Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw

First produced: 1920; first published, 1919

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Play of ideas

Time of plot: 1913

Locale: Sussex, England

Principal characters

• Captain Shotover, an English eccentric and visionary
• Lady Ariadne Utterword and Mrs. Hesione Hushabye, his daughters
• Hector Hushabye, Hesione’s husband
• Ellie Dunn, a guest in Captain Shotover’s house
• Mazzini Dunn, her father
• Boss Mangan, an industrialist
• Randall Utterword, Lady Ariadne’s brother-in-law
• Nurse Guinness, a servant
• Billy Dunn, a former pirate and burglar

The Story:

Young and pretty Ellie Dunn is the first of many guests to arrive at the Sussex, England, home of Captain Shotover. Ellie, who was invited by Mrs. Hushabye, Captain Shotover’s eldest daughter, will eventually rename the home Heartbreak House because of all the disappointments she and others experience there that day.

When Ellie arrives at the house, there is no one to greet her, and she sits reading William Shakespeare until she falls asleep. The elderly servant, Nurse Guinness, finally discovers Ellie just before the arrival of another visitor, Shotover’s younger daughter, Lady Utterword, who is returning home after having been away from England for twenty-three years.

Mrs. Hushabye invited Ellie, her father Mazzini Dunn, and Ellie’s fiancé, Boss Mangan, to Captain Shotover’s house because she wants to persuade Ellie not to marry Mangan, a millionaire industrialist who has befriended Ellie’s father. Mangan gave Dunn money to begin a business that failed after two years, after which Mangan bought the business, which then thrived, and gave Dunn a job managing it. Mrs. Hushabye wants Ellie to marry someone she loves rather than someone to whom her father owes a debt.

In a conversation with Mrs. Hushabye, Ellie reveals that she has a secret passion for a mysterious man she has just met, a romantic adventurer named Marcus Darnley. When Mrs. Hushabye’s husband, Hector, enters the room, Ellie discovers that Marcus Darnley was an assumed identity of Hector himself, who has been telling Ellie extravagant stories to impress her. Ellie is heartbroken and angry at her gullibility. Mrs. Hushabye tells her that heartbreak is just life’s way of educating her.

Boss Mangan finally makes his appearance, and the process of his heartbreak begins when Captain Shotover predicts that Mrs. Hushabye will see to it that Mangan does not marry Ellie. The next visitor to arrive is Randall Utterword, Lady Utterword’s brother-in-law. Randall has invited himself to the house after hearing from his brother that Lady Utterword is staying there. Meanwhile, when Hector meets Lady Utterword, he immediately falls in love with her, initiating the process of his heartbreak.

After dinner, in conversation with Ellie, Mangan reveals that he ruined Ellie’s father intentionally: He gave him money to start the business knowing that Dunn would fail, because he saw this strategy as a cost-efficient way to take over a new enterprise. Ellie declares that she is still willing to marry Mangan (even though Mangan is in love with Mrs. Hushabye and Ellie herself is in love with Hector), because the marriage will give her access to Mangan’s money. Ellie warns Mangan that if he backs out of their agreement, she will see to it that Mangan never sees Mrs. Hushabye again. Mangan collapses into a chair, and Ellie massages his temples until Mangan falls into a deep, hypnotic sleep. While he rests in a trance, Mrs. Hushabye, Mazzini Dunn, and Ellie discuss Mangan, who hears every word of their conversations.

Suddenly, a pistol shot is heard upstairs. Mazzini and Hector capture a burglar trying to steal Mrs. Hushabye’s diamonds. Captain Shotover reveals that the burglar is a pirate named Billy Dunn, no relation to Mazzini and Ellie, who once stole ship’s stores from the captain. Billy admits that he only poses as a burglar in the houses of the wealthy, using his capture as a way of extorting money that wealthy families are willing to pay to avoid having their names dragged into the newspapers. It is revealed that Billy is the former husband of Nurse Guinness.

