Women and fate in Brecht and Williams

The dramatic arc of the protagonists in Mother Courage and Her Children and A Streetcar Named Desire

Eight years apart, the plays “Mother Courage and Her Children” (1939), by Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) [1], and “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) [2], by Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), brought to the stage two strong female protagonists, two characters that, in different ways, grab the audience’s attention. In Brecht’s play, we have Anna Fierling, known by many as “Mother Courage”. In Williams’ play, the protagonist is Blanche DuBois, dividing the stage with her direct antagonist, the manly Stanley Kowalski. Although near in time, in those plays the strategies to show the dramatic arc of the protagonists are blatantly different. Williams works within the procedures of the dramatic theater of the 20th century in the United States, derived from the bourgeois drama developed in Europe in the 18th century; Brecht, contrarily, rejects traditional dramatic procedures and develops Anna Fierling within his method, created at the beginning of the 20th century in Germany, a Brechitian theater with epic features and guided by the principle of Verfremdungseffekt (“estrangement effect”). This brief essay, focusing on the dramatic arc of Anna Fierling and Blanche DuBois, will analyze those differences.

Tennessee Williams works within the limits of the dramatic theater, developed from the bourgeois drama. According to Peter Szondi, this theater “foi uma crítica ao existente, à tragédia classicista e heroica, e foi o programa e a apologia do novo gênero dramático” (SZONDI 2014: 22). Szondi explains this new form of dramatic theater in “Teoria do Drama Burguês” citing Georg Lukács in “Sobre a sociologia do drama moderno”: “O drama burguês é o primeiro a se desenvolver a partir de uma oposição consciente de classes; o primeiro cujo objetivo era dar expressão ao modo de sentir e pensar de uma classe lutando por liberdade e poder e à relação que mantinha com as demais classes. Daí se segue logo que geralmente duas classes devem cerrar fileiras no drama, a que luta e aquela contra a qual se combate” (SZONDI 2014: 23). From that basis, the dramatic in the theory of the modern theater can be understood as “um princípio de construção do texto dramático e da representação teatral que dá conta da tensão das cenas e dos episódios da fábula rumo a um desenlace (catástrofe ou solução cômica), e que sugere que o espectador é cativado pela ação” (PAVIS 2015: 110). In the dramatic theater, the audience falls in the illusion of “reality”: the present time of the play is absolute and they feel what the characters feel. Margot Berthold analyzes the effect of illusion: “O lema era: ‘No que os olhos veem, o coração crê’, e o teatro, como edifício festivo e cenário do drama da cidadania burguesa, fornecia uma moldura descomedida para autorreflexão comedida” (BERTHOLD 2014: 382).

As explain Peter Szondi in “Teoria do Drama Moderno”, the dialogue is the basis of the dramatic theater: “Era o diálogo, no entanto, o meio que dava expressão linguística a esse mundo inter-humano. Depois de eliminados prólogo, coro e epílogo, ele se tornou no Renascimento, talvez pela primeira vez na história do teatro, o único componente do tecido dramático (ao lado do monólogo, que permaneceu episódico, e, portanto, não constitutivo dessa forma). Nisso o drama clássico se distingue tanto da tragédia antiga como da representação religiosa medieval, tanto do Theatrum mundi barroco como das peças históricas de Shakespeare. A supremacia absoluta do diálogo, ou seja, daquilo que se pronuncia no drama entre homens, espelha o fato de este se constituir exclusivamente com base na reprodução da relação inter-humana e só conhecer o que nessa esfera reluz” (SZONDI 2011: 24). In the dramatic theater, says Szondi, the interiority becomes something manifested, converted in dramatic presence; as decisions become actions, the world only refers to itself through dramatic realization; and cannot be part of the play what cannot be expressed, what cannot be a referent to men. The audience, passive and charmed, must be captivated by the dramatic arc of the characters (introduction, exposition, conflict, rising of the conflict, clímax, conclusion). As explains Szondi, the audience “se limita a assistir ao que dramaticamente se pronuncia: silencioso, de mãos atadas, paralisado pela visão de um outro mundo. Sua total passividade (sobre a qual repousa a vivência dramática) deve, porém, ser revertida numa atividade irracional: o público era (e é) arrastado para o interior do jogo dramático, passando de espectador a sujeito falante - pela boca de todos os personagens, bem entendido. A relação espectador-drama conhece apenas total separação ou total identidade; ela desconhece tanto a intromissão do espectador no drama, quanto sua interpelação por ele” (SZONDI 2011: 25).

