Philosophical
Dialogues XXIX
By Franz J. T. Lee
D R A M A : Bertholt
Brecht, Kurt Weill & Lotte Lenya
Part Two
April 6, 2000
Literature,
Drama, Poetry, B e a u t y & Mind Control
N
E W A C A D E M I C Y E A R 2000
(Scene: Philosophy Seminar.)
Coseino: Welcome back to our new Academic Year 2000! I'm sure that you missed your Philosophy Seminar already. I am convinced that you all are enjoying the Kurt Weill Centenary. I noticed a dramatic, academic yearning written all across your radiant faces.
Patricia: How right you are. Missing our Seminar, as a substitute, nearly all of us went to the Opera two, three or eight times; by now, we know Brecht's Threepenny Opera in and out already.
Coseino: Well, my dear, let's make ourselves comfortable, please, tell us about the interesting characters of the play. Later we could relate the literary contents of this drama to real life, past, present and future.
Patricia: I'm sure
other colleagues will help me. I'll begin. I'll introduce Polly, then
Mahatma can tell us about Mac the Knife.
Coseino: (smilingly) Are there very special reasons, conscious or subconscious ones, why you two choose these roles? Anyhow, let's see, please proceed.
Patricia: (enjoying herself) Polly was Jonathan Peachum's daughter, very much in love with Mac the Knife; after knowing him for only five days, with the aid of Reverend Kimball, she simply married him in a stable.
Mahatma: Behaving like some typical Indian families, the Peachum
family has him arrested, but, from bad to worse, Polly has to learn that he
has another wife, Lucy,
who immediately took over his business, and all
his money.
Coseino: Mahatma, who is Mac the Knife? Certainly not a saint.
Mahatma: Professor, in this drama, there are no saints whatsoever. Macheath or Mac the Knife is London's greatest criminal, the medieval "mafia" boss. After his arrest, his escape, and his re-arrest, he was sentenced to the gallows. In a deus ex machina (a Brecht dramatic miracle), the Queen saves his life, and he is even knighted by her.
Coseino: And who is Jonathan Peachum?
Patricia: As indicated before, Polly's father, Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, was the Beggar King, who was in charge of all of London's beggars. He threatened to sow pandemonium in the coronation ceremony, if Mac would not be arrested immediately.
Martina: His wife, Celia, helped him to run the "business". She enabled the arrest of Mac the Knife, by bribing one of his "call girls", Low-Dive Jenny, who turned him over to the police.
Mary: I'll introduce Lucy. Adam could tell us about Tiger Brown, her father. As Patricia already said, she was also "married" to Mac the Knife, who claimed that Lucy was his "real" wife.
Adam: Tiger Brown, of course, is the Sheriff of London, but, as things function in "society", he is also Mac's corrupt, personal friend. Very reluctantly he arrested his pal. In jail, Mac refused to see him, and he declared the "friendship" contract null and void. A constable, Smith, working for Brown, tried to liberate Mac, but he could not collect enough money for the bribe.
Alfred: I am fascinated by Low-Dive Jenny, especially by her famous song. Of course, there are other lesser figures in the drama, like Filch, recruited for Peachum's gang, and Walter, Jake, Matthew, and Jimmy, all members of Mac's gang. But, Professor, could you tell us something about the background of the plot?
Coseino: Brecht loved to write and rewrite his plays, but this one was kept within the context of certain moments of Germanic history. In the late 1920s, the Weimar Republic had experienced a stable period of history; hyperinflation was under control, and the American dollars were flowing into the country. Brecht was experimenting with the "epic" theater, but also with the ideas of Karl Marx. Also the operatic , cultural atmosphere in Berlin was becoming favourable for new types of operas.
With his Threepenny Opera, Brecht
attacked the Wagnerian opera, which was directed at elite "society". He displayed
the evil, the under-dog elements of society, portraying lumpen-proletarian
life; also he satirized the bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic.
Very elegantly he set this dramatic critique
in Victorian England's Soho. In the following decades, "The Ballad of Mac
the Knife" became a popular jazz tune.
Patricia: Adam and I have downloaded a short summary of the "Threepenny Opera" from the WEB, I'll read it, so that everybody gets an idea of the play.
" Classic Note on The Threepenny Opera
Short Summary
The play opens in the beggar shop owned by Peachum.
Peachum has taken control of all the beggars in London and runs
a shop that outfits the beggars and provides them with a location
to beg in. A young man comes in and asks for a job. Peachum
makes the man pay him first and then shows the man the five
states of human misery before giving the man a costume to
wear.
