The house where the hearts of the characters break. The Meaning of Symbols in Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House

In 1919, Bernard Shaw's play Heartbreak House was published, a bitter, tragic recognition of the crisis of English bourgeois civilization, a sharp mockery of the lies and inhumanity of capitalist relations. One of the most significant works of the playwright, this play marks the beginning of a new stage in his creative development. The action of the drama takes place during the First World War. Its events unfold in a house built like an old ship, “the best example of English culture”, as the author recommends, owned by Shotover, a former skipper. In an extensive preface, as always with Shaw, explaining the intent of the play, the playwright expanded his understanding of the struggle taking place in the modern world. In it, Shaw argued, two forces oppose: a house where hearts break and an arena where horses are driven around.

The inhabitants of the “house” are intellectuals, the inhabitants of the “arena” are businessmen, capitalists. The struggle of these two forces determines, the author believes, the social struggle. The tragedy of modernity lies in the fact that culture and power are in different hands or, as he puts it, "in different departments." So, as before, the class struggle is replaced by Shaw by a clash of people of various psychological warehouses - romantics and practitioners, people and supermen, intellectuals and businessmen, but a new meaning is put into this concept and the author's attitude to practitioners - businessmen is not like in the plays of the early period.

The show treats with sad sympathy the intellectuals portrayed by it, whoever they may be, with anger - to the selfish, selfish and deceitful inhabitants of the “ring”, embodied primarily in the figure of Mengen. So, full of spiritual nobility, Hector ironically speaks of “idiots with broken hearts”, and in the image of the “benefactor” Mengen, a shameless exploiter, soulless and clever egoist is revealed.

Shaw called his play "a fantasy in the Russian spirit on English themes." In the preface to it, he spoke about the influence of Russian masters on him, and above all Chekhov and Tolstoy. Quite evident in Heartbreak House are the motifs evoked by The Cherry Orchard. However, while Chekhov believes in young forces that will help plant a new garden, Shaw emphasizes the doom of the heroes who met on the deck of a house-ship that has lost its course.

“House where hearts break” is permeated with symbolism, which helps to better understand the meaning invested by the author in the images, most often paradoxical. The meaning of the symbols is obvious in the image of the ship and in the image of the captain who left the captain's bridge, and in the image of the team, indifferent to where the ship they are on is heading. Drawing the ship off course, and its inhabitants as people with broken hearts in a collision with the “ring horses”, Shaw bitterly showed the tragedy of English society and the bearers of its culture, rushing to inevitable collapse, resolutely expressed his attitude to the foundations on which capitalist civilization rested. . Chaos and confusion reign in English society. Its inevitable end is destruction.

Shaw's realism took on new forms of artistic expression in Heartbreak House. The grotesque-paradoxical means of representation came out sharper here. The playwright resorts to farce and buffoonery. The paradoxical nature of images and situations acquires almost fantastic outlines in places. The semi-fantastic conventionality of images will become even more emphasized in many of the playwright's subsequent works, especially in his political "extravagances" of the 1930s. Shaw's new style, the foundations of which were laid in Heartbreak House, did not weaken him. realistic generalizations.

The war of 1914-1918 was perceived differently by the playwright than by many English and European writers of the older generation, and in particular by Wells. Although Shaw's position during the days of the war was not without contradictions - contradictions lived in Shaw's mind from the first days of his conscious life to the end - but already at the very beginning of the war he protested against its injustice, accusing both German and British imperialists .

Shaw followed very closely how events unfolded in the new Russia and tried to understand them. It is very symptomatic that in the preface to Heartbreak House, written after the end of the play, Shaw speaks negatively of the anti-Russian slander that the English bourgeoisie had already begun to spread widely. The October Revolution helped Shaw to comprehend more deeply the doom of the bourgeois world. His political vigilance became noticeably sharper after the revolution. Historical events contributed to the writer's disappointment in Fabianism, but Shaw did not manage to completely abandon his ideas, perhaps until the end of his life.

