The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
49 pages • 1-hour read
Bertolt BrechtThe Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
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Prologue-Scene 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui begins with a short Prologue. The Announcer takes to the stage, across which a series of newspaper headlines are displayed. The play is set in a fictionalized version of Chicago in the 1930s, and the headlines describe the way in which a power struggle between local criminals will unfold throughout the play. The Announcer speaks directly to the audience, introducing the audience to the “great historical gangster show” (4) that will entail the rise of Arturo Ui and the gangsters taking control of Cicero.
The Announcer introduces the characters. Old Dogsborough steps in front of the curtain, whereupon the Announcer warns of his black heart. The Announcer tells him to bow, he does so, then exits the stage. Next, the scammer Givola appears and limps around the stage. Next is Giri, the “superclown” (5) who is also a dangerous killer.
Finally, the Announcer welcomes Arturo Ui to the stage. He is the “gangster of gangsters” (5), the Announcer says, sent from heaven to punish people for their violent sins. The Announcer asks whether Ui reminds the audience of anyone and compares Ui to Richard III. Nothing is new or invented, the Announcer states, before exiting the stage with an air of busy self-importance. Music plays, intermixed with machine gun fire.
Scene 1 Summary
The directors of the Cauliflower Trust in Chicago are named Flake, Clark, Caruther, Butcher, and Mulberry. They meet in the Financial District to complain about the “lousy times” (6) in Chicago as of late. Groceries are being brought to the city, but no one is buying them. Clark and Mulberry agree that the cauliflower business in Chicago is finished, but Butcher encourages them to be optimistic.
Arturo Ui is in the lobby of the building. He has promised to help the Cauliflower Trust shift their rotting merchandise; his second in command, Ernesto Roma, has implied that violence and intimidation can be used to prevent the public from buying cauliflowers from anyone but the Trust. Mulberry laughs at the suggestion that they use “Tommy-guns and explosives” (7) to drive sales. Caruther wants Ui thrown out.
Flake announces that he and Butcher have been working on their own plot: They want to get a government loan to rebuild the docks, thus making it cheaper to bring in merchandise. He believes that Old Dogsborough, a respectable elderly member of the community, will help to secure the loan.
Others believe that Dogsborough will turn his back on them. Mulberry bemoans the difficult economic situation, wondering, “where do morals go in times like these?” (8). Butcher insists that Dogsborough is essential and will help them secure a loan. Clark has never liked Dogsborough, but Butcher wonders how they can convince Dogsborough to understand the matter from the perspective of the Trust. He wonders how they can “educate the man” (10).
Outside, Sheet talks to Flake. Sheet complains that the public is unwilling to spend money and many people are frightened. Nevertheless, he still does not want to sell his dockyards to the Trust at a reduced price. Flake presses Sheet to sell. Their conversation pauses as Arturo Ui walks past with Ernesto Roma and a bodyguard. Ui pauses before Flake, seemingly expecting him to say something. When Flake stays silent, Ui departs. As he leaves, Roma stares pointedly at Flake. Flake complains to Sheet that Ui has been “hounding” (11) the Trust with offers of assistance. Such criminals are everywhere in this current moment, Flake complains. They are spreading “like a flesh-eating disease” (12), using threats to extort people. Sheet sardonically agrees.
Scene 2 Summary
In Dogsborough’s tavern, Dogsborough and his son are washing beer glasses. Flake and Butcher enter and, immediately, Dogsborough warns them that he will not consider their proposal. He urges them to be optimistic, rather than try to extract funds from the city budget.
Butcher changes the subject. Twenty years have passed since Dogsborough left the Cauliflower Trust for politics. To celebrate this anniversary, Butcher says, the Trust has decided to award him the majority shares in Sheet’s dockyard for a very low price: just $20,000. Dogsborough is suspicious but Flake insists that they simply want to reward “the very model of an honest citizen” (14). Butcher encourages Dogsborough to accept the package of shares, even if only for his son’s sake.
Dogsborough hesitantly agrees, providing that there “aren’t any strings attached” (15). Flake and Butcher insist that they have given up on the idea of the loan, convincing Dogsborough that they are well-intentioned and sincere. Butcher says that Dogsborough will soon be a Cauliflower man, just like the Trust, and they shake hands.
Scene 3 Summary
Ui and Roma listen to horseracing news on the radio in the company of their bodyguards. Roma urges Ui to shrug off his “black and idle dreaming” (16); Ui is annoyed that the fickle people of Chicago are no longer talking about him. Without any recent murders, the press has gone quiet.
