Reading Order
The Caucasian Chalk Circle Reading Order
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1948) by Bertolt Brecht is the most epic of the Brecht plays in formal terms — a frame story (two Soviet collective farms arguing over the ownership of a valley after the Second World War), followed by the story of Grusha the kitchen maid (who rescues the governor's abandoned baby during a revolution and carries it through the mountains), followed by the story of the rogue judge Azdak (who runs a people's court for two years during a period of revolutionary disorder), and finally by the chalk circle test in which Azdak uses the ancient story to determine the baby's true mother. The play is Brecht's most explicitly utopian work: where Mother Courage and The Good Woman of Setzuan end in catastrophe and irresolution, The Caucasian Chalk Circle ends with the chalk circle test showing that the mother who loves is more truly the mother than the mother who bore, and with the valley being granted to the collective that can make the best use of it. Brecht based the play on a Chinese play, 'The Chalk Circle' (c. 14th century), and on the biblical story of Solomon's judgment.
Where to start
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1948) — in Eric Bentley's translation. Best Brecht reading order: The Threepenny Opera → Mother Courage → The Good Woman of Setzuan → The Caucasian Chalk Circle → Life of Galileo
Complete The Caucasian Chalk Circle Book List
- 1Buy
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Bertolt Brecht·1948·Brecht's most epic play — Grusha, Azdak, the chalk circle, and the question of the true mother. Brecht's most explicitly utopian work; where Mother Courage and The Good Woman end in catastrophe and irresolution, The Caucasian Chalk Circle ends with a kind of imperfect justice. First produced at Carleton College, Minnesota, in 1948 - 2Buy
Mother Courage and Her Children
Bertolt Brecht·1941·The companion — Mother Courage, the cart, and the Thirty Years War. The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Mother Courage are companion investigations of the woman in wartime: Courage exploits the war commercially and loses her children; Grusha flees the war with a baby that isn't hers and saves it. The contrast between the two women is Brecht's most explicit statement of what virtue looks like against the backdrop of the same catastrophe - 3Buy
The Good Woman of Setzuan
Bertolt Brecht·1943·The companion parable play — Shen Te, the three gods, and the impossible demand of goodness. Companion Brecht parable plays: The Good Woman ends without resolution (goodness is impossible in the system); The Caucasian Chalk Circle ends with a kind of resolution (justice is possible, at least in the court of Azdak) - 4Buy
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo·1862·Hugo's companion in the literary tradition of the investigation of justice, mercy, and the relationship between the law and genuine human welfare — Jean Valjean, Javert, and the question of what justice actually requires. The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Les Misérables are companion investigations of the relationship between the letter of the law and the spirit of justice: Azdak's court and Javert's pursuit are both organized around the gap between what the law says and what justice requires - 5Buy
King Solomon and the Wise Woman
Various·1000·The biblical source and companion — Solomon's judgment between the two women who claim the same baby. The Chalk Circle test is Brecht's version of the Solomon judgment: both are organized around the paradox that the true mother is the one who is willing to give the child up rather than see it divided, but where Solomon's judgment is about biological maternity, Brecht's is about social maternity — the one who has loved and cared for the child - 6Buy
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck·1939·Steinbeck's companion in the literary tradition of the investigation of the dispossessed in flight — the Joad family's migration to California. The Grapes of Wrath and The Caucasian Chalk Circle are companion investigations of the woman in flight: Grusha carrying the baby through the mountains; Ma Joad holding the family together across the desert. Both are organized around the question of what endures in the human spirit when everything else is taken away - 7Buy
Life of Galileo
Bertolt Brecht·1943·The companion Brecht play about the relationship between knowledge, principle, and power. The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Life of Galileo are companion Brecht plays at opposite ends of his moral spectrum: Galileo's recantation is the failure of principle under pressure; Grusha's rescue of the baby is the persistence of principle against all practical considerations - 8Buy
Antigone
Sophocles·441·Sophocles's companion in the theatrical tradition of the woman who does what she knows is right in the face of power's demand that she do otherwise — Antigone burying Polynices. Antigone and Grusha are companion figures in the theatrical tradition of the woman whose goodness puts her in conflict with the authority of the state, and both pay for their goodness at the hands of the men who hold power
The Caucasian Chalk Circle — Frequently Asked Questions
What is the chalk circle test in The Caucasian Chalk Circle?
The chalk circle test is the central theatrical image of Brecht's play and his version of the Solomon judgment. In the play's final section, the rogue judge Azdak must determine which of two women is the true mother of the governor's baby: the governor's wife Natella Abashwili (the biological mother, who abandoned the baby during the revolution) or Grusha (the kitchen maid who rescued the baby and has raised it for two years). Azdak draws a chalk circle on the ground, places the baby in the center, and asks both women to grab the baby's hand and pull: the one who is the true mother will be able to pull the baby to her. Natella Abashwili pulls; Grusha lets go, because she cannot bring herself to hurt the child she loves. Azdak awards the child to Grusha: 'I declare the child's mother to be... Grusha Vachnadze. The child, which she has raised and which she refused to tear apart in the contest, is to belong to her.' The test is Brecht's demonstration of his central claim: that the mother who loves is more truly the mother than the mother who bore. The chalk circle test is also an image of Brecht's socialist argument: ownership belongs not to the one who has legal title but to the one who has made productive use of it — the same argument made in the frame story about the valley, which is awarded to the collective farm that can make it flourish rather than the one that can claim historical possession.
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