George Bernard Shaw HEARTBREAK HOUSE SUMMARY & ANALYSIS

George Bernard Shaw’s
‘Heartbreak House’:
Summary & Analysis
1. George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Heartbreak House’:…
THE AUTHOR
George Bernard Shaw -he later dropped the name George- was born in Dublin in 1856, the
third and youngest child of an alcoholic father and an undomestic

mother. He developed an interest in literature, music and painting at a very early age, but
was never enabled to go to university. At the age of fifteen he became an apprentice and
during he stay there he started writing short literary articles for newspapers and magazines,
with little success. In 1876 he moved to London with his parents and tried to earn a living as
a writer, but at times he still needed his parents’ financial support. During this period he
wrote his first five novels, none of them very successful; the first one was never published
and the other four were sold to periodicals, to be published as serials.
In 1884 he joined the Fabian Society, an utopian movement that was trying to establish a
socialist society through co-operation with the ‘bourgeois’ classes. He wrote a great number
of speeches, pamphlets and articles for the Fabians, and in 1889 he edited the Fabian
Essays, an import document in the history of British socialism. His work with and for the
Fabian Society continued until the end of his life, during which period he wrote a number of
important socialist articles, such as the anti-war pamphlet ‘Common sense about the war’ in
1914 and the ‘Woman’s guide to Socialism and Capitalism’ in 1928.
Between 1885 and 1898 he wrote many critical reviews on literature, art and music for a
number of important magazines. During this period he started writing his first play,
‘Widowers’ Houses’, inspired by the plays of the Norwegian playwright Hendrik Ibsen,
whose social awareness and nonconformism appealed more to Shaw than the fashionable
hypocritical drama of those days. In 1893 followed ‘The Philanderer’, Mrs. Warren’s
Profession (1893), and ‘Candida’ (1895), all published together in a collection of plays
called ‘Plays Pleasant’ and ‘Plays Unpleasant’ in 1898, the year Shaw married Charlotte
Payne-Townshend.
Shaw’s second period started in 1898 and lasted until 1939. The period started when Shaw
wrote three ‘Plays for Puritans’ and contains the highlights of his career. Shaw will always
be known for plays such as ‘Pygmalion’, a play he wrote in 1912 for the actress Mrs. Patrick
Campbell – perhaps the play is best known for its film adaptation ‘My Fair Lady’, starring
Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn-, and ‘Heartbreak House’. George Bernard Shaw died in
1950.
THE PLAY
Shaw wrote ‘Heartbreak House’ in 1913, on the eve of the First World War, but had to
postpone the production of the play until after the
war, in 1921. He gave the play the subtitle ‘A

Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes’, thus inviting comparison with the
Russian playwright Chekhov.
THE STORY
The action takes place in Heartbreak House, in a room designed to recreate the interior of
an old-fashioned ship. The captain speaks to Ellie of his daughters, whom he does not
particularly like. Hesione, the eldest daughter, fears that Ellie is being driven by her father
into a marriage for money with Mr. Mangan, even though Ellie in love with a mysterious man
she met recently and who later turns out to be Hesione’s husband. Ellie therefore decides to
go ahead with the marriage to Mr. Mangan. When Mangan decides to tell Ellie he was the
one who ruined her father and that he is not a rich man, Ellie decides to marry the captain.
The captain predicts shipwreck for England and at that moment an air raid starts, killing the
burglar and Mr. Mangan, leaving the others to wait eagerly for the next one.
THE CHARACTERS
Captain Shotover, a white-bearded retired sea captain, the master of Heartbreak House. He
is 88 years old, rather eccentric and represents England’s past glory. He presides over a
household of characters like a monarch over his empire. He has two goals left in life: to
learn how to explode dynamite with his mental powers, in order to be able to blow up all
profiteers and exploiters; and to attain the perfect state of tranquillity he calls “the seventh
degree of concentration”. The latter he achieves by drinking vast amounts of rum.
“England”, he says , “is a ship with a drunken captain and a negligent crew; the crew must
learn to navigate if the ship is not to go on the rocks.”
Lady Ariadne (Addy) Utterword, captain Shotover’s youngest daughter, age forty-two. Very
pretty, blonde and disorganised on the outside, she turns out

to be very competent. She is married to Sir Hastings Utterword, a character frequently
mentioned but never seen in the play. They have been living overseas for more than
twenty-three years, and when Ariadne returns home, she finds the house and its inhabitants
haven’t changed during that period.
Mrs. Hesione (Hessy) Hushabye, captain Shotover’s eldest daughter, some two years older
than Ariadne. Dark-haired, stunningly beautiful and statuesque. She was the one who
invited Ellie Dunn to the house. Although she seems to represent the homely virtues, at the
end of the play she rebels against the role of domestic hostess she had been forced to play
for many years and exults in excitement when the bombs start falling, hoping they will
continue to come.
Hector Hushabye, Hesione’s husband, in his fifties, somewhat of a dandy, a heroic but very
shy man. He makes up stories about adventures, even though he has led a very
adventurous life himself, of which he doesn’t like to boast. When the bombing starts, he
rebels and defiantly starts turning on all the lights in the house.
Ellie Dunn, a young singer, in love with Marcus Darnley -who later turns out to be Hector
Hushabye- but engaged to be married to M. Mangan. The discovery that Marcus is Hector
destroys her romantic picture of the world and turns her into a ‘modern girl’. Her
disappointment in men leads her to get engaged to the captain. Unhappy as she is, she
welcomes the coming of the bombers. Mazzini Dunn, Ellie’s father, a little, earnest man with
absolutely no business sense at all. He has spent his life in poverty and fought all those
years for liberty. Now, he has resigned to his fate and has become the typical nineteenth
century Liberal, the ineffectual good man.
Alfred (Boss) Mangan, fifty-five, businessman, engaged to be married to Ellie Dunn, he
confesses to her that he is not in fact a rich man. He is killed during the air raid when he
hides in the captain’s cave, where he has stored all his dynamite. Billy Dunn, no relation to
Ellie or Mazzini, an ex-pirate now turned burglar. He is captured when he tries to rob
Heartbreak House, and is offered a job by the captain. Billy gets killed during the air raid
when he hides together with Mangan. Nurse Guiness, casual and impudent, she is the
captain’s housekeeper and, as turns out later, Billy Dunn’s wife. Randall Utterword, the
younger brother of Ariadne’s husband. He looks like a gentleman and is apparently well-
mannered, but he later turns out to be untalented, peevish, and childish. He represents
foolish aristocratic pride. He is in love with Ariadne, who in turn treats him like a small boy.
Sir Hastings Utterword, Ariadne’s husband. He never appears but is often referred to.

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George Bernard Shaw’s

third and youngest child of an alcoholic father and an undomestic

war, in 1921. He gave the play the subtitle ‘A

pretty, blonde and disorganised on the outside, she turns out

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