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The Meaning of Symbols in Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House

"Heartbreak House"

The action takes place on a September evening in an English provincial house, which in its form resembles a ship, for its owner, a gray-haired old man, Captain Shatover, has sailed the seas all his life. In addition to the captain, his daughter Hesiona, a very beautiful forty-five-year-old woman, and her husband Hector Heshebay live in the house. Ally invited by Hesiona, a young attractive girl, her father Mazzini Dan and Mengen, an elderly industrialist whom Elly is going to marry, also come there. Also arriving is Lady Utterword, Hesione's younger sister, who has been absent from her home for the past twenty-five years, having lived with her husband in each successive British crown colony where he was governor. Captain Shatover does not recognize at first, or pretends not to recognize his daughter in Lady Utterword, which greatly upsets her.

Hesiona invited Ellie, her father and Mengen to her place to upset her marriage, because she does not want the girl to marry an unloved person because of the money and gratitude that she feels for him for the fact that Mengen once helped her father to avoid complete ruin. In a conversation with Ellie, Hesiona finds out that the girl is in love with a certain Mark Darili, whom she met recently and who told her about his extraordinary adventures, which won her over. During their conversation, Hector, Hesione's husband, a handsome, well-preserved fifty-year-old man, enters the room. Ellie stops suddenly, turns pale and staggers. This is the one who introduced himself to her as Mark Darnley. Hesiona kicks her husband out of the room to bring Ellie back to her senses. After regaining consciousness, Ellie feels that in an instant all her girlish illusions burst, and her heart broke with them.

At the request of Hesiona, Ellie tells her everything about Mengen, about how he once gave her father a large sum in order to prevent the bankruptcy of his enterprise. When the company nevertheless went bankrupt, Mengen helped her father get out of such a difficult situation by buying the entire production and giving him the position of manager. Enter Captain Shatover and Mangan. From the first glance, the character of Ellie and Mengen's relationship becomes clear to the captain. He dissuades the latter from marrying because of the big difference in age and adds that his daughter, by all means, decided to upset their wedding.

Hector meets Lady Utterword for the first time, whom he has never seen before. Both make a huge impression on each other, and each tries to lure the other into their networks. In Lady Utterword, as Hector confesses to his wife, there is a Shatove family diabolical charm. However, he is not capable of falling in love with her, as, indeed, with any other woman. According to Hesiona, the same can be said about her sister. All evening Hector and Lady Utterword play cat and mouse with each other.

Mengen wishes to discuss his relationship with Ellie. Ellie tells him that she agrees to marry him, referring to his good heart in conversation. He finds an attack of frankness on Mengen, and he tells the girl how he ruined her father. Ellie doesn't care anymore. Mangen is trying to back down. He no longer burns with the desire to take Ellie as his wife. However, Ellie threatens that if he decides to break off the engagement, then it will only get worse for him. She blackmails him.

He collapses into a chair, exclaiming that his brain can't take it. Ellie strokes him from forehead to ears and hypnotizes him. During the next scene, Mengen, apparently asleep, actually hears everything, but cannot move, no matter how others try to stir him up.

Hesiona convinces Mazzini Dan not to marry his daughter to Mengen. Mazzini expresses everything that he thinks about him: that he knows nothing about machines, is afraid of workers, cannot manage them. He is such a baby that he does not even know what to eat and drink. Ellie will create a routine for him. She will still make him dance. He is not sure that it is better to live with a person you love, but who has been running errands for someone all his life. Ellie enters and swears to her father that she will never do anything that she does not want and does not consider it necessary to do for her own good.

Mengen wakes up as Ellie snaps him out of his hypnosis. He is furious at everything he hears about himself. Hesiona, who wanted to turn Mengen's attention from Ellie to herself all evening, seeing his tears and reproaches, understands that his heart also broke in this house. And she had no idea that Mengen had it at all. She tries to console him. Suddenly, a shot is heard in the house. Mazzini brings a thief into the living room, whom he had just nearly shot. The thief wants to be reported to the police and he could atone for his guilt, clear his conscience. However, no one wants to participate in the trial. The thief is told that he can go, and they give him money so that he can acquire a new profession. When he is already at the door, Captain Shatover enters and recognizes him as Bill Dan, his former boatswain, who once robbed him. He orders the maid to lock the thief in the back room.

As everyone leaves, Ellie talks to the captain, who advises her not to marry Mangen and not let her fear of poverty rule her life. He tells her about his fate, about his cherished desire to reach the seventh degree of contemplation. Ellie feels unusually good with him.

