Page 24 - The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand Vol.XIII-2021

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XIII – 2021

praised by the Gods to be the only one Good Man of Sezuan, because she offered
them a place to sleep for a night. This is the sign that she is a kind-hearted person.

As reward, Shen Te receives a small amount of 1,000 silver dollars. With this
reward, the woman should consolidate and, according to the wish of the
Gods, secure her existence to be able to help other people. In fact, Shen Te has

helped all the poor people from “poverty”, who came to her, with money and
shelter, because she is not able to say “no”: the former owner of the store,
all her employees and relatives and a man, who passed by. The poverty seems
to be infinite and endless, while the money and resources restricted. In order to
fulfil one of the com-mandments to love one’s neighbour, Shen Te stands before her

ruins and must lie several times because of “neighbours”. Because of her sympathy
with Wang, the water salesman, whose hand was hit with the curling tongs
by the Barber Shu Fu, Shen Te announces she is ready to be a wrong witness for

this incident – a deed which is in the Ten Commandments of Christianity, also
in the Five Regulations of Buddhism, prohibited. Her love of the pilot Yang Sun
makes her financial situation worse. Shen Te promises to give her lover 500 silver
dollars, which she actually needs for her advance payment of her rent. With that,
Shen Te supports an unmoral deed, as the amount should be a bribe for a hangar

administrator in Peking to lit Yang Sun to be a pilot. Because of her love for Yang Sun,
Shen Te spends a lot of money to buy a scarf imprudently and cannot keep her
promise to the elderly couple.

It seems that Shen Te is more and more imprudent, unreasonable through

her kind-hearted nature and becomes entangled in the end in sin. “The angel of
the suburbs” on rather the “Good Person of Szechuan” is not in a position to help
herself in this dark world and she will not at all be stronger with all of her burdens

as the Gods believe. The Gods demand from men in their world to decent and
follow their moral rules. But the Gods principally may not interfere, especially in
financial matters, which are the worst problems of men.

According to Brecht’s view, man is in his nature “decent”. Their malice comes
principally from the outside. Because of hunger and poverty, these men need

harshness and must be wicked. Through material poverty and social
circumstances, virtue becomes, in Brecht’s opinion, worthless. It is for Shen

14 Bertolt Brecht: “The Good Person of Szechwan” – Anti-Capitalist, Anti-buddhist?