The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
49 pages • 1-hour read
Bertolt BrechtThe Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
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Scenes 8-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Scene 8 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses violence.
A trial is held to investigate the warehouse fire. Giri publicly accuses a man named Fish of starting the fire. Fish seems incapable of responding with anything other than “arlarlarl” (48), though the court doctor accuses him of pretending to be unable to respond. The doctor is seemingly in cahoots with Giri, while the Judge denies a request that a second doctor be sought.
Giri claims to have been taking a walk near the warehouse, which meant that he saw Fish with a can of gasoline. The Defense Counsel alleges that Fish visited Chicago for the first time only the day before the fire. Furthermore, he was seen being dragged unconscious from a restaurant on the day of the fire—a restaurant outside which Giri’s car was parked for several hours. Giri insists that he has an alibi while his bodyguards laugh at his obviously conflicting testimony. The Judge joins in the laughter.
Hook is called as a witness. He does not know Fish but he claims to have seen Giri and his men carrying cans of gasoline on the day of the fire. Amid a commotion from the press gallery, the bodyguards boo and threaten Hook, the Defense Counsel, and others. The session is suspended because Hook is supposedly unwell. When it resumes, Hook is badly injured and wrapped in bandages. He flatly denies being able to recognize Giri.
Next, Dockdaisy is called as a witness. She mechanically recites her testimony, accusing Fish of shooting Bowl. Next, Givola is called as a witness. He credits his bodyguard’s singing voice as evidence that Fish must have started the fire. He asks that the bodyguard be allowed to recite “the lovely song” (52) for the court. When the Judge refuses, Givola claims harassment. People laugh.
The Judge refutes the allegation from the press, that “inappropriate pressure from certain quarters” (52) has been placed on the court. Fish wakes up long enough to deny any involvement in the fire, claiming to have seen Giri eating in Old Dogsborough’s restaurant on the day in question. Pandemonium breaks out, with the bodyguards brandishing guns and Giri threatening the Defense Counsel and the Judge. Fish collapses as a funeral march begins to play. The Judge announces his verdict: Fish is found guilty of arson.
Scene 9 Summary
In Cicero, a blood-splattered woman emerges from a bullet-riddled truck. She begs for help; her dead husband is inside the truck. She claims that Ui’s murderers are “slaughtering us like flies” (55). She accuses the bystanders of putting up with Ui and allowing him to violently take over. She pleads for someone to stop the violence.
In his country home, Dogsborough writes his will. He claims to be an honorable man and confesses to enabling the violence that has now taken over Chicago. The fire, the kidnapping of Fish, the murders of Sheet, Bowl, and Hook—they were all carried out by Ui’s men, Dogsborough writes. He admits to knowing everything and allowing it to happen “out of simple lust for riches and fear that [he] would lose your trust” (56).
Scene 10 Summary
In Ui’s suite in the Mammoth Hotel, Ui slumps in a chair. Givola writes at a desk as bodyguards beside him smile to themselves. Givola dictates his words, revealing that he is composing an alternative will for Dogsborough, bequeathing all his possessions to Ui’s men and appointing them to important positions. When he finishes, Givola complains to Ui about Giri spending too much time with Dogsborough. When Giri walks in, wearing Hook’s hat, he bickers with Givola, though they both agree that Roma cannot be trusted as the new police chief. Roma then enters, striking up an argument with the two other men.
Ui stirs, hearing for the first time that Roma shot up the truck belonging to Caruther. Givola reveals that the Trust is “hopping mad” (58) that one of their members has been targeted. Roma pulls a gun, demanding that people back up against the wall. Ui, indifferent, insists that everything “can be sorted out” (59). Everything else, he says, is going according to plan, including the merchants paying a 30% protection fee. Now, he has even bigger plans. Giri, Givola, and Roma demand to know where Ui stands. Ui insists that he is a “peaceful man” (60) but he will not stand for threats. He credits his success with his faith in his cause and all he asks from his lieutenants is that they share his faith. The tension dissolves as the other men agree to trust Ui.
Giri and Givola depart, leaving Ui with Roma, his “oldest friend and most loyal lieutenant” (61). Ui reveals his plan: He wants more than just Chicago. He plans to take over the vegetable trade in other towns, just as he has done in Chicago. He will test his capacity to take over other towns in Cicero; Clark is already negotiating with people in Cicero, but Ui is prepared to use force to take over if necessary. Roma does not trust the Trust, fearing that they will use Dogsborough as a way to remove Ui from the scene. Giri and Givola are in on this plan, Roma says, so Ui should trust him to “handle it” (63) by killing Dogsborough. He also threatens Giri and Givola. Ui trusts Roma to put a stop to this plan to “squeeze [him] out of Cicero by branding [him] a criminal” (64). Roma is pleased with Ui’s support. He rallies his men and leaves, arranging to meet later.