Everyone gathers in the garden in front of the house. It's a beautiful, quiet, moonless night. Everyone feels that Captain Shatover's house is a strange house. In it, people behave differently than it is customary. Hesiona, in front of everyone, begins to ask her sister for her opinion about whether Ellie should marry Mengen just because of his money. Mengan is in terrible confusion. He doesn't understand how you can say that. Then, angry, he loses his caution and says that he does not have any money of his own and never had, that he simply takes money from syndicates, shareholders and other worthless capitalists and puts factories into operation - for this he is paid a salary. Everyone begins to discuss Mengen in front of him, which is why he completely loses his head and wants to strip naked, because, in his opinion, morally everyone in this house has already been stripped naked.

Ellie reports that she still cannot marry Mengen, since her marriage to Captain Shatover took place in heaven half an hour ago. She gave her broken heart and her healthy soul to the captain, her spiritual husband and father. Hesiona finds that Ellie has acted unusually smart. As they continue their conversation, a dull explosion is heard in the distance. Then the police call and ask to turn off the lights. The light goes out. However, Captain Shatover lights it again and rips the curtains from all the windows so that the house can be seen better. Everyone is excited. The thief and Mengen do not want to follow the shelter in the basement, but climb into the sand pit, where the captain has dynamite, although they do not know about it. The rest stay in the house, not wanting to hide. Ellie even asks Hector to light the house himself. However, there is no time for that.

A terrible explosion shakes the earth. Broken glass comes flying out of the windows. The bomb hit right in the sand pit. Mengan and the thief are killed. The plane flies by. There is no more danger. The house-ship remains unscathed. Ellie is devastated by this. Hector, who spent his whole life in it as Hesiona's husband, or, more precisely, her lap dog, also regrets that the house is intact. Disgust is written on his face. Hesiona experienced wonderful sensations. She hopes that maybe tomorrow the planes will arrive again.

Guests gather in the ship-like house of Captain Shatover. The captain lives with his daughter Hesiona and her husband Hector. They meet Ellie with her father and future husband, Mengen. Ellie marries him in gratitude that he saved his father from bankruptcy. Hesiona dissuades the girl from marriage. Ellie also does not want marriage the way she is in love. She recently met the man she loves. His name is Mark Darnley. Hector enters the living room and Ellie recognizes her Mark. All her hopes were shattered and shattered overnight. Ellie reveals to Hesiona the story of her father's ruin and says she owes Mengen her due. And Captain Shatover persuades Mengen not to marry Ellie because of the huge age difference.

Mengen, in a frank conversation with Ellie, said that it was he who ruined her father, and then offered help, but Ellie did not care and she even began to blackmail the groom. If he cancels the engagement, she will reveal the truth to everyone. Mangen sits down in a chair, thinking he won't make it through the night. Ellie begins to stroke him, hypnotizing at the same time. Mengen falls asleep and no one could wake him up, but he hears and understands everything.

Hesiona asks Ellie's father to forbid his daughter from marrying Mengen, yes, and Mazzini Dan himself is not happy with the wedding. He considers his companion a nonentity who does not understand anything about cars, does not know how to drive, and cannot even eat himself, right, like a child. And Ellie will set him a routine and force him to dance to her tune. Ellie, meanwhile, brings Mengen out of a trance and he is furious because he learned the opinion of outsiders about himself. He is trying to console Hesion. A shot rings out and Mazzini drags the thief into the living room. The guy took pity on those around him and they already wanted to let him go, as the captain Shatover, who entered, recognized Bill Dan, the boatswain, who had robbed him earlier, in the guy. He puts him in a closed room and calls the police.

Everyone goes to the park in front of the house, while Ellie stays with Captain Shatover. It is unusually easy for her to be with him. When they join the party at the house, there is a conversation about whether Ellie should marry Mangen for the money. Mengen is indignant at this topic and, getting excited, talks about the fact that he never had money. This is the salary that the capitalists pay him. He manages the affairs of their factories. And Ellie won't marry Mengen. She reveals that she loves Captain Shatover. They call from the police, announce an air raid alert and ask them to turn off the lights everywhere. The thief and Mengen decide to hide in a sand hole. They don't know that the captain keeps dynamite there.

