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The Other Brecht II / Der andere Brecht II 
provides her characters the attainment of selfhood through 
subjectivity. And even though Mae fails to break through the 
seemingly impenetrable barrier that "mathematicsr or "medi- 
cine" represent, the freedom suggested by the door to the open 
blue sky represents the potential to an open future, and in 
projecting a glimmer of that freedom, Fornes attempts to shape 
the potential outcome of Mae's struggle for selfhood in a simi- 
lar manner to that found in Brecht's social plays. 
    The gestic quality of the language in Mud derives from 
Mae's attempts to find selfhood through discourse. She is one 
of the many characters in Fornes' plays whose essence is re- 
vealed through the desire to be initiated, to be taught about 
the "conduct of life." The conduct of life does not, however, as
in Brecht's plays have to do with an understanding of the 
inequities of a capitalist economy which make it difficult to 
become a "good person" but rather with the understanding of 
one's subjectivity, the expressive desire of the soul. Written 
texts represent Mae's desire for expression beyond the typical 
exchanges with Lloyd, "Fuck you, Mae. Fuck you, Lloyd" (18). 
When Henry enters their lives, Mae experiences a longing for 
beauty that differs from her original initiation into the lan- 
guage of "arithmetic" as "numbers" or "multiplication."
Mae 
from the beginning understands that language has a power 
that will prevent one from dying "in the mud," as she insists 
that she will die in a hospital, "in white sheets," with "clean
feet" and with "injections" (19). However, until she listens
to 
Henry saying grace, Mae has been incapable of addressing her 
subjectivity. The emotive power of the words of grace, "for he 
satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with good- 
ness," feeds Mae's hunger, her craving for beauty. She says, "I
am a hungry soul. I am a longing soul. I am an empty soul," as 
the discourse of spirituality addresses her soul "so lovingly"
(27). 
    For Mae language has to do with learning things that will 
make her "feel joyful" and allow her access to her own subjec-
tivity. She says that she cannot "retain" words since she has no
"memory," nor enough knowledge "to pass the test" (26).
How- 
ever, she rejoices when she feels grace in her heart, and as she 
reads from her textbook with difficulty following the written 
words with the fingers of both hands, her reading is "inspired."
The gestic quality of Mae's clumsiness in coming to learn to 
read allows the spectator "to feel the physical process by which 
she tries to transform her world.""9 Though the passage she 
reads resembles the language of a biology textbook, Mae 
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