does anyone know why brecht wrote galileo?

Question

it's for class

Answer 1

cuz its how he roles. deal on it

Answer 2

To show how, throughout history, the discoverers of scientific truth have faced opposition and suppression
by those in power who fear that new truths will upset, harm or even destroy the established order - in this case, the Pope and the Catholic Church.


"Throughout history, every major advance in mankind's halting march toward knowledge has been accompanied by a crisis of faith. But with the possible exception of Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, none were more critical than at the dawn of the Age of Reason when Galileo cobbled together a telescope, trained it on the heavens and expanded our universe.

Brecht's witty and incisive play on the life of Galileo is timeless, even if it is politicians rather than scientists who are now moving the world into uncharted territory (and it is the Marxists who are facing a crisis of faith). Eve Adamson has mounted a first-rate revival of "Galileo" for the Jean Cocteau Repertory, a staging that focuses on the real drama: Galileo's own struggle with his recantation.

Brecht first wrote "Galileo" in the dark days of Nazi Germany just before World War II. After Hiroshima, which Brecht said "placed the conflict of Galileo in a new light," he rewrote it in collaboration with Charles Laughton as a vehicle for the actor, and continued to tinker with it the rest of his life. Ms. Adamson has used the Laughton version for the Cocteau, adding some of the later emendations. It is the most human portrait of a man "who cannot say no to an old wine or a new thought" and who knows that "truth is the daughter of time, not authority."

The play begins with Galileo's discovery of four of Jupiter's satellites, observations that raise the first disturbing questions. As his friend Sagredo fearfully asks him, "Where is God?" To which Galileo answers, "Within ourselves." It was the sort of response for which Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake.

By the time Galileo offers his proof that the earth circles the sun, and not the other way round, the Holy Office is hot on his case. "He cannot be tortured," the Pope admonishes the Inquisitor. "At most you can show him the instruments." But as the Inquisitor observes: "That's all it will take. Galileo understands machines."