When we look at the story of The Good Wives of Setzuan, written by Bertolt Brecht, it is not easy to say if it is a tragedy or comedy. Although the play has many comedic elements, the overall storyline is quite sad and most of the characters end up worse off than they were at the start of the play; although the elements of comedy that Brecht chooses to include are an essential part of the play. Each comedy play serves a specific function to broaden the understanding of the play's message. By effect of alienation, “Brecht wishes to make his productions truculently didactic” (Silcox). Brecht believes that when an audience watched a play, they were too complacent and did not absorb the true meaning of the play. This is why he created the genre of epic theater. Brecht attempts to alienate the audience through the use of stage directions, the element of surprise and the use of song. This generally works although there are cases where this technique fails. Reading Brecht's stage directions is almost as entertaining as reading the play itself. They are specific and often humorous. This is, however, an element of comedy that will only be apparent to the person reading the script, as opposed to the usual multimedia elements used to alienate the audience. Not always, but frequently, the reader of a Brecht play is someone who has read other plays and is familiar with the typical settings. These typical stage directions usually consist of "turning on a chair" (Wilder 69) and "returning to his bench" (Shaffer 68), while as in The Good Woman of Setzuan, they can be long paragraphs and are often sarcastic . For example, Brecht gives stage directions to Yang Sung sa...... middle of paper ......ay. Rarely do they retaliate against him and the audience becomes so detached from the play that they no longer want to be there. When this is not the case, comedy is a very useful tool for alienating the audience and ultimately getting an important message across.Works CitedArts Online. Ministry of Education, nd Web. February 26, 2014. Brecht, Bertolt. The Good Wife of Setzuan. Trans. Eric Bently. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print “Brecht and Artaud.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT, nd Web. February 26. 2014. Moore, Andrew. “Study Bertolt Brecht.” Universal teacher: n. page. Print.Shaffer, Peter. Equus. New York: Scribner, 2002. Print. Silcox, Heidi. "What's wrong with alienation?" » John Hopkins University Press: n. page. PrintWilder, Thorton. The matchmaker. Toronto: Samuel French, 1985. Print.