Philosophical  Dialogues  XXX

By  Franz J. T. Lee

D R A M A : Bertholt Brecht, Kurt Weill & Lotte Lenya

Part Three

April 10, 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:  Who wants to introduce Scene One (Act One)? Please, just highlight the most important parts of the scenes, also only concentrate on critique which concerns our seminar.

Jeanette: Okay, Professor. I'll make a conscious effort.

Coseino: Fine, then tell us what is happening in this scene.

Jeanette: Peachum plays the "cock"; he crows his "morning hymn", waking up the "beggars", supplying them with props and slogans, he sends them off to earn their "daily bread". Filch enters Peachum's "shop", and he begins to give an account of his "sad life". The latter stops him, tells him to stop being sorry for others, and warns him that he should leave his faked stories for street begging. Then Peachum explains to him why he was beaten up the day before: he worked without a beggar's license, which generally is authorized by Peachum, in one of the best areas. One must pay to get a beggar's position, and must share fifty percent of his "earnings". Then he lets Filch choose a "job" from one of the five major types of human misery, caused by political, economic or technological progress.

Peachum inquires about a man, wearing white kid gloves, hanging around the place, looking for his daughter, Polly. He doesn't want her to marry anyone. He checks her room, and discovers that she did not return the night before.

Mr. & Mrs. Peachum begin to sing the song: "No They Can't".

Adam: What ideology is portrayed in the song?

Mary: Oh! Adam! The usual thing which we hear daily from our parents. We don't know what is "good" for us. We fall in love like idiots, and we want to have fun, and we end up in "shit", and our parents have to clear up the mess. but, Professor Coseino, tell us about the "social issue" at stake.

Coseino: You see, it's not just a matter of seeing an opera or going to the movies, and to look at "facts"; no, one has to think, to reflect on the illustrated social conflicts. Here a common theme of Brecht is being launched: "deadened emotional feelings" (see: Jungle of Cities).  Filch should stop being sorry for others.
The issue is a class or inter-class one: Peachum is the boss of London's beggars, and Mac the Knife is the boss of London's thieves. Again, using Marxian dialectics, Brecht portrays this social contradiction.

It is not that Polly should not marry at all; Peachum himself got married; very little he really cares about her future and problems. But, she must marry within her social class, as norms, habits, culture and tradition, in short, as mind control, ideology, dictates. Thieving his daughter, that is a social affront! Imagine the reputation of the King of London's Underworld allowing a criminal to steal his daughter; all authoritative respect for Peachum would vanish.

In the song, the hypocrites assume that staying with the family, unmarried, is better than a life with the King of Thieves. Generally, just the opposite is true. With the song, also, Brecht is already establishing a distance between the audience and the characters; he is generating the desire to change society, to be revolutionary.

Alfred: In Scene Two (Act One), many things happen, but I'll just pick those relevant to us. In Soho, Mac's gang has taken a stable in possession. Polly is upset about getting married in a stable, which Mac does not even own. Soon a van brings in stolen furniture, dishes and carpets. His gang explains how many people they had to kill to collect Polly's wedding present. She bursts into tears.

Many songs, eating, drinking and sexual jokes cheer her up again.

Reverend Kimball arrives and marries them.  Also a guest, a good friend, Sherrif Brown, attends the ceremony.

Polly then sings the "Pirate Jenny" song about a poor wash-girl who is discriminated by society. According to the text, one day pirates came and captured the city. Jenny was asked to take over command and merciless she ordered the pirates to kill everyone.

Then, the stolen "love couple" gets a stolen bed as final wedding gift.

Coseino: What's Brecht's social objective in this scene?

Alfred: I could imagine that the "white kid gloves" are meant to conceal the criminal hands of Mac, from which are "dripping blood and dirt, from every pore" (Marx, in Capital). Brecht surely studied his Marx very well. It also introduced furniture into a stable, capitalism into feudalism; luxurious bourgeois articles in the stable hide murder and theft. For the wedding, the gang members wear stolen suits, but they cannot conceal their vulgar lumpen-manners.

Karl: This is a precise illustration of modern capitalist society; bloody crooks parade around as "good" citizens. The songs in this scene are very famous. Alfred, can you make some comments?

Alfred: In general, the song's function is to break up the flowing action, to create in the audience unattached feelings towards the characters. Mr. & Mrs. Peachum's song has very little to do with the scene itself. On the other hand, Polly's "Pirate Jenny" song concerns the very scene it is performed in. It's somehow an analogy of Polly's life, about her anticipatory dreams, about her frustrations, and the deep desire to kill all those who make her life miserable. In fact, everybody feels like that, now and then.