Ui, now alone, paces back and forth. He practices a rallying speech to give later to Roma’s men. He is interrupted by the arrival of Clark, Giri, and Betty Dullfoot, who has come from Cicero to help “reach some kind of agreement” (65) regarding a possible merger between Chicago and Cicero vegetable dealers. Betty seeks to assure Ui that the current campaign in the press is not directed against Ui himself, but against the violent Roma. Ui takes offence at criticism of his loyal lieutenant, causing Clark to usher Betty from the room. Giri is left with Ui. He warns that a war is imminent between Ui’s crew and “the whole damned town” (66). Giri urges Ui to listen to reason, but Ui insists that he knows his duty.
Scene 11 Summary
In a garage, Roma waits with Young Inna and his gunmen. Ui is running late, but Roma is sure that he will arrive soon. He is looking forward to taking out Giri and Givola. Hearing news of a large police presence nearby, Roma orders his gunmen to pull the garage shutter down so as to be “better safe than sorry” (67). A police car passes, then Giri and Givola arrive. Roma fears that they are launching an attack against Ui, so he rallies his men and moves to save Ui. When the shutter rises, however, Ui enters, flanked by Givola and his bodyguards.
Ui reaches out to shake Roma’s hand; as Roma’s hand is occupied, Givola shoots him. Ui orders Roma’s gunmen to be rounded up into a corner. He stands over the dying Roma, claiming to have uncovered Roma’s “disgraceful plot against [Ui]” (69). Ui leaves for Dogsborough’s country house while Givola excitedly orders the execution of Roma’s men. Next, he lines Roma up against the wall.
Scenes 8-11 Analysis
The trial of Fish reveals the absurdity at the heart of Arturo’s rise to power, invoking The Nature of Complicity and Resistance. Though this is ostensibly a demonstration of state legitimacy, in which a crime is uncovered and prosecuted, the entire apparatus of the judicial system is a sham. The Judge is seemingly in league with the same group of gangsters who openly threaten members of the press in the court itself.
Most significantly, rather than gasps of horror, the trial elicits ripples of laughter from onlookers. This is not a coincidence: Ui’s rise is made possible because of his efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the state. By exposing the court as powerless, he bolsters his argument that he alone is able to offer people protection. While he may be profiting from this protection (and while the protection may be from his men), many of the people involved see him as more effective than the court that he has turned into a laughingstock. Since society lacks any investment in its social institutions, Ui is able to arrest control of the withered husk of state power to wield it for himself.
Throughout The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, the protagonist is living in a hotel room. He may have a good room in a good hotel, but his living arrangements reveal the extent to which he is disconnected from the society around him. He lives in a liminal space; he does not have a real home, only a temporary residence. This living situation also alludes to the coincidental nature of his power: He could have been stopped, he could have been prevented from putting down roots, but no one was able (or willing) to stop him.
At the same time, each time the play finds Ui in his hotel room, he seems wrapped in melancholy and fearing The Inevitability of Betrayal. He is a victim of the same forces of paranoia and distrust that fuel his rise to power. He may be succeeding, but that success means little because he has no one with whom he can truly enjoy his success. Even his most loyal associates are constantly vying for power and competing against one another in a zero-sum game. Ui’s melancholy hotel lifestyle suggests that there is no emotional reward for his lust for power. He wants power for power’s sake and—because of the dehumanizing violence he must use to take power—there is no way to enjoy the power once he takes it. All he can do is pursue more power, creating a constant cycle of violence and dissatisfaction.
Ui surrounds himself with many lieutenants. These lieutenants all have historical analogies. If Arturo Ui is Adolf Hitler, then Giri is Hermann Göring and Givola is Joseph Goebbels. Ernesto Roma is an analogy for Ernst Röhm and—much like Röhm—he shows himself to be uniquely loyal to Ui in the most tragic sense. The lieutenants are often plotting against one another. Roma is also involved in these plots, warning Ui that his rivals are plotting to take power for themselves. In a group that is rife with conspiracy and paranoia, these plots suggest that the paranoia is not unjustified.
Of all the lieutenants, however, Roma is uniquely loyal. He is dedicated to Ui in a way that the others are not. Givola and Giri are interested in power for themselves, while Roma is utterly invested in Ui as a friend and as a leader. Unfortunately for Roma, he is beholden to the same paranoia and violence that makes him (and Ui) so powerful. Giri and Givola convince Ui that Roma is plotting against him. As the audience sees, this is a lie, but Ui accepts it. Roma is killed; his years of loyal service mean nothing in a cadre of self-interested conspirators. The brutal logic of Roma’s death is that his betrayal is the direct consequence of the violence and paranoia that has defined Ui’s rise to power. He is thus killed by the same forces he helped to cultivate.
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