“The Achievement Of Brecht” by Raymond Williams: Summary And Critique

Reputation Precedes Knowledge

• Writers’ reputations often precede a deep understanding of their works, as was the case with Brecht in the 1950s, similar to Ibsen in England in the 1890s.
• Two primary ideas about Brecht spread before his works were fully known: his use of epic theatre centered on alienation, and his Marxist political engagement.
• As more of Brecht’s works became known, these preconceptions were found to align with his essential achievements. Williams warns against reading Brecht’s work backwards to fit these pre-made ideas.

Naturalism and its Limitations

• The movement away from naturalism was not merely technical; naturalism embodied middle-class values like family, humanitarianism, and individual conscience, which were being questioned in modern drama.
• Ibsen’s work marked a turning point in modern drama, pushing the focus from personal morality to social behavior.
• Brecht took this further by rejecting the introspective and moralistic tendencies of naturalism, instead focusing on exposing false social consciousness and its perversion of moral thinking.

“Brecht looked in a different direction. He saw the destructive forces as parts of a false social consciousness.”

Early Plays and The Threepenny Opera

• Brecht’s early works, such as The Threepenny Opera, expressed a deep outrage at societal immorality, using crude imagery to convey a sense of revulsion.
• The play used characters like criminals and wh*res to represent the bourgeois society’s corruption. However, Williams critiques Brecht’s inability to fully distance the audience from identification with these immoral figures, which diluted his intended shock.

“The criminals and wh*res are offered as a portrait of respectable bourgeois society—not exactly a representation which that society will wish to acknowledge.”

Shift to Didactic Theatre and Marxism

• After the 1920s, Brecht transitioned to a more didactic form of theatre and embraced Marxist principles. Works like The Measures Taken showcased revolutionary morality, but Williams found this particular piece unengaging.
• Brecht’s later plays, including The Good Woman of Setzuan and Mother Courage, displayed a synthesis of his dramatic methods and moral complexity.

“The Good Woman of Setzuan is a brilliant matching of Brecht’s essential moral complexity with a dramatic method which can genuinely embody it.”

Complex Seeing and the Mature Plays

• In The Good Woman of Setzuan, Brecht achieves “complex seeing,” using dramatic methods to demonstrate the moral dilemmas individuals face in a corrupt society, without imposing any final resolution. Characters like Shen Te embody the struggle between individual morality and societal pressures.

“Goodness turns into its opposite, and then back again, and then both co-exist, for the dilemma is beyond individual solution.”

Mother Courage and Historical Action

• Williams praises Mother Courage for bringing dynamic, historically-rooted action back into the theatre. He describes the play as a blend of action and critical observation, with characters whose contradictions drive the narrative.
• The play avoids simplistic moral judgment, instead portraying the tragic consequences of survival in a world dominated by blind power.

“What else can be done, here, where blind power is loose, but to submit, to chisel, to try to stay safe? And by doing these things…a family is destroyed.”

Galileo and the Crisis of Consciousness

• In Galileo, Brecht explores the crisis of consciousness, focusing on the conflict between personal integrity and social responsibility. The play examines how false consciousness, influenced by external pressures, leads to moral failure.
• Williams highlights how Brecht’s Marxist perspective enriches the intellectual depth of the play, showing the scientist’s betrayal not as a personal failing but as a structural consequence of societal pressures.

“It is not that as an individual he is a hypocrite; it is that under these real pressures he embodies both a true consciousness and a false consciousness.”

Brecht’s Lasting Contribution to Drama

• Brecht’s greatest contribution, according to Williams, was his reintegration of the analytic techniques of expressionism with the dynamic historical action of humanist drama.
• His mature works, especially Mother Courage and Galileo, broke the static tendencies of both naturalism and expressionism, offering a sense of movement and possibility within human history.

“Brecht, at his best, reaches out to and touches the necessary next stage: that this is how it is, for this reason, but the action is continually being replayed, and it could be otherwise.”