Martina: I will comment on Scene Three (Act One).
Polly comes home, and she hears exactly the stereotypical accusations. Dad has invested a fortune to raise her, to make her a decent lady. Now, by marrying a "skunk",  she is throwing herself into the dustbin, like a cheap prostitute, associated with "sects", "terrorists", "communists" and criminals. In reality, Peachum finds himself in the seventh heaven: at last, the opportunity is there to destroy his competitor, thanks to his dear daughter, Polly. He immediately attends "business", and leaves Polly in peace.
Mum does exactly what a good lady should do, she faints and then orders a glass of wine. Then she enters in the conspiracy how to capture Mac, and hang him. Some beggars enter, one of them is fired by Peachum.
After all this, the three sing a song about poor and insecure living conditions.

Coseino: What a world! Business is more important than the glorified family. Even Mother Courage lost her children doing business with the soldiers. For Peachum, the arrest of Mac would "earn forty pounds". This is more important than the "marriage scandal".

Martina: Imagine Peachum firing one of his beggars!

Coseino: There you mention a very important logical argument of Brecht. He shows, how capitalism has interpenetrated every aspect of life, into every capillary of global existence. Again, he uses dialectics in an appropriate fashion. How can an unemployed beggar get out of work, become unemployed, be fired? But this is exactly what happens in this scene, what happens everyday on a world scale. Capitalism made even begging a profession!

Capitalism has conquered every aspect of society, to such a degree that "human existence" is impossible except WITHIN THE SYSTEM. Hence, capitalism has guaranteed that everybody, Marxist of Fascist, affirms the very capitalist system, and cannot transcend its limits. No matter how critical or revolutionary one might be, in the last analysis, one affirms the system, one loves "Big Brother".  The Last International is called: Change Must Come From Within!

Patricia: But what about love, Professor?  What about Polly's love feelings?

Coseino: My dear, omnia vincit amor! Didn't you know that? Love conquers, is a Conquerer, a Conquistador!

Patricia: Where? And When? I have noticed nothing of the sort around me. I just see: veni, vidi, vici , everyday.

Indira: Well, Brecht simply makes fun of love. He uses Socratic dialectical irony to portray it. The Peachums don't swoon before Love, on the contrary, they demand a divorce. When Polly insists that she is in love, Dad advises her to stop reading cheap love stories. He reminds her that marriage is a business deal, something in hard cash must jump out. However, Peachum has his own business logic, his own ultima ratio:  "If I give away my daughter,... my house will cave in and my last dog will run off." The moral of the scene: Love is the dearest slave of bourgeois society, capitalist business trancends love in this amoral, globalized world.

Coseino: Next.

Elvis: Scene Four (Act Two).
Polly tries to convince Mac to flee. He arranges "business", and informs her that he will become a "banker" in future, that it is safer. He puts her in charge of his business. However, Matthew does not like the idea to work under a woman. Polly says good-bye to Mac, and begs him not to look at any other women while he is away. Of course, Mac promises that he will never forget her.

Coseino: This is your field, Elvis. "Oh! Lonesome Me!" What does this scene imply?

Elvis: It's the continuation of the previous theme. Not Love, but Money makes the world turn around.
All over in contemporary society, love emotions are mercilessly exploited, are being converted into fiscal transactions. Polly dreams about the moon, "a worn-down penny", the symbol of her love relation. Brecht here equates Love with Capitalism, but also stresses that both Love and Capitalism are worn-out, are not worth a farthing. All characters, except the poor love-sick Polly, hold this view. She still defends authentic emotions. In the end, even she succumbs.

Coseino: Also between Mac and Peachum rages a power struggle. Mac is the capitalist owner who wants to reap the fruits of his private property. Also in this scene, Brecht scorns at the university professors who claim not to be under capitalist and profit pressures. He indicates that in many ways the underlying economic motive of their research work is stronger than that of a normal factory owner.

Let's pass on to the Interlude (Act Two). Mrs. Peachum and Low-Dive Jenny organize their plot. The former sings her "Ballad of Sexual Obsession", explaining why some men go to prostitutes. She, however, forgets to include in her song, that it takes two to tango, to be a prostitute. However, here the good old Brecht must have had a personal problem, he himself had many mistresses and he even experimented in bisexuality. The very name "Mac the Knife" had acquired sex symbolism.

William: It seems that Brecht had his own private "Sexual Revolution".
Scene Five (Act Two) concerns the arrest of Mac the Knife, and how he portrays his past life with nostalgia. Brecht makes fun about bourgeois nostalgia, of its idealized romantic past, of its "golden age".
This he dialectically counterpoises with lumpen-proletarian crudity. Captured in the past, one is blind in the present, and myopic towards the future.

Jeffrey: In Scene Six (Act Two), Mac finds himself in the Old Bailey, and Tiger Brown is getting cold feet. Mac boasts that he is a very "silent" man, and that he got this trick from the Holy Bible. Then he sings the "Ballad Of Good Living". Lucy arrives and plays the jealous "house-wife", together with Polly, they sing the "Jealousy Duet". Mac escapes and, with Jenny, sings  the "Second Threepenny Finale". And then comes the famous song: "Erst kommt das Fressen, und dann die Moral" ("Food is the first thing. Morals follow on").

