Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* InventedIndividual: One of Shen Te's acquaintances advises her to claim that her shop is actually owned by a male cousin, whom she can blame for unpopular decisions and unpaid bills. As her troubles mount up, she finds it necessary for Cousin Shui Ta to make a personal appearance. She means it to be a one-off event, but problems keep coming up that Shen Te can't solve as herself, so she becomes Shui Ta more and more often. Toward the end of the play, she's spending more time as Shui Ta than as Shen Te, which leads to Shui Ta being arrested and put on trial because the neighbors believe he's keeping his cousin prisoner...
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* DeusExMachina: Subverted. At the end, when Shen Te is in trouble with no solution in sight, the three Gods return -- only to tell her that they're sure she'll think of something, and make tracks back to heaven (using an inversion of the stage effect that gives the trope its name) without doing anything to help.
* InterruptedSuicide: When Shen Te first encounters Yang Sun, he's about to hang himself because he has no money and no prospects. She talks him out of it.
* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: Shen Te receives the attentions of both Shu Fu, who is old and ugly and rich, and Yang Sun, who is young and handsome and poor. At first it seems like the story is heading in the traditional direction where the heroine picks the poor guy and they're happy because they have love, but then it turns out Yang Sun doesn't love her back and is only playing on her sympathies for his own advantage. (Meanwhile, Shu Fu seems genuine in his devotion and offers of support, but Shen Te is unwilling to accept him just for his money, and there are hints that if she got to know him more closely he wouldn't be a better man than Yang Sun.)
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
to:
* SweetPollyOliver: Shen Te disguises herself as a man, her fictional cousin Shui Ta, to avoid getting steamrollered by the people she has to deal with.
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: After Shen Te rents the building with her shop in the front and her living space in the back, a couple who let her stay with them when she first arrived in the city show up and invite themselves to stay -- along with their entire extended family -- and continue mooching off her for the rest of the play.
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: After Shen Te rents the building with her shop in the front and her living space in the back, a couple who let her stay with them when she first arrived in the city show up and invite themselves to stay -- along with their entire extended family -- and continue mooching off her for the rest of the play.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
alphabetical order
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: The Gods aren't too interested in finding a good person. They just want to get it over with so they can get home.
* TheMusical: Several songs are included in the play, including "Lied des Wasserverkäufers im Regnen"[[labelnote:translation]]"Song of the Water Seller in the Rain"[[/labelnote]] and "Lied vom achten Elefanten".[[labelnote:translation]]Song of the Eighth Elephant[[/labelnote]]
Changed line(s) 36,38 (click to see context) from:
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: The Gods aren't too interested in finding a good person. They just want to get it over with so they can get home.
* TheMusical: Several songs are included in the play, including "Lied des Wasserverkäufers im Regnen"[[labelnote:translation]]"Song of the Water Seller in the Rain"[[/labelnote]] and "Lied vom achten Elefanten".[[labelnote:translation]]Song of the Eighth Elephant[[/labelnote]]
* TheMusical: Several songs are included in the play, including "Lied des Wasserverkäufers im Regnen"[[labelnote:translation]]"Song of the Water Seller in the Rain"[[/labelnote]] and "Lied vom achten Elefanten".[[labelnote:translation]]Song of the Eighth Elephant[[/labelnote]]
to:
* TheMusical: Several songs are included in the play, including "Lied des Wasserverkäufers im Regnen"[[labelnote:translation]]"Song of the Water Seller in the Rain"[[/labelnote]] and "Lied vom achten Elefanten".[[labelnote:translation]]Song of the Eighth Elephant[[/labelnote]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 6,7 (click to see context) from:
''Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan'' (The Good Person of Sezuan) is a 1943 play by ''Creator/BertoltBrecht''. It follows the story of Shen Te, a prostitute, and Wang, a water seller, who both come from the city of Szechwan in China. One day, three [[GodInHumanForm Gods]] come to Szechwan, looking for a [[TitleDrop good person]]. However, they're not really interested in finding said good person; they just want to [[TheGodsMustBeLazy get it over with]] so they can go home. Wang greets them, and they're keen to declare him their good person, but he's having none of it. He leads them to Shen Te, who's equally reluctant to be called a good person. However, she does allow the Gods to stay the night, and in return, they give her a bag of money, and decide that she is indeed a good person.
to:
''Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan'' (The Good Person of Sezuan) is a 1943 play by ''Creator/BertoltBrecht''.Creator/BertoltBrecht. It follows the story of Shen Te, a prostitute, and Wang, a water seller, who both come from the city of Szechwan in China. One day, three [[GodInHumanForm Gods]] come to Szechwan, looking for a [[TitleDrop good person]]. However, they're not really interested in finding said good person; they just want to [[TheGodsMustBeLazy get it over with]] so they can go home. Wang greets them, and they're keen to declare him their good person, but he's having none of it. He leads them to Shen Te, who's equally reluctant to be called a good person. However, she does allow the Gods to stay the night, and in return, they give her a bag of money, and decide that she is indeed a good person.
