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Swiss Cheese
Kattrin is Mother Courage’s only daughter and Eilif and Swiss Cheese’s half-sister. She is mute: she only communicates through gestures, actions, and grunts, so the audience must guess at her intentions by interpreting a combination of her behavior and Mother Courage’s comments about her. Nevertheless, Kattrin keenly observes everything that happens around her and arguably turns out to be the most insightful and ethical character in the whole play by the end. Specifically, she gives the play its haunting, bombastic climax when she beats on a drum to warn the people of Halle that the Catholic army is coming to massacre them—and sacrifices her life in the process. This echoes an earlier scene in which she rushed into a besieged peasant family’s farmhouse to save a baby, and it shows that her overriding concern is her desire to save innocent people (especially children) from the trauma of the war. This makes sense in light of Mother Courage’s comment that Kattrin’s muteness began when a soldier traumatized her (probably by sexually assaulting her) when she was a child. At the same time, Kattrin clearly dreams of escaping the war, living a free and ordinary life, and, above all, falling in love. (She expresses this dream in part by strutting around in Yvette Pottier’s red boots.) In fact, Mother Courage declares that Kattrin’s greatest aspiration is to get married after the war ends. Yet this also becomes all but impossible after soldiers attack her in the sixth scene, leaving her with a disfiguring facial scar. Kattrin thus represents war’s horrifying toll on the innocent. Of course, her final, fateful warning about the horrors to come is really intended for a different audience altogether: the people of Europe in 1939.
Kattrin Quotes in Mother Courage and Her Children
The Mother Courage and Her Children quotes below are all either spoken by Kattrin or refer to Kattrin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Scene 1 Quotes
Well, there’s yours, Eilif, my boy! (As EILIF takes the slip, she snatches it and holds it up.) See? A cross!
[…]
Take yours, Swiss Cheese. You should be a better bet—you’re my good boy. (SWISS CHEESE draws.) Don’t tell me it’s a cross? Is there no saving you either? Just look, Sergeant—a black cross!
[…]
(to KATTRIN) Now all I have left is you. You’re a cross in yourself but you have a kind heart. (She holds the helmet up but takes the slip herself.) Oh dear, there must be some mistake! Don’t be too kind, Kattrin, don’t be too kind—there’s a black cross in your path! So now you all know: be careful! Be very careful! (MOTHER COURAGE climbs on her wagon preparing to leave.)
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Scene 3 Quotes
MOTHER COURAGE. I must get you two something to drink, or you’ll be making improper advances out of sheer boredom.
CHAPLAIN. That is indeed a temptation—said the Court Chaplain as he gave way to it. And who is this captivating young person?
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YVETTE (re-enters, pale). You’ve done it—with your haggling. You can keep your wagon now. He got eleven bullets in him. I don’t know why I still bother about you, you don’t deserve it, but I just happened to hear they don’t think the cash-box is really in the river. They think it’s here. And they think you were in with him.
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Scene 6 Quotes
She’s finished. How would she ever get a husband now? And she’s crazy for children. Even her dumbness comes from the war. A soldier stuck something in her mouth when she was little. I’ll never see Swiss Cheese again, and where my Eilif is the Good Lord knows. Curse the war!
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Scene 9 Quotes
MOTHER COURAGE. Kattrin! Where do you think you’re going? (She examines the bundle.) Ah! So you were listening ? I told him: nothing doing—he can have his lousy inn. (Now she sees the skirt and pants.) Oh, you stupid girl! Now what if I’d seen that, and you’d been gone! (KATTRIN tries to leave. Her mother holds her.) And don’t imagine I sent him packing on your account. It was the wagon. They can’t part me from my wagon. Now we’ll put the cook’s things here where he’ll find ’em, that silly man. You and I are leaving. (She climbs upon the wagon and throws the rest of the COOK’s few things down on to the pants.) There! He’s fired! The last man I’ll ever take into this business! Get into harness, Kattrin. This winter will pass like all the others.
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Scene 11 Quotes
LIEUTENANT (pointing to the wagon on which KATTRIN has appeared). There’s another. (A SOLDIER pulls her out.) Is this everybody?
OLD PEASANT. That’s our son.
PEASANT WOMAN. And that’s a girl that can’t talk. Her mother’s in town buying up stocks because the shopkeepers are running away and selling cheap.
OLD PEASANT. They’re canteen people.
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(KATTRIN, unperceived, has crept off to the wagon, has taken something out of it, put it under her skirt, and has climbed up the ladder to the roof.)
PEASANT WOMAN. Be mindful of the children in danger, especially the little ones, be mindful of the old folk who cannot move, and of all Christian souls, O Lord.
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(The soldiers arrive with the gun.)
LIEUTENANT. Set it up! (Calling while the gun is set up on forks:) Once and for all, stop that drumming! (Still crying, KATTRIN is drumming as hard as she can.) Fire!
(The soldiers fire. KATTRIN is hit. She gives the drum another feeble beat or two, then collapses.)
LIEUTENANT. So that ends the noise.
(But the last beats of the drum are lost in the din of cannon from the town. Mingled with the thunder of cannon, alarm-bells are heard in the distance.)
FIRST SOLDIER. She made it.
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Scene 12 Quotes
LULLAY, LULLAY, WHAT’S THAT IN THE HAY?
THE NEIGHBOR’S KIDS CRY BUT MINE ARE GAY.
THE NEIGHBOR’S KIDS ARE DRESSED IN DIRT:
YOUR SILKS WERE CUT FROM AN ANGEL’S SKIRT.
