Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Good Woman of Setzuan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Pursuit of Goodness
Greed, Capitalism, and Corruption
Women and Dual Identities
Humanity vs. The Divine
Summary
Analysis
In Wong’s sewer pipe, Wong dreams of the gods yet again. The gods seem tired from their travels. Wong tells the gods that he’s been having a bad dream about Shen Te. In the dream, Shen Te is always down by the river in a spot where “the bodies of suicides” often wash up. Shen Te is staggering as she tries to carry something along the muddy bank. When Wong calls out to her, Shen Te declares she must get the gods’ Book of Rules to the other side of the river without getting it wet. Wong asks the gods for “a little relaxation of the rules […] in view of the bad times.” The gods reply that their intervention would only create more problems—the rules, they say wearily, must stand.
Wong’s dreams indicate to him very clearly that Shen Te is suffering as she struggles to uphold the mantle of goodness which the gods have thrust upon her. Their rules are too much for her to bear—yet the gods are not open to bending or changing them so that Shen Te can stop buckling under their pressure. The gods seem determined to learn more about humanity while remaining as removed as possible from humans and doing as little as they can to actually change or better human society.
Themes