Changed line(s) 10,11 (click to see context) from:
The play is well-known for the hidden communist propaganda it contains, with Brecht Shen Te's need to invent Shui Ta as a way of showing how impossible it is to be good in a capitalist society. Of course, this means that the play wasn't performed in Brecht's [[ThoseWackyNazis fatherland]] for some time after it had been written.
to:
The play is well-known for the hidden communist propaganda it contains, with Brecht using Shen Te's need to invent Shui Ta as a way of showing how impossible it is to be good in a capitalist society. Of course, this means that the play wasn't performed in Brecht's [[ThoseWackyNazis fatherland]] for some time after it had been written.
Changed line(s) 29 (click to see context) from:
There must, there must, there's got to be a way!"
to:
There must, there must, there's got to be a way!"way!
Changed line(s) 33 (click to see context) from:
--> ''"You can only help one of your luckless brothers/By trampling down a dozen others."''
to:
--> ''"You You can only help one of your luckless brothers/By brothers\\
By trampling down a dozen others."''
By trampling down a dozen others.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
italics for work names
Changed line(s) 6,7 (click to see context) from:
Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan (The Good Person of Sezuan) is a 1943 play by ''Creator/BertoltBrecht''. It follows the story of Shen Te, a prostitute, and Wang, a water seller, who both come from the city of Szechwan in China. One day, three [[GodInHumanForm Gods]] come to Szechwan, looking for a [[TitleDrop good person]]. However, they're not really interested in finding said good person; they just want to [[TheGodsMustBeLazy get it over with]] so they can go home. Wang greets them, and they're keen to declare him their good person, but he's having none of it. He leads them to Shen Te, who's equally reluctant to be called a good person. However, she does allow the Gods to stay the night, and in return, they give her a bag of money, and decide that she is indeed a good person.
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin and several other locals begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness -- so much so that she starts pretending to be her own non-existent cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
to:
Shen Te uses this money to but buy a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin and several other locals begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness -- so much so that she starts pretending to be her own non-existent cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin and several other locals begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness -- so much so that she starts pretending to be her own non-existant cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
to:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin and several other locals begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness -- so much so that she starts pretending to be her own non-existant non-existent cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin and several other locals begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness -- so much so that she has to adopt the guise of her fictional cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
to:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin and several other locals begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness -- so much so that she has starts pretending to adopt the guise of be her fictional own non-existant cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin, and several other locals, begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness, so much so that she has to adopt the guise of her fictional cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
to:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin, Shin and several other locals, locals begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness, kindness -- so much so that she has to adopt the guise of her fictional cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 8,11 (click to see context) from:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin, and several other locals, begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness, so much so that she has to adopt the guise of her fictional cousin, Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
The play is well-known for the hidden communist propaganda it contains, with Brecht Shen Te's need to invent Shui Ta as a way of showing how difficult it is to be good in a capitalist society. Of course, this means that the play wasn't performed in Brecht's [[ThoseWackyNazis fatherland]] for some time after it had been written.
The play is well-known for the hidden communist propaganda it contains, with Brecht Shen Te's need to invent Shui Ta as a way of showing how difficult it is to be good in a capitalist society. Of course, this means that the play wasn't performed in Brecht's [[ThoseWackyNazis fatherland]] for some time after it had been written.
to:
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin, and several other locals, begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness, so much so that she has to adopt the guise of her fictional cousin, a man named Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
The play is well-known for the hidden communist propaganda it contains, with Brecht Shen Te's need to invent Shui Ta as a way of showing howdifficult impossible it is to be good in a capitalist society. Of course, this means that the play wasn't performed in Brecht's [[ThoseWackyNazis fatherland]] for some time after it had been written.
The play is well-known for the hidden communist propaganda it contains, with Brecht Shen Te's need to invent Shui Ta as a way of showing how
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* NoEnding: The play ends abruptly, without solving any of the conflicts. [[BreakingTheFourthWall An actor steps out]], and asks the audience to find a happy ending. The message is that in this society a good person can't come to a good end; it's the responsibility of the spectator to change this.
-->It is for you to find a way, my friends,\\
To help good men arrive at happy ends.\\
You write the happy ending to the play!\\
There must, there must, there's got to be a way!"
