How we cite our quotes: (Scene, Line numbers)
Quote #7
MOTHER COURAGE: Oh I see, you're hungry. Last year that general of yours ordered you all off roads and across fields so corn should be trampled flat; I could've got ten florins for a pair of boots s'pose I'd had boots and s'pose anyone'd been able to pay ten florins. Thought he'd be well away from that area this year, he did, but here he is, still there, and hunger is great. I see what you're angry about. (IV, 50-56)
Even when Mother Courage knows to play by the rules, she can still acknowledge them as absurd. She sees right through the young soldier's complaint in Scene IV, recognizing the real source of his anger. The orders he follows are not for his own good, or maybe even for anyone's good.
Quote #8
MOTHER COURAGE: He's sitting now. See, what did I say? You're sitting now. Ah, how well they know us, no one need tell 'em how to go about it. Sit down! And, bingo, we're sitting. And sitting and sedition don't mix. Don't try to stand up, you won't stand the way you was standing before. (IV, 85-88)
She's really on his case here. Mother Courage is determined to show the young soldier that he's still following all the rules even when he thinks he's rebelling. She thinks his anger is trivial, because he can't see beyond his own particular case in order to grasp the systemic problem.
Quote #9
MOTHER COURAGE: Then I heard a tit
Chirp: Wait a bit!
And you'll be marching with the band
In step, responding to command
And striking up your little dance:
Now we advance.
And now: parade, form square!
Then men swear God's there—
Not the faintest chance! (IV, 94-110)
Mother Courage's song suggests a time in her life when she had to learn that life is about playing by the rules. That time was clearly the onset of the war. And as for her belief in God, her song poses the following question: if everyone is already following the rules established by warfare, does God still need to exist?