Ui is thinking of giving up his criminal enterprise. Roma agrees that money is tight and morale among their crew is low, as they have little to do. Roma suggests that Ui return to his idea for a “vegetable racket” (16), but Ui believes that it is too soon. Roma believes that Ui is still shaken up after being turned away by the Cauliflower Trust, as well as an incident with the police during a bank robbery.
As a start, Roma recommends that they vandalize the Trust’s stores and demand protection money to stop doing so. Ui wants protection from the “police and the judges” (17) before he can offer to protect anyone. Roma offers an alternative: A man named Givola is insistent that the Trust is “rotten” (17). The Trust secured a loan from the government with the support of Dogsborough and—though the money was to renovate the dock—they have actually used it to support their troubled businesses.
A drunk man named Ragg stumbles into the bar. Roma quizzes Ragg about the potentially corrupt loan. Ragg jokes about Dogsborough’s involvement in the scheme, then argues with a drunk woman named Dockdaisy. Ui orders his bodyguards to throw Ragg out, and Ragg scurries away, afraid. Ui is worried that Givola, one of his trusted lieutenants, may be defecting to a rival crew run by Al Capone.
Giri, another of Ui’s lieutenants, brings in a shabby-looking man named Bowl who was Sheet’s chief accountant until he was fired by Dogsborough. Bowl reveals that Dogsborough now owns Sheet’s dockyard, which he says is a “bloody scandal” (20). Ui now has proof that the supposedly honorable Dogsborough is implicated in a corruption scandal, as he was technically a part of the Cauliflower Trust while advocating for their loan from the government. Bowl wants revenge against Dogsborough, who fired him for embezzlement while he is actually corrupt. Ui is reinvigorated and, as he departs to take action, Giri assures Bowl that he will be paid.
Prologue-Scene 3 Analysis
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui’s Prologue strips away any pretensions about the intention of the play: This is not just a piece of entertainment, but a call to action. The Announcer communicates directly with the audience, breaking the fourth wall and explicitly laying out the plot. The Announcer effectively tells the audience what is about to happen. The play will expose how Ui takes power, the violence that accompanies his rise, and the numerous points at which someone might have intervened, introducing the theme of The Nature of Complicity and Resistance.
Given the allegorical nature of the play, the audience plays an active role in the subtext of the play. Through the use of dramatic irony, the audience is expected to recognize Arturo Ui as a stand-in for Adolf Hitler and, as a result, is expected to understand why the rise of Arturo Ui cannot be condoned. In examining how a fascist leader can take control, Brecht also aims to teach the audience how, when, and why such leaders must be stopped.
The Prologue also features the introduction of the headlines that appear throughout the play. These headlines—taken from newspapers—describe the events of the play in explicit detail. Each of the headlines has a parallel to historical events. The fire on the dockyard, for example, is an analogy for the Reichstag Fire, an event that played an important role in the rise of the Nazi Party. In the Prologue, these headlines loom behind the Announcer: They have already happened, much as history itself has happened, and the play is a review of how these headlines came to pass. From this point on, the play uses the headlines as punctuation. After each scene, the stage directions make clear that a headline appears on the stage, updating the audience on the progress of Ui’s rise and the parallel to history.
The headlines are an example of the stage directions and the production making the subtext of the play even clearer. At the same time, the discrepancies between the words in the headlines and the events as they unfold on the stage also make clear the way Ui is manipulating the truth to seize power. Allusions to scandal and sensation obscure such manipulation, using passive language to mire events in uncertainty. The headlines, like the rest of society, show how the media is complicit in the rise of Arturo Ui.
The play begins in medias res, at a point where the city of Chicago is aware of Ui and his reputation, but not yet beholden to him. At the same time, an economic crisis is making people in the city desperate, introducing the theme of The Dangers of Greed and Self-Interest. Ui is a frustrated figure, unsure how he can use his capacity for violence to seize power. By introducing Ui at this point—when he is pushing up against a ceiling of his potential and ready to give up—the play illustrates just how much he benefits from happenstance and the decisions others make. He has no way of taking control until the Trust decides to corrupt Dogsborough out of their own self-interest.
Even then, Ui only learns about this corruption from a perturbed ex-employee. Rather than rising to power through his own intellect and planning, Ui’s real talent is in making the most of his opportunity. He does not have the intelligence or the capacity to orchestrate events from behind the scenes. Rather, he is able to take power due to the greed and bitterness of others. He capitalizes on negativity, turning the worst aspects of society into power for himself. The play deliberately shows that Ui is not a master intellect, but a fortunate figure, which reinforces the idea that Ui could and should have been stopped, had people not chosen to indulge their basest emotions.
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