Women and Dual Identities Theme Analysis

In The Good Woman of Setzuan, Shen Te—the titular “good woman”—is dismayed to find that her neighbors, her friends, and even her lover refuse to listen to her, heed her wishes, or repay the many kindnesses she does for each of them. In order to preserve her “goodness” while accomplishing the difficult things she needs to do to survive in a capitalistic society, Shen Te creates an alter ego: her “cousin,” Shui Ta. Shui Ta is imposing, practical, and unapologetic where Shen Te is meek and self-denying. Though Shen Te hates “being” Shui Ta, she knows that she needs her “bad cousin” in order to survive. Through the dual character of Shen Te and Shui Ta, Brecht argues that in a world where women’s voices are ignored and their agency is denied, women must create dual identities to make themselves heard. Brecht metaphorically uses Shui Ta to show the extremes to which women must go in order to accomplish the things they need to. As such, he ultimately suggests that while not every woman creates an alter ego as different or as masculine as Shui Ta, all women must engage in some measure of the artifice, self-denial, and masquerade that goes into creating another identity at some point in their lives.

In The Good Woman of Setzuan, Brecht portrays Shen Te as a woman so frustrated with the social obligation to be good (which her femininity has thrust upon her) that she creates another person—a man—whose life she can inhabit in order to escape her own. While Brecht doesn’t suggest that all women must do what Shen Te does in order to get by, he does use her story as a metaphor for the ways in which society underestimates and overburdens women—and the great lengths to which all women, at one point or another in their personal or professional lives, must go in order to simply make their voices heard. Shen Te “creates” Shui Ta early on in the play when Mrs. Mi Tzu, the landlady of the humble tobacco shop Shen Te wishes to rent, demands a series of male references. Shen Te claims that a cousin of hers who lives far away can act as a reference. When Mrs. Mi Tzu demands to meet Shui Ta, Shen Te disguises herself as the imposing cousin and he (Shen Te disguised as Shui Ta) “arrives” at the shop one morning to kick out the family who has been squatting there, to negotiate with a nasty and greedy carpenter who has been trying to extort money from Shen Te, and to get Mrs. Mi Tzu off Shen Te’s back. Shui Ta is a helpful presence at first—he is able to say things that Shen Te would feel uncomfortable saying and that she wouldn’t be taken seriously for demanding even if she managed to get the words out. As Shen Te comes to rely on Shui Ta more and more often, however, she begins “trampling down […] others” in pursuit of the greater good a bit too heavily. Shui Ta makes financial deals on Shen Te’s behalf, seeks out information about her disloyal lover Yang Sun for her, and transforms the humble tobacco shop into a massive factory operated out of the cabins behind the property of Shu Fu (a local barber). Then, when Shen Te realizes she is pregnant out of wedlock by the scoundrel Yang Sun, she begins living full-time as Shui Ta to hide her shame from her fellow villagers. When Shen Te gains weight from the pregnancy, Shen Te knows the villagers will attribute Shui Ta’s new heft to the wealth and comfort that comes from his successful enterprise.

Throughout all of Shui Ta’s exploits, Brecht focuses on how Shen Te uses Shui Ta to perform financial negotiations; have difficult conversations with other men; and consolidate property, wealth, and social capital. Brecht uses Shen Te’s story as a metaphor to show how society bars women from participating in certain spheres of life—or how, even when society begrudgingly allows women into traditionally male professions and spaces, others fail to take them seriously or compensate them fairly. As Shen Te begins relying on the presence of Shui Ta more and more often (with only Mrs. Shin, the previous owner of the tobacco shop, as a confidant), she realizes that she is creating an increasingly difficult situation for herself. Yet Shen Te is unable or unwilling to relinquish the sense of social dominance that the Shui Ta persona enables her to feel for the first time in her life. Shen Te both loathes and envies Shui Ta—even as she recognizes that he has become an inextricable part of herself. Brecht also suggests that Shen Te creates Shui Ta to do the “bad” things she must do to get by—for much of the play, he frames Shui Ta as a necessary evil, a tool through which Shen Te can accomplish things that are forbidden to women. At a certain point, however, Shui Ta becomes a way for Shen Te to unleash her inner frustrations and the “bad” parts of her own personality. In other words, Shui Ta is not just a vessel for the deeds Shen Te is afraid to do as a woman, but for the things she is afraid to say or feel as herself.

Ultimately, as Shen Te’s journey unfolds, Brecht expresses empathy for the unfair pressures that the play’s corrupt, sexist society piles upon women. Shen Te’s entire story can be viewed as a metaphor for these pressures: after a group of authorities charge a woman with the dual task of being good while making something of herself, she is left to crumble under these demands until she creates a version of herself who can handle the contradictory directives thrust upon her. In the end, Brecht suggests that all women must contend with a similar struggle at some point in their lives—and he doesn’t fault them for creating dual identities which allow them to cope.