The Good Person of Szechwan is a play written by the Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau. The play is a parable set in the Chinese "city of Sichuan". The play follows a young prostitute, Shen Te, as she struggles to lead a life that is "good" according to the terms of the morality taught by the gods and to which her fellow citizens of Szechwan pay no regard, without allowing herself to be abused and trod upon by those who would accept and, more often than not, abuse her goodness. Her neighbors and friends prove so brutal in their filling of their bellies that Shen Te is forced to invent an alter ego to protect herself: a male cousin named Shui Ta, who becomes a cold and stern protector of Shen Te's interests.