Theater: Ideas in Motion

GALILEO by Bertolt Brecht

As the eye of greed seals the fate of Mother Courage, the lens of the telescope determines the destiny of Galileo. Apart from Socrates' drinking the hemlock, the most vivid martyrdom of truth in the memory of civilized Western man is Galileo's recantation before the Italian Inquisition. The difference between the two is that Socrates could have fled from Athens and refused to do so, and Galileo could have refused to recant but chose to do so. Out of Galileo's dilemma and choice, Brecht fashioned a play of high moral...

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