The Visit: Act 3 Summary & Analysis

Claire sits alone—completely motionless and wearing her wedding garb—in the Petersen’s barn on the outskirts of Güllen. The barn is strewn with enormous spiderwebs, and apparently is so dark that the Doctor and Teacher, who have come to visit Claire, struggle to find her. She tells the men that she retired to the barn seeking “peace and quiet” after the strain of her wedding, which she is already in the process of annulling.

The Teacher and Doctor announce that they have come to Claire to discuss her offer: they explain that the townspeople have recently drawn up exorbitant debts and now need her help more than ever, but they still refuse to kill Ill on account of their “Western principles.” They plead with Claire to revise her offer—to buy up and invest in Güllen’s industries, which would not only reintroduce paying jobs to the town and lower its debts, but also produce returns for the billionairess. It would be a win-win situation.

But to the horror of the Teacher and Doctor, Claire informs them that she already owns Güllen’s industrial sites—and that it was she who orchestrated their collapse in the first place. She wanted to make Güllen desperate, just as she had been after the town had abandoned her and labeled her a whore. Now, she reminds the men, she is in control and she wants Ill dead. The Teacher protests, invoking human kindness as a reason for Claire to abandon her decades-old vendetta, but the billionairess scoffs at him: “Human kindness […] is made for the purses of millionaires.”

Claire takes leave of the disheartened Teacher and Doctor and we cut to Ill’s general store. The once dingy and dated shop is now immaculate and it has updated its stock, sign, and counter. Ill’s wife runs the store and gossips with her customers, who continue to buy luxury items on credit. Mrs. Ill comments that she is happy Claire’s wedding went well; “Clairie deserves some happiness after all that misery” in her youth, she says. Mrs. Ill’s positive outlook sours when she sees Miss Louise cross the stage wearing fashionable clothing; Ill’s wife condemns the woman’s extravagance.

We learn from Mrs. Ill that her husband has cloistered himself above his shop, and has been nervously pacing the floor for several days. The customers in the shop suggest that Ill’s own conscience is the root of his anxiety; they expect he must feel terrible for having tricked “poor Mrs. Zachanassian.” The customers also discourage anyone from mentioning Ill’s situation to the newly-arrived journalists covering Claire’s wedding and visit.

The Teacher enters the shop and begins to drink heavily. The other customers in the shop decline to join him—or to drink at all—until the journalists have left town. They continue to make purchases and strategize avoiding the press, briefly pausing only to condemn the extravagance of the chocolate-eating women from Act II when they walk by in expensive clothing.

Two journalists arrive at the general store and abruptly begin interviewing the gossiping Gülleners, hoping to gauge their reactions to Claire’s visit. The villagers respond with calculated enthusiasm, being sure not to say anything negative about Claire. But they are thrown off when the journalists begin to ask Mrs. Ill about the love triangle involving her, Ill, and Claire forty-five years ago. Hoping the journalists don’t know the story behind Ill’s separation from Claire, Mrs. Ill nervously asks the journalists what they’ve heard about Ill and Claire’s romance. She is relieved to find that the journalists think Ill left Claire not because she was poor and pregnant, but because he fell in love with someone else (i.e. his current wife). Mrs. Ill confirms the story, reiterating that she and Ill married for love, and that her husband does not regret leaving Claire, despite her relatively newfound wealth: “Money alone makes no one happy,” says Mrs. Ill. The journalists copy the maxim into their notes.

Up to this point, the Teacher has been not only drinking heavily, but also growing increasingly perturbed by the Gülleners’ dishonesty with the journalists. Now drunk and uninhibited, he rouses himself to expose their scheming and lying, launching into a lofty speech about the true nature of Claire’s visit. The other Gülleners attempt to silence him before he can lay bare their betrayals and Claire’s blood-thirst, but all are interrupted by Ill’s entrance. The Gülleners worry that Ill might tell the journalists about the price on his head, thereby destroying the town’s chances of securing Claire’s endowment. The Teacher takes advantage of their shocked silence and attempts once more to tell the press the truth about Claire’s visit, but Ill inexplicably discourages him.

When a photographer passing by the general store announces that Claire has found a ninth husband only a few hours after marrying (then divorcing) her eighth, the journalists rush out of the shop. Not long after, Ill’s wife and her customers also take off, leaving Ill and the Teacher alone. The Teacher tells Ill that he was trying to help him, to tell the press how Claire’s “disgraceful billion” is ruining Güllen, but Ill once again resigns himself to the town’s judgment and discourages the Teacher from advocating for him. “After all,” he says, Güllen’s downfall and Claire’s anger are “my fault.”

Ill’s resignation sobers the Teacher, who recognizes that, in a way, Ill is to blame for Güllen’s dire current situation. He goes on to confirm Ill’s suspicions that the townspeople will kill him—though Gülleners continue to claim otherwise, it was inevitable that the promise of a better life would coax them (the Teacher included) into contemplating murder. Any amount of “faith in humanity is powerless” to stop the murder, says the Teacher before charging another bottle of liquor to credit and leaving the shop.