A terrible explosion shakes the house. The bomb hit the dynamite pit and the thief and Megen died. And the house-ship remained intact. The captain opens the curtains and turns on the lights in the hope that the plane will come back and destroy this house. The house where hearts are broken. If not today, then tomorrow the planes will arrive again.

Bernard Show

The house where hearts break

Fantasy in Russian style on English themes

Characters

Ellie Dan.

Captain Shotover.

Lady Utterword, Mrs. Hashebye, his daughter.

Hector Hasheby.

Randall Utterword.

Mazzini Dan Ellie's father.

Boss Mengen.

Nanny Guinness.

Billy Dan.

Act one

Clear September evening. The picturesque mountainous landscape of north Sussex opens from the windows of a house built like an old ship with a high stern, around which there is a gallery. Windows in the form of portholes, sheathed with boards, run along the entire wall as often as its stability allows. A row of cabinets under the windows forms an unlined ledge, interrupted approximately in the middle, between the sternpost and the sides, by a double-leaf glass door. The second door somewhat breaks the illusion, it seems to be on the port side of the ship, but it does not lead to the open sea, as it should, but to the front. There are bookshelves between this door and the gallery. There are electrical switches at the door leading to the hall and at the glass door that opens onto the gallery. Near the wall depicting the starboard side, there is a carpenter's workbench, a board is fixed in its vice. The floor is littered with shavings, and the paper basket is filled to the top with them. On the workbench are two planers and a brace. In the same wall, between the workbench and the windows, there is a narrow passage with a low door, behind which one can see a pantry with shelves; on the shelves are bottles and kitchen utensils. On the starboard side, closer to the middle, there is an oak drafting table with a board on which are a T-square, rulers, squares, and computing devices; there are saucers with watercolors, a glass of water cloudy from paints, ink, pencils and brushes. The board is laid so that the window is on the left side of the draftsman's chair. On the floor, to the right of the table, is a ship's leather fire bucket. On the port side, next to the bookshelves, with its back to the windows, there is a sofa; this rather massive structure of mahogany is strangely covered with a tarpaulin along with the headboard, two blankets hang on the back of the sofa. Between the sofa and the drafting table, with its back to the light, a large wicker chair with wide arms and a low, sloping back; against the left wall, between the door and the bookshelf, is a small but solid teak table, round, with a hinged lid. This is the only piece of furniture in the room, which - however, by no means convincingly - allows us to assume that a woman's hand was also involved here. The bare floor, made of narrow boards, was caulked and polished with pumice, like a deck.

The garden, where the glass door leads, descends to the south side, and behind it you can already see the slopes of the hills. In the depths of the garden rises the dome of the observatory. Between the observatory and the house there is a small esplanade with a flagpole on it; there is a hammock on the east side of the esplanade, and a long garden bench on the west side.

young girl, wearing a hat, gloves and a raincoat, sits on the windowsill, turning his whole body to look at the landscape spreading outside the window. She sits with her chin resting on her hand, her other hand dangling casually, in which she holds a volume of Shakespeare, her finger on the page where she read. The clock strikes six.

The young girl turns and looks at her watch. She gets up with the air of a man who has been waiting for a long time and is already out of patience. This is a pretty girl, slender, blond, with a thoughtful face, she is dressed very nicely, but modestly - apparently, this is not an idle fashionista. With a sigh of tired resignation, she goes to the chair at the drafting table, sits down, and begins to read Shakespeare. Gradually, the book falls to its knees, the girl's eyes close, and she falls asleep.

elderly maid enters from the hall with three uncorked bottles of rum on a tray. She crosses the room into the pantry, without noticing the young girl, and puts bottles of rum on the shelf, and removes empty bottles from the shelf and puts them on a tray. When she goes back, the book falls from the guest's knees, the girl wakes up, and the maid shudders so suddenly that she almost drops the tray.

maid. Lord have mercy!

A young girl picks up a book and puts it on the table.

I'm sorry I woke you up, miss. Only I don't know you. Who are you waiting for here?

Young woman. I'm waiting for someone to let me know that this house knows that I was invited here.

maid. How are you invited? And there's no one? Oh lord!

