Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to rape.

Mother Courage is the play’s titular protagonist and a complex character. As her moniker suggests, her role as a mother is central to her identity, and she is determined to keep her children alive at a dangerous time. Kattrin, especially, who has been traumatized by the war, becomes Mother Courage’s special cause. She is certain that Kattrin cannot care for herself and that no man will want to marry her, so she takes it upon herself to protect Kattrin from the dangers attending women during wartime, such as rape and assault. Despite her efforts to protect her children from the world’s ills, however, her actions also reveal a self-interested side. Her dedication and courage are both called into question when she denies knowing Swiss Cheese to save herself. Mother Courage is a paradoxical character, simultaneously brave and cowardly, devoted to her children and to self-preservation.

Mother Courage is brash, curt, and unladylike in her conversations with men—she is never deterred by their authority or intimated by their threats to shut down her business. She claims that she earned her moniker because she is unafraid to tread into combat zones and willing to take risks to earn an income.