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
Back in Wong’s den, the gods appear for the last time in the water seller’s dreams. The gods look fatigued and shabby. Wong fills them in on Shen Te’s disappearance and Shui Ta’s arrest. Wong says that in another dream, Shen Te told Wong that Shui Ta was keeping her prisoner. Wong begs for the gods’ help in finding Shen Te. The gods declare that in all their travels, Shen Te was the only good person they ever found—now that she has vanished, “all is lost.” The first god decries the “misery, vulgarity, and waste” that defines human life. The third god is saddened by the fact that good deeds always harm the one performing them in the end. As the gods devolve into misery, the first god says that their only hope is to find Shen Te—the one good human they encountered in their travels.
The gods’ desperation and frustration with their mission is evident in this passage. They have failed to find anyone good except Shen Te—and for this reason, they resolve to find her no matter what. The gods are determined to leave Earth and stop involving themselves in the degenerate world of humans—Shen Te is their last hope for being able to do just that.
Themes