Young woman. Some angry old man came up and looked out the window. And I heard him shout: "Nanny, we have a pretty young woman in the stern, go and find out what she needs." Are you the nanny?

maid. Yes, miss. I'm Nanny Guinness. And that, then, was old Captain Shotover, Mrs. Hasheby's father. I heard him scream, but I thought he was talking about something else. Isn't it Mrs. Hashebye who invited you, my dear?

Young woman. At least that's how I understood it. But I guess it's better for me to leave.

Nanny. No, what are you, quit and think about it, miss. Even if Mrs. Hashebye has forgotten, it will be a pleasant surprise for her.

Young woman. Frankly, for me it was a rather unpleasant surprise when I saw that I was not expected here.

Nanny. You'll get used to it, miss. Our house is full of all sorts of surprises for those who do not know our rules.

Captain Shotover suddenly peeks in from the front; he is still quite a strong old man with a huge white beard; he is in a pea jacket, a whistle hangs around his neck.

Captain Shotover. Nanny, there is a briefcase and a bag lying right on the stairs; apparently thrown on purpose so that everyone stumbles over them. And a tennis racket. What the devil did all this?

Young woman. I'm afraid these are my things.

Captain Shotover (suitable for drafting table). Nanny, who is this lost young lady?

Nanny. They say Miss Gassi invited them, sir.

Captain Shotover. And does she, poor thing, have any relatives or friends who could warn her against inviting my daughter? We have a pretty house, nothing to say! They invite an attractive young lady, her things lie on the stairs for half a day, and she is here, at the stern, left to herself - tired, hungry, abandoned. This is what we call hospitality! Good tone! No room cooked, no hot water. There is no hostess to meet. The guest, apparently, will have to spend the night under a canopy and go to wash on the pond.

Year of writing:

1919

Reading time:

Description of the work:

Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House is a play with the amusing subtitle "A Russian Style Fantasy on English Themes". In a three-act play, the Irish playwright Shaw began work on it in 1913, and labored for about four years.

Bernard Shaw himself noted that Anton Chekhov, or rather, his dramaturgy, had a great influence on him. According to Shaw, it was Chekhov who was the best playwright of his time, and he inspired him to write the play "The House Where Hearts Break", a summary of which you will find below.

Summary of the play
The house where hearts break

The action takes place on a September evening in an English provincial house, which in its form resembles a ship, for its owner, a gray-haired old man, Captain Shatover, has sailed the seas all his life. In addition to the captain, his daughter Hesiona, a very beautiful forty-five-year-old woman, and her husband Hector Hesheby live in the house. Ally invited by Hesiona, a young attractive girl, her father Mazzini Dan and Mengen, an elderly industrialist whom Elly is going to marry, also come there. Also arriving is Lady Utterwood, Hesiona's younger sister, who has been absent from her home for the past twenty-five years, having lived with her husband in each successive British crown colony where he was governor. Captain Shatover does not recognize at first, or pretends not to recognize Lady Utterwood as his daughter, which greatly upsets her.

Hector meets Lady Utterwood for the first time, whom he has never seen before. Both make a huge impression on each other, and each tries to lure the other into their networks. In Lady Utterwood, as Hector admits to his wife, there is a Shatove family diabolical charm. However, he is not capable of falling in love with her, as, indeed, with any other woman. According to Hesiona, the same can be said about her sister. All evening Hector and Lady Utterwood play cat and mouse with each other.

Mengen wishes to discuss his relationship with Ellie. Ellie tells him that she agrees to marry him, referring to his good heart in conversation. Mengen finds an attack of frankness, and he tells the girl how he ruined her father. Ellie doesn't care anymore. Mangen is trying to back down. He no longer burns with the desire to take Ellie as his wife. However, Ellie threatens that if he decides to break off the engagement, then it will only get worse for him. She blackmails him.

Mengen wakes up as Ellie snaps him out of his hypnosis. He is furious at everything he hears about himself. Hesiona, who has been trying to turn Mengen's attention from Ellie to herself all evening, seeing his tears and reproaches, understands that his heart also broke in this house. And she had no idea that Mengen had it at all. She tries to console him. Suddenly, a shot is heard in the house. Mazzini brings a thief into the living room, whom he had just nearly shot. The thief wants to be reported to the police and he could atone for his guilt, clear his conscience. However, no one wants to participate in the trial. The thief is told that he can go, and they give him money so that he can acquire a new profession. When he is already at the door, Captain Shatover enters and recognizes him as Bill Dan, his former boatswain, who once robbed him. He orders the maid to lock the thief in the back room.