In “A Streetcar Named Desire” [3], Williams builds the acts around the conflict of Blanche DuBois and the dramatic arc established by it, creating suspense, climax, and, consequently, the cathartic release of emotions. Those conflicts are internal (what happens in Blanche’s mind, what is externalized through monologues) and external (the clashes with her sister Stella and, mostly, with Stanley, Stella's husband); from the present (her feud with Stanley; her failed attempt of starting a serious relationship with Mitch) and from the past (it is crucial to establish a bridge between the past off-stage, brought to the stage through dialogues, and the present on-stage: what happened in the past defines the present - her failed relationship with a homosexual man, who kills himself; or her erratic and scandalous behavior responsible for the loss of her job as a teacher and for being expelled from her town). It is critical to create links between past and present in the linear timeline of the play. What Blanche has done beforehand has consequences on the absolute present of the scene, in Stella’s house in New Orleans; what happens in scene one is the future response for scene two and so on, because “No caráter absoluto do drama repousa igualmente a exigência de eliminar o acaso e apresentar encadeamentos motivados” (SZONDI 2011: 28). In that context, in that atmosphere where time and space function as one, the audience is dazzled. Bigsby, citing Tennessee Williams, reaffirms: “In a play, time is arrested in the sense of being confined… The audience can sit back in a comforting dusk to watch a world which is flooded with light and in which emotion and action have a dimension and dignity that they would likewise have in real existence, if only the shattering intrusion of time could be locked out” (BIGSBY 2004: 40).

With Williams, the audience falls into the dramatic illusion: the author psychologizes Blanche, a character that can only be explained in the present and by the dialogues if is exposed to the audience her past and her thoughts. Blanche cannot analyzes herself, even less Stella or Stanley, but with the development of the dramatic arc the audience can start to suspect that she is walking towards a tragic ending - and then wait enthusiastically for the grand finale. In scene one, there is the first big revelation that start to build what will characterize Blanche: she reveals to her sister Stella that she lost Belle Reve, the old family property. The sisters talk: “BLANCHE - I knew you would, Stella. I knew you would take this attitude about it! / STELLA - About - what? - please! / BLANCHE [slowly] - The loss - the loss… / STELLA - Belle Reve? Lost, is it? No! / BLANCHE - Yes, Stella.” (pp118-119). In scene two, another piece of information coming from Stanley reveals a consequence of the loss of Belle Reve and develops the plot a bit more: Stanley talks about the Napoleonic code. He and Stella talk: “STANLEY - Let me enlighten you on a point or two, baby. / STELLA - Yes? / STANLEY - In the state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic code according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa. For instance if I had a piece of property, or you had a piece of property- / STELLA - My head is swimming! / STANLEY - All right. I’ll wait till she gets through soaking in a hot tub and then I’ll enquire if she is acquainted with the Napoleonic code. It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby, and when you’re swindled under the Napoleonic code I’m swindled too. And I don’t like to be swindled.” (pp130-131). In scene five, the development of the dramatic arc links past and present: Stanley teases Blanche about new information he got about her. In that point, the mystery that refrains the audience from knowing Blanche completely starts to melt. Stanley provokes her: “STANLEY [contemptuously] - Hah! [He advances a little as he knots his tie] Say, do you happen to know somebody named Shaw? / [Her face expresses a faint shock. She reaches for the cologne bottle and dampens her handkerchief as she answers carefully.] / BLANCHE - Why, everybody knows somebody named Shaw! / STANLEY - Well, this somebody named Shaw is under the impression he met you in Laurel, but I figure he must have got you mixed up with some other party because this other party is someone he met at a hotel called the Flamingo.” (p187). In scene seven, the conflict rises, and new puzzle pieces give answers to the mysterious figure of Blanche: Stanley tells Stella what happened to her sister. He says: “STANLEY - This is after the home-place had slipped through her lily-white fingers! She moved to the Flamingo! A second-class hotel which has the advantage of not interfering in the private social life of the personalities there! The Flamingo is used to all kinds of goings-on. But even the management of the Flamingo was impressed by Dame Blanche! In fact they was so impressed by Dame Blanche that they requested her to turn in her room key - for permanently! This happened a couple of weeks before she showed here. / [...] / STELLA - It’s pure invention! There’s not a word of truth in it and if I were a man and this creature had dared to invent such things in my presence- / [...] / STANLEY - And for the last year or two she has been washed up like poison. That’s why she’s here this summer, visiting royalty, putting on all this act - because she’s practically told by the mayor to get out of town! Yes, did you know there was an army camp near Laurel and your sister’s was one of the places called ‘Out-of-Bounds’?” (pp218-219). In scene nine - near the final scene, when Blanche, lost in her delusions, is forcibly charged to go to an institution - Mitch confronts Blanche, who finally faces the consequences of her past and realizes she cannot run away from the past. They talk: “MITCH - I called him a liar at first. And then I checked on the story. First I asked our supply-man who travels through Laurel. And then I talked directly over long-distance to this merchant / [...] / MITCH - You lied to me, Blanche. / BLANCHE - Don’t say I lied to you. / MITCH - Lies, lies, inside and out, all lies.” (pp244-245).

