Bertolt Brecht’s “Niobes”: Example, Interruption, and Model

Abstract

This article discusses how Bertolt Brecht employed the ancient figure of Niobe as a model for several of his female characters. The examples examined here are his adaptation of Antigone, where the protagonist compares herself to Niobe, as in the classic Sophocles drama; the allusions by Polly Peachum in the Pirate Jenny song in the stage version of The Threepenny Opera; and the dialectical interaction between Mother Courage and her mute daughter Kattrin in Mother Courage and Her Children. Each such “likeness” encompasses a strong emotional involvement or empathy with the Trauer, or sorrow, of the ancient figure of Niobe, who was petrified for boasting of her many children to Leto, and whose offspring then killed all of her children. At the same time, Brecht also allows his characters to resist and even protest against their ancient female role model. On the basis of these examples, the article discusses Brecht’s modern version of the Trauerspiel, based on Walter Benjamin’s ideas; his development of the notion of the model and the model-book with Niobe as a model for the modelling process itself; and, finally, the importance of the notion of the Halt, a stop or interruption, for this modelling process. The article suggests that the close interdependence between Brecht’s oeuvre and the ideas of his close friend Walter Benjamin concerning the Trauerspiel reveals the modelling aspect of many of Brecht’s female characters as well as his multifaceted, critical approach to tragedy.