-->It is for you to find a way, my friends,\\
To help good men arrive at happy ends.\\
You write the happy ending to the play!\\
There must, there must, there's got to be a way!"
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 24 (click to see context) from:
* MistakenForOwnMurderer: When Shen Te doesn't be herself for a long time, people start to get suspicious. They accuse Shui Ta of holding her prisoner, before accusing him of her murder.
to:
* MistakenForOwnMurderer: When Shen Te doesn't be herself remains in disguise for a long time, people start to get suspicious. They accuse Shui Ta of holding her prisoner, before accusing him of her murder.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Trivia.
Changed line(s) 32,33 (click to see context) from:
* WorkingTitle: "Die Ware Liebe",[[labelnote:translation]]"Love For Sale", literally "The Ware Love", as in the wares people sell.[[/labelnote]] a pun on "Die Wahre Liebe",[[labelnote:translation]]"True Love"[[/labelnote]] referencing that Shen Te must sell herself to make ends meet, but wishes to find true love.
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* SillyRabbitsIdealismIsForKids: As Shui Ta states pithily:
to:
* SillyRabbitsIdealismIsForKids: SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: As Shui Ta states pithily:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SillyRabbitsIdealismIsForKids: As Shui Ta states pithily:
--> ''"You can only help one of your luckless brothers/By trampling down a dozen others."''
--> ''"You can only help one of your luckless brothers/By trampling down a dozen others."''
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Kauft Tropen, ihr Hunde!
Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2c36f00ec85a5ea70c2c46ad02f688a2.jpg]]
->''Kauft Wasser, ihr Hunde! (Buy water, you dogs!)"
-->-- Wang, in "Lied des Wasserverkäufers im Regnen".
Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan (The Good Person of Sezuan) is a 1943 play by ''Creator/BertoltBrecht''. It follows the story of Shen Te, a prostitute, and Wang, a water seller, who both come from the city of Szechwan in China. One day, three [[GodInHumanForm Gods]] come to Szechwan, looking for a [[TitleDrop good person]]. However, they're not really interested in finding said good person; they just want to [[TheGodsMustBeLazy get it over with]] so they can go home. Wang greets them, and they're keen to declare him their good person, but he's having none of it. He leads them to Shen Te, who's equally reluctant to be called a good person. However, she does allow the Gods to stay the night, and in return, they give her a bag of money, and decide that she is indeed a good person.
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin, and several other locals, begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness, so much so that she has to adopt the guise of her fictional cousin, Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
The play is well-known for the hidden communist propaganda it contains, with Brecht Shen Te's need to invent Shui Ta as a way of showing how difficult it is to be good in a capitalist society. Of course, this means that the play wasn't performed in Brecht's [[ThoseWackyNazis fatherland]] for some time after it had been written.
Note that the title is often translated as "The Good Woman of Szechwan", which is not only wrong,[[labelnote:note]]That would be "Die Gute Dame/Frau von Sezuan".[[/labelnote]] but it completely ruins the ambiguity of the title.
!! ''The Good Person of Szechwan'' contains examples of:
* AmbiguousGender: The word "Mensch" (Person/Human) is intentionally used in the title to make it ambiguous as to who the good person is.
* ExactWords: Mrs Shin wasn't lying. The local miners do indeed come to the tobacco shop often. Just a shame they never buy anything.
* GodInHumanForm: The three Gods.
* GoldDigger: Sun just wants Shen Te to help him become a pilot.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Shen Te doesn't want to be a prostitute, but it's the only way for her to pay the bills.
* {{Jerkass}}: Most of the residents of Szechwan. It'd be easier to list the people who aren't this.
* LostInTranslation: The title is often translated as "The Good Woman of Szechwan", which forces the "Gute Mensch" to be Shen Te, which many would argue it isn't. See Ambiguous Gender above.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: From her time as Shui Ta, Shen Te knows that Sun is just using her for money, but when she's Shen Te, she's too lovestruck to care.
* MistakenForOwnMurderer: When Shen Te doesn't be herself for a long time, people start to get suspicious. They accuse Shui Ta of holding her prisoner, before accusing him of her murder.
* PaperThinDisguise: Shen Te's Shui Ta costume is supposed to be this.
* ReluctantHero: Both Wang and Shen Te are reluctant to be called a "good person". Depending on your interpretation, it may be for good reason.
* SplitPersonality: Shen Te's opinions on things tend to vary greatly when she's Shui Ta.
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: The Gods aren't too interested in finding a good person. They just want to get it over with so they can get home.