As these scenes exemplify, the drama happens externally - always with dialogues and never with narration or explanations - in order to create internal changes: the clashes between Stanley and Blanche; Blanche’s rape; the final conversation between a desperate Blanche and a disappointed and repelled Mitch. As says Szondi, “No âmbito inter-humano, os acontecimentos se reduzem a uma série de encontros que não passam de marcos externos daquilo que propriamente acontece: a transformação interna” (SZONDI 2011: 77). In the theater developed by Bertolt Brecht, however, the dramatic arc of the characters is constructed oppositely: Brecht doesn’t need to maintain a status of thrill and mystery throughout the acts to captivate the audience; he doesn’t build a crescendum scene by scene aiming exclusively the climax of the narrative and an explosive ending, revealing the much-delayed destiny of the protagonist and answering all the questions. By constructing his play within the basis of the epic theater, Brecht overcomes the classic dramaturgy, “Aristotelian”, only based on the dramatic tension, the conflict, and the regular progression of actions (PAVIS 2015: 130). As explains Patrice Pavis, “A passagem da forma dramática para a forma épica não é motivada por uma questão de estilo e, sim, por uma nova análise da sociedade. O teatro dramático, com efeito, não é mais capaz de dar conta dos conflitos do homem no mundo; o indivíduo não está mais oposto a outro indivíduo, porém a um sistema econômico” (PAVIS 2015: 110). Epic elements were present in the theater long before Brecht: in Middle Age mysteries and classic Asian theaters, for instance, through the use of descriptions and monologues and the presence of a character-narrator, but “tratava-se de elementos épicos inseridos no teatro dramático enquanto ‘procedimentos técnicos e formais que não colocam em questão a direção global da obra e a função do teatro na sociedade’” (PAVIS 2015: 110). Brecht will use epic elements to transform every aspect of the theater: form, function, context, directing, acting etc.

According to Anatol Rosenfeld (ROSENFELD 2018: 150), about the epic theater proposed by Brecht in the 20th century, “Duas são as razões principais da sua oposição ao teatro aristotélico: primeiro, o desejo de não apresentar apenas relações inter-humanas individuais - objetivo essencial do drama rigoroso e da ‘peça bem feita’, - mas também as determinantes sociais dessas relações. Segundo a concepção marxista, o ser humano deve ser concebido como o conjunto de todas as relações sociais e diante disso a forma épica é, segundo Brecht, a única capaz de apreender aqueles processos que constituem para o dramaturgo a matéria para uma ampla concepção do mundo. [...] A segunda razão liga-se ao intuito do teatro brechtiano, à intenção de apresentar um ‘palco científico’ capaz de esclarecer o público sobre a sociedade e a necessidade de transformá-la; capaz ao mesmo tempo de ativar o público, de nele suscitar a ação transformadora. O fim didático exige que seja eliminado a ilusão, o impacto mágico do teatro burguês. Esse êxtase, essa intensa identificação emocional que leva o público a esquecer-se de tudo, afigura-se a Brecht como uma das consequências principais da teoria da catarse, da purgação e descarga das emoções através das próprias emoções suscitadas. O público assim purificado sai do teatro satisfeito, convenientemente conformado, passivo, encampado no sentido da ideologia burguesa e incapaz de uma ideia rebelde” (ROSENFELD 2018: 147-148). In Brecht’s epic theater, the play fights the fatalistic vision of the tragedy: the man isn’t governed by unfathomable forces, but forces from a economic and social system that can be analysed and criticized; the disgraces that loom the men are not eternal and divine, but historical; the staged play can gives pleasure to the audience, but without being a mere entertainment, a mere numbing tool. The most important aspect of the epic theater is the Verfremdungseffekt, the “estrangement effect”: by creating an effect of distance and strangeness, a member of the audience avoids being dragged by a numbing illusion and can see, in the play, his own status, he can see that his status is changeable, not fixed (ROSENFELD 2018: 150). As Rosenfeld writes: “Este esquema não exige muitos comentários. Em vez da vivência e identificação estimuladas pelo teatro burguês, o público brechtiano deverá manter-se lúcido [...]” (ROSENFELD 2018: 150).

