic expression that a play represents, is usually depicted in one simple word or phrase such as hate, reformation of policy, and abandonment yet is typically difficult for students to figure out. It’s complexity comes from the mere fact that there may be many themes within a solitary piece of work. Also, choosing a theme is somewhat objective and can be based on someone’s interpretation, that is, if argued with supporting facts from the text. Within The Good Woman of Setzuan, written by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, many identify the major theme to be “goodness” because it is explicitly mentioned in the title, yet the theme of love as a weakness has a stronger support in the text.
In The Good Woman of Setzuan, love and the colloquial concept of “goodness” cannot be correlated. Actually, it is “love,” or what is described as such, that most hinders the lead character Shen Te. The theme of love as a weakness is introduced in Scene 2 as the policeman describes the problem with Shen Te’s lifestyle. “Miss Shen Te lived by selling herself… it is not respectable. Why not? A very deep question. But, in the first place, love – love isn’t bought and sold like cigars, Mr. Shui Ta.” (Brecht 366) This is also a reference to the play’s original title. Originally, Brecht planned to call the play The Product Love (Die Ware Liebe), meaning “love as a commodity”. This title was a play on words, since the German term for “true love” (Die wahre Liebe) is pronounced in a similar way.
The Dissertation on Love Theme in Frankenstein
LOVE THEME IN FRANKENSTEIN I have chosen to focus on the film Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein by Kenneth Branagh, since it is the closest adaptation of the novel over all the Frankenstein films that is made. In addition to this, cinema authorities classify this film as horror, romantic and drama so love theme could be easily understood from this adaptation. However, it should be mentioned that the film ...
Within the Western philosophical tradition, emotions have usually been considered potentially or actually subversive of knowledge. From Plato until the present, with a few notable exceptions, reason rather than emotion has been regarded as the indespensible faculty for acquiring knowledge. (Jaggar 189).
In this sense, Shen Tu was acting out of emotions which made her easily exploitable to the mass. Instead of using humility or love as a device she should have used knowledge. In her defense she tried, creating her alter-ego to escape her emotions and enter the harshness of the real world.
Some say, the influence of emotion is usually seen only as distorting or impeding observation or knowledge. People in love are notoriously oblivious to many aspects of the situation around them. Shen Te was victim to naiveté, which gave room for the people around her to manipulate her and try to exploit her gain. She understood that love is weak; she understood that her emotions overpowered her conscious knowledge. Not only did she create her male alter-ego to escape patriarchal capitalism, but she created the character to make her weakness subversive and incredulous.
“One weakness is enough, and love is the deadliest,” retorts Shen Te. Women are relatively adept at identifying such emotions, in themselves and others, in part because of their social responsibility for caretaking, including emotional nurturance. “It is true that women, like all subordinate peoples, especially those who must live in close proximity with their masters, often engage in emotional deception and even self-deception as the price of their survival,” says Jagger in her essay. In order to merely survive, Shen Te understood her weakness and how to capitalize on the situation.
Wong is aware that love is a weakness and he reveals this to the gods in Scene 7a. They ask him how he wants them to help Shen Te, and he suggests, “Well, um, good-will, for instance, might do instead of love?” This is because Shen Te’s love for Yang Sun has created so many problems for her. This belief is reaffirmed by Shui Ta as he offers Yang Sun a job “in consideration of my cousin’s incomprehensible weakness” for him. It is ironic that Shui Ta is able to recognize this weakness, yet as Shen Te he still acts on it.
The Essay on Love Emotions Time Feeling
Throughout life, we undergo many changes. As time progresses, styles of writing develop new form. However, emotions remain constant. Feelings, which are expressed through writing, can be identified with in the present, as well as the past. Emotions, unlike writing styles, are unable to be controlled. Love is one emotion that may vary in the way it is described, yet remains uniform in the way it is ...
In the end, after a thorough script analysis, we see that goodness is but a minor theme within Berlot Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan and that love as weakness and patriarchal capitalism are stronger themes. There is enough support given to bear the claim although one may be quick to say that is a matter of Keenan’s personal opinion. Themes are complex and the pimple of the theatre world. There ugly and hideous at first, but with patience and research, everything will become much clearer sooner or later.
Works Cited
Brecht, Berlot. “The Good Woman of Setzuan” The Longman Anthology of Drama and Theater. Ed. Michael L. Greenwald, Roger Schultz, and Robert D. Pomo. Boston, MA: Longman, 2002. 348-387. Print.
Jaggar, Alison M. “Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology”. Fifty Readings in Philosophy. 4th Ed. Donald C. Abel. New York, NY: Mcgraw Hill, 2012. 188-198. Print.
Vaughan, Genevieve. “Gift Giving as the Female Principle.” Presented at the Conference on the Female Principle. University of Texas at Arlington, 2000. Web. 8 February 2012.
