Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: George Bernard Shaw

First published: 1919, in Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War

Genre: Play

Locale: Sussex, England

Plot: Play of ideas

Time: 1913

Captain Shotover, the master of Heartbreak House. This eighty-eight-year-old eccentric retired sea captain is constantly cranky, impressively wise (a visionary), and generally drunk (three bottles of rum a day). Although a realist, Shotover has built his Sussex home in the form of a ship, strives to attain the seventh degree of concentration (perfect tranquillity), and spends much of his time experimenting with death-dealing inventions, especially dynamite. Shotover is a remnant of the culture and leisure that flourished in Europe, particularly England, before World War I.

Lady Ariadne (Addy) Utterword, Captain Shotover's younger daughter, age forty-two. The wife of Sir Hastings Utterword, she is a handsome blonde who, although seemingly scatterbrained, is quite competent. On her return to Heartbreak House after an absence of twenty-three years, neither her father nor her sister recognizes her. As an alternative to the confusion she finds, Lady Utterword exudes a conservative prestige (implying the British Empire's element of foreign rule) and is concerned only with horses and hunting.

Mrs. Hesione (Hessy) Hushabye, the captain's elder daughter, perhaps forty-four years old, the wife of Hector Hushabye. Dark and statuesque, Hesione is the epitome of domesticity, an exemplar of the power of a woman's love and the authority in her home. She invites young Ellie Dunn to visit Heartbreak House so that she can discourage the ingenue from marrying Boss Mangan. At the end of the play, she is much less the paragon of domestic virtue, as boredom provokes her to anticipate and exult in the excitement and destruction.

Hector Hushabye, Hesione's husband, a dandy in his fifties. He is heroic but shy. A man capable of brave deeds, Hector, now tamed (domesticated) by his wife, refrains from action and resorts to concocting tales of high adventure. He reasons that people need to hear such stories so as still to believe in heroes. In the end, it is he who defiantly turns on the lights in the house.

Ellie Dunn, a pretty, young singer betrothed to Boss Mangan but secretly in love with Marcus Darnley, a mysterious older gentleman later revealed to be Hector Hushabye. This ingenue finds the atmosphere at Heartbreak House puzzling, for she notes that guests are not greeted, the elderly servant addresses everyone as “love” or “ducky,” relatives are treated as strangers, and strangers are welcomed as if they are old friends. Incredibly naïve, Ellie is fooled by Hector Hushabye's amorous antics and deluded by Boss Mangan's apparent wealth. Ellie first sees Captain Shotover as unpredictable, later as very wise, and finally as a drunkard. Disillusionments destroy her romantic bent. Coupled with a newly acquired knowledge of her power over men, these disillusionments convert her into a “modern” girl. Finally, unable to discover alternate values, something “real” to respect, Ellie gratefully embraces the impending destruction and doom.

Mazzini Dunn, Ellie's father. A rather elderly, earnest man, Dunn asserts the philosophy of a nineteenth century liberal; he believes in progress but is not a moving force to be reckoned with as a result of his sentimentalism. He is now a tool of the capitalistic Boss Mangan and, as such, has promised his only child, the pretty young Ellie, to this elderly industrialist. Poverty-stricken and a little pathetic, Dunn remains the ineffectual “good” man.

Alfred “Boss” Mangan, the fifty-five-year-old, apparently rich mogul whom the unsuspecting young Ellie is engaged to marry. Jaded, suspicious, pedestrian, manipulating, and deceitful, he is the overbearing boss of Ellie's subjugated father and the cast of capitalistic exploitation. He is exposed to have none of the millions of dollars to which he constantly alludes; the monies actually belong to others. He is killed while hiding in the cave containing the captain's dynamite.

Billy Dunn, who is not related to Ellie or Mazzini. He was once a pirate and is now a burglar. He is captured when he attempts to rob Heartbreak House. Billy had stolen from the captain many years earlier and is afraid of him. Although he insists on being turned over to the law, Billy finds himself a servant in the household, put to this by his captors. Consistently paralleled with the Boss by deeds and by intentions, Billy dies in the cave with Mangan.

Randall Utterword, the brother-in-law of Ariadne and younger brother of Sir Hastings Utterword (who is referred to in the play but never appears). This Utterword is a gentleman, both in looks and in manner; he is callow and without talents, yet a tower of pride. He is a snob, sustaining a high regard for caste. He fancies himself to be in love with his sister-in-law.

Nurse Guiness, Captain Shotover's elderly servant, secretly married to the thief Billy Dunn. She is casual and impudent in her station, always calling the gentry “ducky.”

Sir Hastings Utterword, Ariadne's husband, referred to but never on stage. A governor of colonies, he craves the routine, especially administrative duties. He encourages his wife's flirtations because these keep her occupied and in good humor.