Everyone gathers in the garden in front of the house. It's a beautiful, quiet, moonless night. Everyone feels that Captain Shatover's house is a strange house. In it, people behave differently than it is customary. Hesiona, in front of everyone, begins to ask her sister for her opinion about whether Ellie should marry Mengen just because of his money. Mengan is in terrible confusion. He doesn't understand how you can say that. Then, angry, he loses his caution and says that he does not have any money of his own and never had, that he simply takes money from syndicates, shareholders and other worthless capitalists and puts factories in motion - for this he is paid a salary. Everyone begins to discuss Mengen in front of him, which is why he completely loses his head and wants to strip naked, because, in his opinion, morally everyone in this house has already been stripped naked.

Ellie reports that she still cannot marry Mengen, since half an hour ago her marriage to Captain Shatover took place in heaven. She gave her broken heart and her healthy soul to the captain, her spiritual husband and father. Hesiona finds that Ellie has acted unusually smart. As they continue their conversation, a dull explosion is heard in the distance. Then the police call and ask to turn off the lights. The light goes out. However, Captain Shatover lights it again and rips the curtains from all the windows so that the house can be seen better. Everyone is excited. The thief and Mengen do not want to follow the shelter in the basement, but climb into the sand pit, where the captain has dynamite, although they do not know about it. The rest stay in the house, not wanting to hide. Ellie even asks Hector to light the house himself. However, there is no time for that.

Please note that the summary of the play "Heartbreaking House" does not reflect the full picture of events and characterization of the characters. We recommend that you read the full version of the work. It is known that Bernard Shaw wanted to finish writing the play much earlier, but because of the outbreak of the First World War, work had to be suspended.

Although Shaw finished writing the play in 1917, he decided to publish it only after the war, in 1919.

Province in England. Warm September. Captain Shatover spent many years at sea, even his house resembles a ship with its outlines. His daughter Hesiona, a woman of pleasant appearance, 45 years old, together with her husband Hector lived here with the captain.

Soon, young Ellie, her father Mazzini Dan, the elderly fiancé Mengen and Hesiona's sister Ariadne come to visit. Ariadne had not visited her father for 25 years, and at first Shatover did not even recognize her youngest daughter.

Hesiona tries to terminate Ellie's engagement, believing that marriage with the unloved is unacceptable. Ellie admits that she has feelings for Mark, who won her over with his adventurism. Here Hector comes out to the women. Ellie is dumbfounded: Hector is the same man who introduced himself to her as Mark!

Captain Chateauver convinces Mengen that the age difference between the spouses is bound to complicate things. Hector sees Ariadne and is immediately interested in the woman.

Ellie's father, meanwhile, also began to consider his daughter's engagement a mistake. Mengen talks to Ellie and admits that it was he who bankrupted her father, so that later he would be able to "rescue" him from poverty. Mengen is already tired of their family, and in his heart he wants to cancel the marriage. Ellie, on the contrary, begins to blackmail the groom, refusing to cancel the engagement.

Ellie is talking to the captain. Shatover is sure that the fear of poverty should not influence the choice of a spouse. The conversation incredibly reassured the girl, she was calm next to the captain.

At night everyone gathered in the garden. The captain's house was indeed a strange place: here everyone behaved somehow differently. Hesiona, in front of everyone, talks about the possibility of a marriage of convenience, which confuses Mengen. Everyone begins to discuss him, from which he goes crazy and admits that he is not a millionaire at all. Here Ellie declares that a few minutes ago her heart began to belong to Captain Shatover.

Air bombardment begins. Police are ordering all residents to turn off their lights and go to cover. Shatower deliberately leaves light everywhere so that the house is more visible from the air. All the inhabitants refuse to hide and leave the house. Only Mengen hides in the pit, unaware that the captain is storing explosives here.

Another explosion. Mengan is dead. None of the survivors feel the joy of their salvation. Everyone is waiting for new planes with bombs.

Bernard Shaw described not just a house of broken hearts, but a house where everything secret comes out. This is a caricature of the English society of the early 20th century, where all the characters are subject to some kind of vice - anger, laziness, hypocrisy, greed.