* TheMusical: Several songs are included in the play, including "Lied des Wasserverkäufers im Regnen"[[labelnote:translation]]"Song of the Water Seller in the Rain"[[/labelnote]] and "Lied vom achten Elefanten".[[labelnote:translation]]Song of the Eighth Elephant[[/labelnote]]
* WorkingTitle: "Die Ware Liebe",[[labelnote:translation]]"Love For Sale", literally "The Ware Love", as in the wares people sell.[[/labelnote]] a pun on "Die Wahre Liebe",[[labelnote:translation]]"True Love"[[/labelnote]] referencing that Shen Te must sell herself to make ends meet, but wishes to find true love.
----
->''Kauft Wasser, ihr Hunde! (Buy water, you dogs!)"
-->-- Wang, in "Lied des Wasserverkäufers im Regnen".
Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan (The Good Person of Sezuan) is a 1943 play by ''Creator/BertoltBrecht''. It follows the story of Shen Te, a prostitute, and Wang, a water seller, who both come from the city of Szechwan in China. One day, three [[GodInHumanForm Gods]] come to Szechwan, looking for a [[TitleDrop good person]]. However, they're not really interested in finding said good person; they just want to [[TheGodsMustBeLazy get it over with]] so they can go home. Wang greets them, and they're keen to declare him their good person, but he's having none of it. He leads them to Shen Te, who's equally reluctant to be called a good person. However, she does allow the Gods to stay the night, and in return, they give her a bag of money, and decide that she is indeed a good person.
Shen Te uses this money to but a Tobacco shop from one of the locals, Mrs Shin, on the promise that [[ExactWords "the local miners come in here all the time"]], leaving out the crucial detail that they never buy anything. Mrs Shin, and several other locals, begin taking advantage of Shen Te's kindness, so much so that she has to adopt the guise of her fictional cousin, Shui Ta, whom she becomes whenever she needs to be unkind to someone.
The play is well-known for the hidden communist propaganda it contains, with Brecht Shen Te's need to invent Shui Ta as a way of showing how difficult it is to be good in a capitalist society. Of course, this means that the play wasn't performed in Brecht's [[ThoseWackyNazis fatherland]] for some time after it had been written.
Note that the title is often translated as "The Good Woman of Szechwan", which is not only wrong,[[labelnote:note]]That would be "Die Gute Dame/Frau von Sezuan".[[/labelnote]] but it completely ruins the ambiguity of the title.
!! ''The Good Person of Szechwan'' contains examples of:
* AmbiguousGender: The word "Mensch" (Person/Human) is intentionally used in the title to make it ambiguous as to who the good person is.
* ExactWords: Mrs Shin wasn't lying. The local miners do indeed come to the tobacco shop often. Just a shame they never buy anything.
* GodInHumanForm: The three Gods.
* GoldDigger: Sun just wants Shen Te to help him become a pilot.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Shen Te doesn't want to be a prostitute, but it's the only way for her to pay the bills.
* {{Jerkass}}: Most of the residents of Szechwan. It'd be easier to list the people who aren't this.
* LostInTranslation: The title is often translated as "The Good Woman of Szechwan", which forces the "Gute Mensch" to be Shen Te, which many would argue it isn't. See Ambiguous Gender above.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: From her time as Shui Ta, Shen Te knows that Sun is just using her for money, but when she's Shen Te, she's too lovestruck to care.
* MistakenForOwnMurderer: When Shen Te doesn't be herself for a long time, people start to get suspicious. They accuse Shui Ta of holding her prisoner, before accusing him of her murder.
* PaperThinDisguise: Shen Te's Shui Ta costume is supposed to be this.
* ReluctantHero: Both Wang and Shen Te are reluctant to be called a "good person". Depending on your interpretation, it may be for good reason.
* SplitPersonality: Shen Te's opinions on things tend to vary greatly when she's Shui Ta.
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: The Gods aren't too interested in finding a good person. They just want to get it over with so they can get home.
* TheMusical: Several songs are included in the play, including "Lied des Wasserverkäufers im Regnen"[[labelnote:translation]]"Song of the Water Seller in the Rain"[[/labelnote]] and "Lied vom achten Elefanten".[[labelnote:translation]]Song of the Eighth Elephant[[/labelnote]]
* WorkingTitle: "Die Ware Liebe",[[labelnote:translation]]"Love For Sale", literally "The Ware Love", as in the wares people sell.[[/labelnote]] a pun on "Die Wahre Liebe",[[labelnote:translation]]"True Love"[[/labelnote]] referencing that Shen Te must sell herself to make ends meet, but wishes to find true love.
----