THEY ARE ALL STARVING. YOU HAVE A CAKE
IF IT’S TOO STALE, YOU NEED BUT SPEAK.
LULLAY, LULLAY, WHAT’S RUSTLING THERE?
ONE LAD FELL IN POLAND. THE OTHER IS—WHERE?
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Kattrin Character Timeline in Mother Courage and Her Children
The timeline below shows where the character Kattrin appears in Mother Courage and Her Children. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
Mother Courage sits on her wagon with her daughter Kattrin while her sons Eilif and Swiss Cheese pull it. She sings “The Song Of Mother...
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Scene 1
Mother Courage and her children (Kattrin, Eilif, and Swiss Cheese) approach on their wagon. The soldiers demand to see the family’s...
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...wagon to sell him the belt, the Recruiting Officer grabs Eilif and leads him away. Kattrin makes disapproving noises. Mother Courage returns to the front of her wagon, notices that Eilif...
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Scene 3
The stage directions explain that three years have passed; Mother Courage, Swiss Cheese, and Kattrin will become prisoners of war and Swiss Cheese will soon die. In this scene, Mother...
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...found him. After finishing the song, she hides behind the wagon. Next, Mother Courage tells Kattrin not to fall for a military man because they charm people and then enslave them...
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...going to do exactly that, and then he asks Mother Courage about her “captivating” daughter Kattrin. Mother Courage calls Kattrin “respectable,” not “captivating,” then takes the Cook and Chaplain behind the...
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...decides to stay, and a soldier tries and fails to wheel away the cannon. When Kattrin arrives wearing Yvette’s hat and boots, Mother Courage compares her to a sex worker and...
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Mother Courage, Swiss Cheese, Kattrin, and the Chaplain spend three days anxiously waiting out the battle. The scene picks up...
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...cashbox near the river so that he can eventually bring it back to his sergeant. Kattrin goes behind the wagon, where two soldiers (the Sergeant and One Eye) confront her, asking...
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Yvette leaves again, and Mother Courage and Kattrin clean knives for a few minutes. Then, Yvette returns to explain that One Eye will...
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Mother Courage holds Kattrin’s hand, and surely enough, the soldiers show up with Swiss Cheese’s body on a stretcher....
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Scene 5
After following the war across Europe for two more years, Mother Courage and Kattrin end up in a ruined Bavarian town. Catholic soldiers are doing a victory march in...
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...from the same house. He has been shot, but Mother Courage’s response is the same. Kattrin threatens to hit Mother Courage with a board, and then the Chaplain finds the shirts...
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Scene 6
...1632, Mother Courage will speak about heroism, the Chaplain will sing about the war, and Kattrin will get her red boots. This scene takes place in the canteen tent, with the...
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...will “always find a way.” Mother Courage announces that she will buy more supplies. When Kattrin drops a basket full of glasses and runs away, Mother Courage explains that she promised...
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Kattrin returns, but she has a wound near her eye and is dropping all the merchandise...
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A cannon blast marks the General’s burial. Mother Courage remarks that nobody will marry Kattrin now, with her scar. She reveals that Kattrin hasn’t spoken since a soldier traumatized her...
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Scene 7
Kattrin and the Chaplain pull the wagon, which is filthy and falling apart but full of...
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Scene 8
...way. The Chaplain leaves to go put on his pastor’s robes, and Mother Courage tells Kattrin to give the Cook some brandy, but she does nothing and refuses to leave the...
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...but the soldiers won’t let him have any. He tells the Chaplain not to tell Kattrin, and to tell Mother Courage that he’s just the same as before. The Chaplain follows...
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...She asks whether the Cook will take over for the Chaplain and accompany her and Kattrin, and he agrees and gets in the harness to pull the wagon. They take off,...
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Scene 9
...Mother Courage to go run the inn with him, and she proposes the idea to Kattrin. But the Cook quietly tells Mother Courage that Kattrin can’t come—there’s no space for her...
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...down to them, offering them soup. But the Cook again tells Mother Courage to leave Kattrin behind, and she agrees. She goes inside, but quickly returns with soup for Kattrin—only to...
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Scene 10
Mother Courage and Kattrin pull their wagon up to a well-to-do farmhouse. A voice sings inside, and they stop...
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Scene 11
When Catholics attack the Protestant city of Halle in 1636, the stage directions explain, Kattrin will die, Mother Courage will go on alone, and the war still will not end....
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Terrified, the peasants realize they can’t do anything except pray. They beg Kattrin to join them. They all kneel, and the Old Peasant Woman asks God to wake...
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The Lieutenant runs back, threatens to kill the farmers, and demands that Kattrin throw him the drum. But she keeps drumming. A soldier offers to spare Mother Courage,...
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Kattrin starts to laugh as she drums louder and louder. The Lieutenant demands a musket, and...
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The Young Peasant finally switches sides and tells Kattrin to keep drumming. In response, the Lieutenant stabs and kills him. Kattrin starts to cry,...
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Scene 12
Later that night, with the army in the distance, Mother Courage sits with Kattrin’s body near their wagon. The Old Peasant and Old Peasant Woman advise Mother Courage to...
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Mother Courage blames the peasants for what happened to Kattrin, because they mentioned their grandchildren. But the peasants blame Mother Courage for going to town...
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...that at least her son Eilif is alive. The Old Peasant Woman promises to bury Kattrin, and Mother Courage gives them some money to do it. She gets in the harness...
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