*THE INFORMER*

The Informer is a scene from the chronicle of life under the Nazis during the middle thirties. The play is the unique comedy issuing from the tragic and oppressive conditions in fascist Germany. It is an incisive portrayal of the psychology of the schoolmaster and his wife in an atmosphere surcharged with fear, distrust and suspicion. Brecht has fully used the comic potential of a tragic situation.

It is a rainy Sunday afternoon. Karl, a school teacher, his wife and his son Klaus Heinrich have just finished their lunch. The maid informs them that Karl's friends Herr and Frau Klim btsch want to meet them. Karl asks the maid to inform them that he is not at home. His wife tells that they won't believe since it is raining and she feels that Karl himself should have attended the phone. Karl is unwilling and his wife says that he has changed a lot these days. Karl is irritated and they continue to argue, since they are not in a position to meet friends as they like. The boy is tuning the radio and his mother asks him to leave the radio. The boy then starts reading the newspaper. Suddenly Karl makes a remark that it is very difficult to live in a country where one would not even enjoy the rains. His wife asks him not to comment in such a way. For which Karl says that he has got every right to say in his own home. The maid comes in with the coffee things and after she leaves the room Karl remarks whether it is right to have a maid whose father is a Nazi.

The boy is reading a newspaper. And he enquires about the news regarding the trials of the Priest. Karl gets irritated again and says that he would stop the paper. His wife asks him not to be nervous and feels that her husband has got some problem at the school. And she gives money to her son to get something. As the husband and wife are discussing, suddenly they notice that the boy is missing. They become tensed and start searching for the boy. They doubt that the boy would be an informer of the Hitler Youth club. There is a heated argument between the husband and wife about the matter they discussed in the presence of the boy about Hitler's rule. They find fault with each other, each posing themselves as innocent and blaming the other.

Both husband and wife strongly come to a conclusion that the boy would definitely inform the Hitler Youth club that his parent's are against Hitler's rule. They think that they will take revenge upon them for being strict towards him. They regret for what they have told and have done to him. And they discuss about the arrangement to be made in case if they are caught by Hitler's army. They are anxious and worried and Karl says that his wife has borne him a Judas. Tension increases. Karl puts on his iron-cross. He grumbles that did everything at school and is submissive and polite. They he change the picture of Hitler from hall to above their desk. Again they keep it in the same place. Suddenly they hear the sound of the door opening. Husband and wife stand close together, extremely frightened, in the corner of the room. The door opens and in comes the boy, with a bag of chocolates in his hand. His mother asks him where he has been and the boy replies that he has gone out to buy chocolate. And Karl is not ready to believe and doubts whether the boy is telling the truth or not.