Mrs. Ill and Il''s son and daughter return to the shop. Ill observes that his daughter now takes tennis lessons, his son drives a new car, and his wife wears a new fur coat. The trio tells him that he need not worry about the purchases (which were made on credit), assuring him that Claire is too “good-hearted” to actually want him dead, and she will help the town out even if he stays alive. Ill seems unconvinced, but nevertheless he tells the trio that he would like to take a ride with them in the new car, “just once.”

The three scatter to prepare for the trip just before the Mayor enters the shop to speak to Ill. He has apparently come to offer Ill a gun ahead of a public meeting scheduled for that evening, during which Güllen will discuss Claire’s offer. When the Mayor asks Ill if he will submit to the town’s judgment, Ill indicates that he will; but when the Mayor suggests that Ill spare the town the burden of making a difficult decision by turning the gun on himself, Ill refuses. He declares that he has taken responsibility for his crimes and will submit to punishment for them. He expects the town to demonstrate the same accountability: “your action is yours,” he tells the Mayor, “and I can’t relieve you of it.” The Mayor takes back the gun, insults Ill, and leaves.

Ill’s family returns wearing their fineries and they pile into their new car with Ill. As they drive through Güllen, they point out various improvements the town has undergone: new eateries, housing developments, and industrial sites line its formerly ramshackle and empty streets. Distracted, Ill’s son takes a wrong turn; the family decides to return to town through the woods of Konradsweil (again indicated by the four men posing as trees). Ill’s wife, daughter, and son decide that they would like to go see a movie before the public assembly, but Ill remarks that he would rather take a walk in the woods. He disembarks from the car, makes his way over to a bench, and watches his family drive off.

Coincidentally, Claire is also in the woods, together with her new (ninth) husband and entourage (minus Koby and Loby, whom she shipped off to Hong Kong when they started to bother her). She dismisses her retinue when she discovers Ill, hoping to spend some time with him. Despite everything that has happened, the two share a warm and tragic conversation, full of nostalgia for things they only fleetingly had. Claire reveals that their newborn was taken away by a welfare organization and died a year later, and Ill recalls how deeply he once loved Claire. The two then turn their thoughts away from the past and toward the future. Ill tells Claire that he accepts his death, and she tells him that she will entomb him in a mausoleum on her estate in Italy so that he remains close to her. She adds that she still loves Ill, in a way. By “destroying” him, she hopes to “change the past,” and even realize her dream of having a life with him. The two part amicably, and Ill heads to the Golden Apostle for his “trial.”

Güllen’s community meeting begins. The entire town is there, as are swarms of reporters that are anticipating an announcement the Mayor will make in Claire’s name. The Mayor welcomes everyone, then announces that Claire intends to donate one billion dollars to Güllen. The townspeople are dead silent, a response which the reporters interpret as shock.

The Teacher takes the stage and cryptically reminds the town that the donation will not come cheaply. The purpose of the billion is not to “make us happy,” he says, but to make Güllen “a just community.” When he urges his fellow townspeople to accept Claire’s offer and the conditions attached, they cheer him on. The press, blithely unaware of what these conditions stipulate, celebrate the Gülleners’ moral excellence and Claire’s generosity.

The Mayor once again takes the floor and he asks Ill if he will respect the town’s decision to accept Claire’s offer. Ill responds in the affirmative. No one protests when the Mayor invites objections—not the Pastor or the Doctor or the Policeman—and the matter of accepting Claire’s offer moves to a final vote. “All those who sincerely want justice done,” the Mayor says, “raise your hands.” All the Gülleners (besides Ill) accept The Claire Zachanassian Endowment—“not for the sake of money…but for the sake of justice,” they repeat almost religiously, as if trying to allay their conscience.

A disheartened Ill pleads with God, which the journalists’ interpret as a cry of joy. The press asks the townspeople to restage their vote for the cameras, and they do, but Ill refuses to cry out to God again.

Following the staged vote, the Mayor invites the pressmen to a reception in the restaurant of the Golden Apostle. The Gülleners stay behind in the auditorium, and descend upon Ill once all the journalists have left. They offer Ill a cigarette and their prayers, but Ill hopes that they will pray for themselves. With that, the townspeople kill him. When the journalists return to the auditorium, the Gülleners alert them that Ill has “died of joy”—that all the excitement about Claire’s donation made his heart give out. The journalists accept the story without question.

Claire enters and collects the body. When she examines Ill’s corpse, she sees the boy she loved forty-five years ago—her dear “black panther.” She has the body put in her coffin and, true to her word, she grants Güllen the billion dollars she promised.

The billionairess leaves Güllen for the railway station. In her wake, the town undergoes a rapid transformation: its once oppressively drab atmosphere now gleams and glitters, its townspeople now wear evening gowns and tuxedos rather than rags. In the style of a Greek tragedy, the Gülleners form two choruses and celebrate their newfound prosperity. They watch Claire as she boards her express train accompanied by her “noble entourage”—her husband, her attendants, and now the body of Alfred Ill.