A lot of things happen in this scene, what I related is just a summary.

Coseino: And your analysis?

Adam: Brecht succintly criticizes religion with its "silent tricks", implying that all along the development of capitalism, for nearly three millennia, God had been silent.

Jeffrey: Yes, Adam, that's true. The poor even rationalize this, they think that God is mad at them. This "bad conscience" creates the urge to please God, to please capitalism. God gives nothing but silence in return to the poor beggars.
At the end of the scene, Brecht calls his audience to consider the actual life circumstances of the miserable creatures of capitalism, of the characters, instead of judging them socially, morally and abstractly.

Patricia: Scene Seven (Act Three). The preparation for the sabotage of the Queen's coronation ceremony continues. Jenny wants her pay. Mrs. Peachum complains that with the gallows hanging over him, Mac still goes to the prostitutes. Mr. Peachum demands that Mac should be re-arrested and hung by six o'clock this very night. Jenny ends this scene by singing "Solomon's Song". 

Among other things, it states that:

"Cleopatra was lovely and whored herself to death,
Caesar was courageous and got murdered,
Brecht was curious and got driven overseas,
and Macheath has sexual urges that are about to get him hung."

In each stanza, it states:

 "How fortunate the man with none!"

Adam: Brecht even compares Mac the Knife with Christ, by allowing Mrs. Peachum to say: "Exactly. No thirty pieces of silver for you." The Marxist, Brecht,  loves to make fun about the "heart of a heartless world", about the "sigh of the oppressed creature", about the "opium" of beggars, about religion.

Mahatma: He reminds me of you, Professor Coseino. Only you make no fun about God or Religion. For you, they are not a problem; in fact, decades ago, you saved me from this "vale of tears". But, let's look at Scene Eight (Act Three). It is an extensive illustration of the "falseness" of love and marriage.
Now the issue of "class", of "class struggle" between Polly and Lucy enters the scene.

Lucy tells Polly: "You should have stuck to your own class of people, dear Miss."
Polly, however, upgrades herself to the "business class":  "I should have kept everything on a strict business footing." She means the bourgeois class which has no emotions, and which only marries for money. Again the theme of the "falseness" of love and marriage is underlined.

Coseino: Okay! Folks, I'll take the Final Scene, Scene Nine (Act Three), we have to finish our class soon.

For Whom The Bell Tolls! The Bells of Westminster are ringing: one hour more for Mac to live!
Even bribery and corruption cannot save his life anymore.

Mac has his "Last Supper", giving his "Last Speech". He complains of monopolization and take-overs, of globalization: small thieves are being swallowed up by the big ones, by the big corporations, backed by big banks. He end his speech by saying "So be it - I fall". What a "fall", my country(wo)men! Like the Pope, in his last ballad, he begs all men for "forgiveness".

But then, at last, God awakes, his Archangel Brown arrives, announcing that Mac the Knife is a Hero, that the Queen has issued a royal reprieve to save Mac's life, and that he should be made a hereditary knight and given a castle.

Mrs. Peachum comments:

 "How nice and easy everything would be if you could always reckon with saviors on horseback."

What an obviously fake ending. But, that's Brecht!

Dear Students, our seminar also has come to an end, but without fake. See you next week.

(Coseino thinks: They say:  All's well, that ends well! But there is no ending in the Threepenny Opera, and nothing is well about it.)

enjoy the excellent remarks of Carl.
If Professor Coseino were here today, he would
have loved to read these inspiring thoughts.
 
CARL ZIMMERMAN'S COMMENTS:

Hi, Folks:
I enjoyed the dialogue and description of Brecht and Brecht/Weill's The Threepenny Opera.

Fran & I saw this musical starring Raul Julia as Mack der Messer in New York City. I have CD's with Gisella Mai and Ernst Busch singing Brecht's and Weill's songs. Busch's  performance of the song Mack der Messer is great.

Two weeks ago, Fran & I attended 4 hours of a free, excellent, 6-hour performance of Kurt Weill's music, which included  Brecht's work perfomed by professionals in German and English in New York City. Incredibly, this concert was free. Although the audience was quite crowded, we got
seats.

The Threepenny Opera exemplifies Brecht's epic theater concept in which the masks, costumes and unemotional dialogues were intended to make the audience avoid identification with the actors and focus entirely on the social issues presented. In my estimation, this didn't work. Actors cannot avoid being emotional. Nevertheless, the Threepenny Opera is great entertainment.

I think that Brecht and Weill tried to be emancipatory artisans, even though they made big $USA composing cinema music. All of their leading characters were nonconforming, uncontrollable individualists, and they created numerous new concepts in music and drama. Although
Brecht was originally a Marxist, he rejected Marxism in his later years. I think they were ahead of their time, and have inspired many people in the subsequent generations to carry the torch for emancipatory music and drama.

Regards.
Carl
 

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