When Mrs. Peachum arrives he asks her about his daughter
Polly. She tells him that Polly has been seeing a gentleman
lately. When she describes the man, Peachum realizes that it is
none other than Mac the Knife, London's most powerful
criminal. He runs upstairs and sees that Polly did not come home
that night.
Meanwhile, Polly and Macheath have just broken into a stable
where they are getting married. The rest of Mac's gang arrives
and they bring in wedding presents. Everything has been stolen,
including the stable. Soon the parson arrives and they sit down
to eat. Polly provides them with some entertainment by singing a
song. After she is done Tiger Brown the Sheriff arrives, but
instead of arresting them all he greets Macheath as an old friend.
Mac explains that he and Tiger Brown served together in the war
and that he has paid Brown kickbacks on every job ever since.
After Brown leaves the men present Polly and Macheath a large
bed to sleep in and then leave them alone.
Polly returns home to find her parents furious with her for
marrying Macheath. She tries to defend the marriage, but they
decide to take on Macheath and destroy him. Mr. Peachum tells
his wife that he will go to Tiger Brown and make him arrest
Macheath. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peachum agrees to go and bribe the
whores whom Macheath goes to every week. She is hoping that
the whores will turn in Macheath.
Polly goes with her father and watches as Brown agrees to arrest
Macheath. She then goes back to the stable where Mac is
staying and tries to warn him. He does not believe her until she
produces the charges that are being levied against him. Instead of
being emotional, Mac focuses on his business. He hands the
business over to Polly and tells her what to do. Soon thereafter
his gang arrives and Mac informs them that Polly will be their
boss while he goes away. Matthew tries to challenge Polly's
authority, but she threatens to kill him if he opens his mouth
again; the other thieves applaud her and accept her leadership.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Peachum approaches Low-Dive Jenny, a
prostitute, and convinces her to turn in Macheath should he be
foolish enough to show up at the brothel.
The evening in the brothel one of Mac's men is trying to
convince the whores that Macheath would not be so foolish as to
show up. However, no sooner does he say this than Mac arrives
and sits down. Jenny takes Mac's palm and reads it, warning him
that a woman will betray him. He thinks she means Polly. Jenny
soon sneaks out while Mac is talking with the whores and gets
the police and Mrs. Peachum. Constable Smith enters and tries
to arrest Mac, who knocks the man down and jumps out the
window. Unfortunately for him, Mrs. Peachum is standing there
with the other police officers. They take him away. Jenny wakes
up Macheath's man who has fallen asleep while reading and
missed the entire scene.
Now in prison, Mac is afraid that Tiger Brown will learn that he
has been playing around with Brown's daughter Lucy. She soon
arrives and is horrified to see him in jail. To complicate matters
further, Polly arrives and also claims Mac as her husband. Both
women argue; Lucy indicates that she is pregnant and therefore
has a better claim to Mac, but Polly is "legally" married to him
and she has papers to prove it. Mac chooses to support Lucy
instead of Polly because he is more afraid of Tiger Brown. Mrs.
Peachum then arrives and drags Polly away. Lucy, happy to
finally be alone with Mac again, hands him his hat and cane and
leaves. When Constable Smith returns he tries to get the cane,
but Mac is faster than he is and manages to escape. Brown
enters the cell and is relieved to see it empty. However,
Peachum also arrives and threatens to disrupt the coronation if
Brown does not find Macheath and arrest him again
immediately.
That night Peachum outfits his beggars with signs and clothes in
an effort to ruin the coronation parade the next morning. The
whores arrive, led by Jenny, and ask for their reward for turning
in Macheath. Peachum refuses to pay them on the grounds that
Mac escaped already. Jenny, in a fit of rage, tells them that Mac
is a far better man than any of them. She then accidentally
reveals that Mac had gone straight to her place and comforted
her, and that he is now with another whore named Suky
Tawdry. Peachum is elated by this information and promises to
give the whores the reward money. He sends one of his beggars
to get the police.
Tiger Brown arrives only a few minutes later. Brown has
decided that rather than arrest Macheath it would be far easier
for him to arrest Peachum and all the beggars, thereby
preventing them from ruining the coronation. Peachum merely
ignores Brown's threats and points out that there are far more
beggars than there are police. He asks Brown point-blank how it
would look if several hundred men were clubbed down on the
day of the procession. Unable to arrest Peachum, Brown realizes
that he is caught in a bind. Peachum then demands that Brown
arrest Macheath and gives him the address where Macheath is
staying. Peachum lastly send the beggars to the jail rather then
that coronation.