To create the Verfremdungseffekt, Brecht develops methods such as: the use of irony and parody; the presence of a serene and distant narrator; scenes with titles (on stage, the plays used to have posters with the scene’s titles and other phrases); the use of non-realistic scenery and stage props: the scenery is stylized and reduced to the indispensable; the presence of a choir, who makes comments, narrations, analysis; the use of songs (it is not an element that merges completely with the play to create a feeling of numbness: it is independent, lyrical, oratory, anti-prosodic; the songs usually make comments about the plot and the characters and can criticize that world we see on the stage) (ROSENFELD 2018: 160).

In “Mother Courage and Her Children”, Brecht introduces to the audience Anna Fierling, also called “Mother Courage” because of an episode of her past. She is a very controversial figure: she hates the war (the Thirty Years’ War, in the 17th century Europe), the violence and misery caused by the conflict, but, at the same time, she wants that the war continues because she can make a profit of it: with her three children (Kattrin, Eilif, and Swiss Cheese), she carries a waggon and sells stuff to the soldiers. The first procedure by Brecht that breaks with the traditional dramatic arc and creates the Verfremdungseffekt is the early exposure of Mother Courage’s destiny. The destiny of the character is explained in the beginning of the play and the audience, fully informed, must watch the spectacle to understand the ways that destiny will be fulfilled. There is no suspense about the future, although there is expectation to understand the missing parts. But the answer is clear since the first pages: the audience has already known Anna Fierling and her controversial behavior - a love for her children, but equal love for her businesses. In the first scene, Swiss Cheese alerts the Sergeant that his mother has a second sight: she knows the destiny of everyone by filling a small piece of paper with a black cross and leaving the other piece blank. Whoever gets the black cross, is marked to die soon. Her surprise, in the game that amuses and scaries the Sergeant and the Recruiter, is that all of his three children get the black cross. Her fate becomes more clear and didactical when the Sergeant sings at the end of the first scene (page 10) [4]: "Like the war to nourish you? / Have to feed it something too". Before that, the character has already confronted Mother Courage about her posture to the war: "Want to live off war, but keep yourself and family out of it, eh?". In that point, it is not important to create suspense in the audience, an illusion around the unknown. With all the facts exposed, the audience can now, detached, think about what they will see, can analyze rationally what Mother Courage will say and do. As expected, her children will die and all deaths will be related with her actions. Swiss Cheese is killed in scene three, Eilif is executed in scene seven and Kattrin dies in scene eleven. As explained by Peter Szondi, “O espectador, igualmente, não é deixado fora do jogo cênico, nem é arrastado para dentro dele (‘iludido’) de modo a deixar de ser espectador - ele é posto, como tal, diante dessa ação em processo, que lhe é oferecida como objeto de consideração. Porque a ação não é mais sozinha o que faz a obra, ela não pode mais transformar o tempo da apresentação teatral numa sequência absoluta de presentes. O presente da apresentação é como que mais largo do que o presente da ação: daí seu olhar se manter atento não apenas ao final de seu curso, mas também a seu andamento e àquilo que passou” (SZONDI 2011: 117).