1. Epic Theatre and its Departure from Traditional Theatre

• Theory Contribution: Epic Theatre is a foundational concept in Brecht’s work, introduced by Raymond Williams in this essay as a major break from Aristotelian drama, which focused on catharsis and emotional identification with characters. Instead, Brecht’s epic theatre fosters a critical distance, pushing the audience toward rational engagement and social critique.
• Reference: Williams states, “Brecht developed the epic theatre, centered not on identification but on alienation… this complex seeing was enforced: in his ‘epic style’ and in distancing effects that pushed the spectator into ‘the attitude of one who smokes at ease and watches.’”
• Theoretical Impact: Epic theatre has influenced Postmodern and Marxist literary theory, which emphasize the role of literature and theatre in deconstructing societal norms rather than merely reflecting them.

2. Alienation Effect and Political Awareness

• Theory Contribution: The Alienation Effect (Verfremdungseffekt) is a technique Brecht used to disrupt the audience’s emotional connection to characters, forcing them to reflect on the social and political conditions portrayed. This is essential for theories that focus on reader/viewer response, particularly in Reader-Response Theory and Marxist Criticism.
• Reference: “He certainly considered that he had written the play in such a way that this complex seeing was enforced… distancing effects that pushed the spectator into ‘the attitude of one who smokes at ease and watches.'”
• Theoretical Impact: This concept has contributed to the development of Reader-Response Theory, which considers the reader’s role in constructing meaning and emphasizes active engagement with the text.

3. Critique of Naturalism and Moral Complication

• Theory Contribution: Williams critiques Naturalism, a dominant style in 19th-century theatre, for focusing too much on individual morality within limited, bourgeois frameworks. Instead, Brecht’s approach widened moral questions to include broader social and political contexts, which aligns with Marxist Criticism.
• Reference: Williams observes, “Brecht looked in a different direction. He saw the destructive forces as parts of a false social consciousness… sympathy was the last thing wanted. We must be shocked into seeing the real situation.”
• Theoretical Impact: This rejection of naturalism supports Marxist Theory, which asserts that literature should critique socio-economic structures rather than simply reflect individual experiences.

4. Complex Seeing and Dialectical Thought

• Theory Contribution: Complex Seeing, a term used by Brecht and elaborated on by Williams, refers to the way Brecht’s plays present multiple perspectives and contradictions. This method fosters a dialectical approach to narrative and character, aligning with Dialectical Materialism and Critical Theory.
• Reference: “This is ‘complex seeing’ integrated in depth with the dramatic form… there is no imposed resolution—the tension is there to the end, and we are formally invited to consider it.”
• Theoretical Impact: This concept relates to Dialectical Materialism as proposed by Marxist theory, which suggests that contradictions within a society or text can lead to critical awareness and social change.

5. Social Criticism and Marxism in Theatre

• Theory Contribution: Williams highlights Brecht’s work as a vehicle for Social Criticism within the context of Marxist Theory. Brecht’s plays are seen as tools for exposing the contradictions of capitalist societies and encouraging revolutionary thought.
• Reference: “Brecht thought he had seen through these things himself—the society was false and the moralizing hypocritical—but he already realized that at this point you have really seen nothing.”
• Theoretical Impact: This approach directly supports Marxist Literary Criticism, which views literature as a means of challenging capitalist ideology and revealing class struggle.

6. Didactic Theatre and Revolutionary Morality

• Theory Contribution: Williams emphasizes Brecht’s later shift to Didactic Theatre, which he describes as a tool to teach and promote revolutionary morality. This aligns with Political Theatre and Marxist Didacticism.
• Reference: “At the end of the 1920s Brecht turned consciously to a didactic theatre and to Marxism… Escaping the cynical paradoxes of the Threepenny Opera, Brecht had also left behind the idea of ‘complex seeing.’”
• Theoretical Impact: Didactic theatre’s goal of educating the audience about social injustice aligns with Political Literary Theory, which argues that literature and theatre should serve as agents of social change.