Polly goes to visit Lucy in an effort to find out where Mac is. It
turns out that neither of them knows his whereabouts, causing
Polly to laugh and state that Mac has stood them both up. They
soon hear a noise in the hallway and realize that Mac has been
rearrested. Mrs. Peachum shows up with widow's clothing and
makes Polly change into it.
The next morning, the same day the coronation procession is set
for, Macheath is brought out of his cell and locked into a public
cell. He is going to be hung at six in the morning, and has only
an hour to live. He offers Smith one thousand pounds in cash if
Smith will let him escape, but Smith refuses to make any
promises. Jake and Matthew arrive and Mac asks them for
money; they say that it will be hard to get anything so early in
the morning but leave promising to find something. Polly also
arrives and tells Mac that his business is going well but that she
has no money on her. Brown finally enters the cell as well and
he and Macheath settle their accounts (recall that Mac pays
Brown kickbacks for helping him). Having failed to get the
money, Smith refuses to help Macheath.
Soon thereafter all of the characters return and stand next to the
cage. Jake and Matthew apologize for not getting the money in
time and tell Mac that all the other crooks are stealing elsewhere.
Even the whores have showed up to watch him die. Mac gives a
last speech in which he claims all the small crooks are being
pushed aside by corporate interests. Peachum then stands up
and gives the final speech, arguing that since this is an opera and
not real life, they will save Macheath. Brown enters in the form
of a mounted messenger and brings a special order from the
Queen. She has decided to pardon Macheath and to also elevate
him to a hereditary knighthood. Mac rejoices his good luck while
Peachum remarks that such a thing would never happen in real
life. "
[Taken From: http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/threepenny/shortsumm.html
Also see: http://www.kwf.org/]
Coseino: Excellent! Brecht is best known for his three classic plays: Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Threepenny Opera. Galileo emphasizes the social and moral responsibility of a natural scientist; Mother Courage is a declaration of war against all kinds of war and brutality; now, let's see what the "Threepenny Opera" is all about. I suggest that you give a short content of each act, and then give some critical social and philosophic remarks. I'll begin with the "Prologue".
The Play begins with the song, the "Ballad of Mac the Knife". It describes all the atrocious "life experiences" of the "King of Capital Crimes", who is compared to a shark with sharp teeth, but he hides very carefully his "weapons". He killed many people, stole money, killed a prostitute, he set a fire in Soho, which killed seven children, he raped a young girl before her wedding day. But, this mega-gangster always wears fancy "white kid gloves".
From the very beginning, Brecht applies Hegelian-Marxian dialectics; Mac the Knife is introduced in contradictory terms: "the shark with the sharp teeth" versus "the kid wearing fancy, white gloves". The latter is a dove-like symbol of bourgeois-democratic society; until this day, the American post-industrial supra-bourgeoisie sends its "doves' in white "peace-gloves" to the Middle East, and all over the "Global Showplace". All this to indicate how clean, how pure are the hands of capital, of capitalism. Marx had explained that this Moloch came into existence, grew up, "with blood and dirt, flowing from every pore". And, yet, some still dream of a pure, liberal, good capitalism. It commits heinous crimes and then pretends that it is the best that ever has happened to mankind. And billions defend this labour system, their very own maximum mind and thought control jailhouse, their exploitation, domination, discrimination and alienation. Brecht still tried to make emancipators aware of an historical, economic, political and philosophical analysis of capitalism; these days the laureated "brains" of the 21st century pretend, that Capitalism does not even exist, and that it is a waste of time to study the works of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus and Marx's Capital. Well, Giddy Up, Ride On, Cowboys! The Illuminati Come! Conspiracy is Here! Ignorance is Bliss! In God We Trust!!
But, please note, Brecht allows Macheath not to deny his crimes; instead, he acts as if nothing in this world is wrong. This indicates exactly the authentic attitude, the crocodile tears of all murderers, assassins, capitalists, liberals, neo-liberals, fascists, Nazis, Stalinists, of their ideologues, bogeymen and henchmen.
Patricia:
Professor Coseino, we're already overtime! We'll
have to continue next week. My colleagues are already in a hurry to line-up
for their dinner in front of the
"Mensa".
Coseino: Thanks. Students, until next week.
(Reluctantly everybody leaves the classroom, on their way to the "Mensa", to have a "good bite" into a cloned "tomato"; but, in spite of the thought about junk food, for today, they have received enough authentic food for dramatic thought.)