Another epic element in “Mother Courage” that creates the Verfremdungseffekt and talks directly with the plot and the dramatic arc of Anna Fierling and her children is the use of titles in each scene. Brecht creates a long title for each scene that already explains, upfront, what will happen in the scene and breaks any sense of suspense. The title also serves as a summary that explains relevant things to the audience - information that couldn’t go in the dialogues (examples: the year of the war, or the current location of Mother’s Courage waggon). Again, the most important thing isn't to elude the audience, but to inform them, keep them “awake” and estranged from the drama. As says Berthold, “Manter distância é o primeiro mandamento, tanto para o ator quanto para o público. Não é permitido que se forme nenhum ‘campo hipnótico’ entre o palco e a plateia. O ator não deve despertar emoções no espectador, mas provocar sua consciência crítica” (BERTHOLD 2014: 505). On scene one, the title explains that Mother Courage will “loses one son” (Eilif will be recruited to fight in the war); on scene three, the title summarize all the plot - in a dramatic play, with no epic elements, that would be impossible: “Three years later Mother Courage is taken prisoner along with elements of a Finnish regiment. She manages to save her daughter, likewise her covered cart, but her honest son is killed”. The same thing happens in scenes eight (“Courage’s dashing son performs one heroic deed too many and comes to a sticky end”) and eleven (“Mother Courage loses her daughter and trudges on alone”).

The songs in the play also serve as elements for the Verfremdungseffekt. As explained by Sarrazac: “Atua fundamentalmente como um princípio de descontinuidade: o personagem não é mais abordado de um ponto de vista psicologizante, suas expressões (gestos, falas…) não são mais interpretadas como a tradução de uma interioridade, de um fluxo contínuo de pensamentos e sentimentos. Ao contrário, o comportamento do personagem é decomposto numa série de gestus, atitudes fundamentais que correspondem cada uma a uma situação particular e se sucedem às vezes abruptamente. Por exemplo, em Mãe Coragem e Seus Filhos, Brecht apresenta uma Anna Fierling comerciante, que procura tirar proveito da guerra e chega a utilizar os filhos para seus negócios, a ponto de perder um deles, Petit Suisse, cuja ração ela tenta barganhar; entretanto, essa mesma ‘Mãe coragem’ também é capaz, no fim do sexto quadro, de amaldiçoar a guerra e os soldados que desfiguraram a filha. [...] A música, por exemplo, pode igualmente ser gestual. Por um lado, ‘ela permite ao ator apresentar certos gestus fundamentais’, sobretudo pelo viés das famosas songs brechtianas. Por outro, tem a capacidade de representar por si só um gestus social, reforçando o efeito de distanciamento e levando o espectador a assumir uma atitude de observador crítico. Em Mãe Coragem e Seus Filhos, por exemplo, Brecht observa que a música (de Eisler), ‘graças a seu gestus de conselho amistoso, permite de certa forma que a voz da razão se faça ouvir’” (SARRAZAC 2012: 94)

In scene one, Mother Courage introduces herself using the third person, a procedure that allows the actor to distance himself from the character, creating space for critical analysis and commentary: “It's Mother Courage with her waggon / Full of the finest boots they make” (p2). In the brief scene seven, the song sang by Mother Courage serves exclusively for the character to reflect about the developments of the war and the disgrace around her and, very revealing, shows critically a lot about her values, in direct dialogue with the scene title (“Mother Courage at the peak of her business career”). First, she reflects: “I won’t have you folks spoiling my war for me. I’m told it kills off the weak, but they’re write-off peacetime too. And war gives its people a better deal”. Then, she sings: “And if you feel your forces fading / You won’t be there to share the fruits. / But what is war but private trading / That deals in blood instead of boots?” (p56). The excerpt is very ironic (another well-known resource of the epic theater), since the audience already knows the character’s destiny and can balance her life and her values with the absurdity she’s singing.

“Mother Courage” and Blanche DuBois are developed by Brecht and Williams, therefore, in two different ways. Blanche, marked by her past, trying to avoid the reality by seeking refuge in her own mind and in the arms of a man, walks toward to her tragic destiny by the time she leaves the streetcar in the first scene, a destiny that cannot be avoided and was justified by her past: in a crescendum of madness, despair and miscommunication, she is fated to the sanatorium. In the dramatic theater, the development of this journey, from action to conflit to climax (the tragic destiny), is crucial and the audience must be hooked by it. In the epic theater, on the other hand, a character like Blanche, as Anna Fierling, would have awareness of her condition, would be able to analyse and criticize herself, and the audience would have, beforehand, all the information to critically watch the play. As explains Jean-Jacques Roubine, “A forma dramática impõe uma verdade imutável. Qualquer que seja a história ou a experiência vivida de cada um, é preciso aderir a ela. A forma dramática despoja portanto o espectador de si mesmo. Explora, para fazê-lo, seus afeitos, seus sentimentos, suas ideias. Ao contrário, a forma épica enfatiza os comportamentos e as opiniões, daí decorrendo, segundo Brecht, todo o resto. [...] O motor da forma dramática é, já dissemos, o conflito. Já o teatro épico se apoia na ideia da contradição. Este é, por exemplo, o mecanismo-chave de Mãe Coragem. A heroína fica cega pelo fato de que a guerra que a enriquece ao mesmo tempo lhe traz a desgraça e a morte” (ROUBINE 2003: 152-153).

