The role of humor in the play “Caucasian Chalk Circle” by Bertolt Brecht

Comedy, humor or joke in general is an alternative to tragedy. If the tragedy sees the world as the cradle of the invincible powers of the gods and destiny in the struggle against the elders and the favorites of society, by mocking the power, comedy helps the common and humiliated man to win in the battle held by the powers in his absence, but to determine his destiny. Wherever crying does not suffice for the tragic fate of mankind, humor accepts the responsibility by making them laugh. It is not in vain that typical theatrical emoticons are shown in the form of two smiling and crying faces. Tragedy and comedy are two contrasting but interconnected aspects that have defined the theater since the beginning of history. The protagonist of the comedy, unlike the tragedy, removes the destiny and fate-makers by trickery - and sometimes stupidity. The weapon of epic theater in this new struggle is not the ecstasy and commitment of the spectator, but rather the arousal of his consciousness and knowledge in the constant awareness of the theater stage as a theater stage and not the reconstruction of reality on stage. Epic theater looks at the spectator as a partner in discovering the reality through play and show, and therefore tragedy is attacked by humor through content and form, so that instead of fearing the fate, human thought becomes aware of its fate and ways to deal with it. In this article, we will see how the play “Caucasian Chalk Circle”, as a new theater and breaking the Aristotelian standards in the old theater, has used comic elements (humor and comedy) in its structure to be able to use features such as catharsis and Go beyond the strong Aristotelian plot and transform the play by the spectator’s awareness of his position in the modern world.