Summary

In the fifth and final scene of The Trials of Brother Jero, Brother Jero watches a man in a cape with a long train and a cap deliver a speech. In a soliloquy, Jero says that the man visits the beach every day and that he is a member of the Federal House hoping to join the ministry. Brother Jero realizes that the man is “already a member of my flock” (229), and he vows to “claim him” and to “go to work on him” (229). The potential recruit spurns Brother Jero’s advances, telling him to go “practice [his] fraudulences on another person of greater gullibility” (229). Jero persists, and says that he has had a vision of the man being appointed to the position of Minister for War. At this mention, the man turns around slowly and is drawn to...