If, facing Blanche DuBois, the audience suffers with her, “cries” with shock and discomfort before her tragic destiny, with Anna Fierling and her dramatic arc the audience can, with reason and integrity, reflect about the historical and social strings that move that world - and even their own. As says Jean-Pierre Sarrazac, “Brecht opõe teatro dramático aristotélico e teatro épico: um baseia-se na ação; o outro, na narração. O primeiro sustenta por sua própria forma o status quo (e, por conseguinte, a classe que detém o poder), pois, falando apenas às emoções, arrastando o público no encadeamento das ações rumo a um fim, sacrificando o realismo à continuidade, o rigor da análise ao equilíbrio formal da obra, ele não estimula o senso crítico do espectador. Num teatro epicizado, mais narrativo, são introduzidas descontinuidade, distância, mensagens, reflexividade: perante a fábula que lhe contam, o espectador deve recorrer à razão. Deve decifrar o sentido dessa fábula, dessa parábola” (SARRAZAC 2012: 78).

NOTES

1. As Margot Berthold explains: “[...] encenada pela primeira vez em 1941, sob a direção de Leopold Lindtberg em Zurique, o corajoso refúgio do teatro de língua alemã no exílio [...]” (BERTHOLD 2014: 507).

2. As Margot Berthold explains: “Os anos 40 assistiram à emergência de dois dramaturgos que - ao lado de Edward Albee, após o sucesso de Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Quem Tem Medo de Virginia Woolf?), 1962 - permanecem até hoje como os mais representativos do teatro da Broadway em seu espírito ‘sério’: Tennessee Williams e Arthur Miller. Em The Glass Menagerie (À Margem da Vida), 1944, Williams autobiograficamente refletiu sobre as lastimáveis pretensões dos remanescentes da tradição sulista e mostrou sensibilidade refugiando-se da aspereza do mundo moderno nos sonhos e no retraimento. O tema foi expandido em A Streetcar Named Desire (Um Bonde Chamado Desejo), 1947, em que a sensibilidade decadente de Blanche se opõe ao vigor brutal de seu cunhado Stanley” (ibid: 519).

3. All the references from this play are from WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie/A Streetcar Named Desire/Cat On a Hot Tin Roof/Suddenly Last Summer. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1994.

4. All the references about the play are from BRECHT, Bertolt. Mother Courage and Her Children. 1939. (digital version by SocialistStories).

REFERENCES

BERTHOLD, M. História Mundial do Teatro. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2014 (6ª edição).

BIGSBY, C. W. E. Modern American Drama, 1945-2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

BRECHT, B. Mother Courage and Her Children. 1939. (digital version by SocialistStories).

PAVIS, P. Dicionário de Teatro. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2015 (3ª edição).

ROSENFELD, A. O Teatro Épico. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2018 (6ª edição).

ROUBINE, J. Introdução às Grandes Teorias do Teatro. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2003.

SARRAZAC, J. (org.). Léxico do Drama Moderno e Contemporâneo. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2012.

SZONDI, P. Teoria do Drama Burguês [século XVIII]. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2014 (2ª edição).

SZONDI, P. Teoria do Drama Moderno. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2011 (2ª edição).

WILLIAMS, T. The Glass Menagerie/A Streetcar Named Desire/Cat On a Hot Tin Roof/Suddenly Last Summer. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1994.

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CITATION: DEARO, Guilherme. "Women and fate in Brecht and Williams - The dramatic arc of the protagonists in Mother Courage and Her Children and A Streetcar Named Desire". São Paulo: FFLCH/USP, december 2020.