Scene 4 Summary

Mother Courage's cart has been vandalized, and she has come to the Catholic officer's tent to complain. His clerk warns her to keep quiet, saying they know she was hiding the Lutheran's paymaster. She's determined to complain, anyway.

However, a young soldier comes in to make a complaint. He brags that he'll cut up the captain, but Mother Courage recognizes that he's all bravado. She tells him it doesn't do any good to complain, if his anger isn't big enough. She sings "The Song of the Great Capitulation." The young soldier staggers off, and Mother Courage exits having realized her anger isn't big enough.

Scene 4 Analysis

By counseling the young soldier to resign himself to war, even though she agrees his complaint is just, Mother Courage reinforces her own resignation. She learns from the young soldier that it will be hopeless to expect...