The Good Woman of Setzuan

Someone knocks at the door of Shen Te’s shop. The wife opens the door. Shui Ta enters with the carpenter. The wife asks who Shui Ta is and he replies that he is Shen Te’s cousin. The niece and nephew are flummoxed—they thought Shen Te had made up having a cousin. The brother and nephew heckle Shui Ta, urging him to prove his identity—but Shui Ta ignores them and he calls to the rest of the family, waking up the house and ordering everyone to get dressed so that he can open the shop. The husband points out that the shop belongs to Shen Te, but Shui Ta simply shakes his head.

The sister-in-law demands to see Shen Te. Shui Ta tells her that Shen Te wishes for him to open the shop for her today. Shen Te, Shui Ta says, wants the family to hear a message: “This is a tobacco shop, not a gold mine.” The family is scandalized. Several of them go out to look for Shen Te while the young boy goes to steal breakfast for them all from a nearby bakery. Shui Ta begins tidying up the shop. The carpenter hands Shui Ta the bill for 100 silver dollars. Shui Ta laughs at the bill and offers the carpenter 20 dollars. The carpenter says the shelves are real walnut. Shui Ta replies that if that’s the case, they cost too much; he urges the carpenter to take the shelves away. The carpenter starts pulling shelves off the wall, asking the husband and his wife to help him as he does. 

While they work, Shui Ta repeats his offer of 20 silver dollars. As the husband and the wife clumsily move the shelves, the carpenter chastises them, pointing out that the shelves were custom and are “no use anywhere else.” Realizing he has caught himself in a trap, the carpenter gives up. He accepts Shui Ta’s 20 silver dollars and he leaves, embarrassed. The husband and wife rejoice. Shui Ta, however, tells them to get out—he calls them “parasites.” The husband and wife, indignant, refuse. In response, Shui Ta goes to the door and opens it. A policeman is waiting outside. The husband and wife begin to panic, knowing that if the young boy returns with the stolen breakfast tucked up under his shirt, they will all be done for. 

Shui Ta invites the policeman in. He tells the officer that as a small business owner, he feels it’s important to be on good terms with the local cops. As the policeman steps inside, the husband and wife realize that Shui Ta has set a trap for the young boy. Soon enough, the boy runs inside, his shirt bulging with stolen pastries. The policeman grabs the boy by the collar and asks if Shui Ta can “clarify” what’s going on. Shui Ta declares how sorry he is that his establishment has been wrapped up in the “theft.” The policeman orders the boy, the husband, and the wife to accompany him down to the station. 

Free of his lodgers, Shui Ta tidies up the shop. Mrs. Mi Tzu enters—she is scandalized at the sight of having seen thieves being dragged out of her property. As the landlady continues railing against Shen Te and the suspicious means by which she came to lease the shop, Shui Ta asks Mrs. Mi Tzu how much the rent will be. Mrs. Mi Tzu demands 200 silver dollars—six months’ rent in advance.

The policeman returns to offer Shui Ta his “official felicitations” for his help in catching the thieves. In spite of the officer’s good word on Shui Ta’s behalf, Mrs. Mi Tzu refuses to adjust the rent. She leaves in a huff. Seeing the predicament before him, Shui Ta admits to the policeman that Shen Te did not earn a “respectable” living until very recently. To keep Shen Te from returning to a life of sin—and to help her find a way to pay the rent—the policeman declares that it is time to find Shen Te a husband.

A little old woman enters the shop hoping to buy cigars for her husband for their fortieth anniversary. The policeman continues going on about his plan to find Shen Te a suitable match. He asks if the old woman thinks he should put an ad in the paper advertising Shen Te’s marriageability—before she can answer, he takes out a pad and pen and gets to work on the ad for a respectable man “with small capital” who wants to marry into a “flourishing” tobacco shop. The policeman hands the completed ad to Shui Ta. Shui Ta is horrified by “how much luck we [all] need to keep our heads above water,” but he thanks the policeman for making the “way clear.”