Ellie speaks privately with Captain Shotover, telling him that she would rather marry him than marry Mangan. After Ellie and Shotover leave for the kitchen, Hector and Randall talk of their passion for Lady Utterword, who then enters. Hector and Randall vie for her attention, and it becomes clear that she has broken both of their hearts.

That evening, everyone is relaxing in the garden when Lady Utterword offers the observation that what Shotover’s house lacks is a stable and horses. Stables, she claims, are the real center of a proper household—“the people who hunt are the right people and the people who don’t are the wrong ones.” Then, in front of Mangan, the conversation turns to whether Ellie should marry him for his money. Mangan confesses that he actually has very little money: He owns nothing and simply runs things for other investors. Upon hearing this, Ellie announces that she will not marry Mangan and never intended to marry him. She had only wanted to feel her strength over him. She announces that she has already married Captain Shotover that very evening.

A distant explosion is heard, and the house lights go out. Nurse Guinness runs in to explain that the police ordered the lights to be extinguished because airplanes are approaching in a bombing raid. She instructs everyone to go down to the cellar. Most of them refuse to take shelter, and Hector turns on all the lights in the house, making it a perfect target for the bombers. Billy Dunn and Mangan run to a nearby gravel pit to hide in a cave as the planes draw closer, not knowing that Captain Shotover stores dynamite there. Mrs. Hushabye and Ellie find the sound of the planes and the bombs as exciting as a Beethoven symphony, and Lady Utterword urges Randall to play his flute to show he is not afraid. It appears that Mangan and Billy Dunn will survive the bombing raid and that the others will die because they refuse to take shelter, but when the final and most terrific explosion comes, it is a direct hit on the dynamite cache. Mangan and Billy Dunn are killed and everyone else survives. With that, the planes disappear and the danger ends. Ellie is disappointed and Hector disgusted because their world has become dull again. Mrs. Hushabye exclaims that the experience was glorious and expresses her hope that the planes will come again the following night. Ellie, radiant at the prospect, adds her own hope for more excitement.

Bibliography

Berst, Charles A. “Heartbreak House: Shavian Expressionism.” In Bernard Shaw and the Art of Drama. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973. An unusual but very convincing interpretation of the play, which emphasizes its dreamlike atmosphere. Concludes that Shaw owed more to August Strindberg and Luigi Pirandello than to Anton Chekhov.

Crompton, Louis. “Heartbreak House.” In Shaw the Dramatist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969. Concludes that Shaw’s play is simultaneously experimental and reactionary: experimental in its use of Chekhov as a model and reactionary in its use of the ideas of the stern, English Victorian writer and social critic Thomas Carlyle.

Dukore, Bernard F. Shaw’s Theater. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. Focuses on the performance of Shaw’s plays and how they call attention to elements of the theater, such as the audience, characters directing other characters, and plays within plays. Includes a section on Shaw as a director of his works.

Gibbs, A. M. “Heartbreak House”: Preludes of Apocalypse. New York: Twayne, 1994. A book-length analysis that includes literary, theatrical, historical, and biographical contexts for the play, as well as a sustained and focused interpretation of it. Features a number of very useful appendixes. A perfect introduction for students.

Innes, Christopher, ed. The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Collection of scholarly essays examining Shaw’s work, including discussions of Shaw’s feminism, Shavian comedy in the shadow of Oscar Wilde, Shaw’s “discussion plays,” and his influence on modern theater. Ronald Bryden’s essay “The Roads to Heartbreak House” analyzes this play.

Pagliaro, Harold E. Relations Between the Sexes in the Plays of George Bernard Shaw. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004. Demonstrates how the relationship between men and women is a key element in Shaw’s plays. Notes a pattern in Shaw’s depiction of these relationships, including lovers destined by the “life force” to procreate; relations between fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons; and the sexuality of politically, intellectually, and emotionally strong men.

Weintraub, Stanley. Journey to Heartbreak: The Crucible Years of Bernard Shaw, 1914-1918. New York: Weybright and Talley, 1971. A sophisticated approach that uses Shaw’s life to show the genesis and development of the play. Weintraub places Heartbreak House in the context of England in World War I, characterizing Shaw as an “embattled intellectual in wartime.”