Bernard Shaw, "The House where the hearts are broken": a summary of the chapters, actions and phenomena

The theme of this article is the most brilliant play by the founder of the British social drama Bernard Shaw "House where hearts are broken." The summary of it can not be conveyed in one sentence or in one sentence, because the work of the classic is also multifaceted. The author considered the narration about the mores of pre-war Britain the main mission of his drama.

The original creative method, which turned him into the most popular playwright, Bernard Shaw himself borrowed. His teacher was the main theatrical innovator of the beginning of XX century, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, who made the main accent in his dramaturgy on the world of human feelings, his spiritual appearance. However, the creativity of Bernard Shaw is not perceived as plagiarism. His "proprietary" irony and humor are unique. Answering this question in an interview, he said that practically everything he wrote turned out to be funny because of a true representation of reality.

The irony of the emptiness of British secular life

What is unusual about the play "The house where hearts are broken"? The summary of the work is a meeting of the heroes in a unique house, its outlines resembling a ship. This unusual meeting in a strange house ripped people off the masks they carried in everyday life. As a result of this action, it turned out that all the characters, except the master of the house, profess a double morality, hiding falsehood and indifference to neighbors under the guise of good deeds. Critics argue that this play by Bernard Shaw is a creative verdict for the British high and middle world, formed on the eve of the First World War. The playwright managed to show subtly and with humor that the entire secular life of the country - the Queen of the Seas - was thoroughly imbued with lies and deceit. It is not accidental that the phantasmagoric house of Captain Shadowover, where the whole play takes place, resembles a ship with its outlines.

Amazing house of a retired captain

What else, except for the similarity with the ship, is an unusually dwelling, where the whole intrigue of the play "The House Where the Hearts Breaks" Stems? The summary of the work, like the play itself, answers this question. Indeed, this house has a unique ability to coerce people in it to frankness. Prudish Englishmen, accustomed to "store skeletons in a closet," suddenly in Russian unveil their soul. What makes them, accustomed to cautious, streamlined phrases, open up, in Chekhov's words, start giving capacious, sincere characteristics to themselves and others. Bernard Shaw, with all the power of his talent, tries to convince us that the secret lies entirely in the special aura of the retired captain's mansion.

A significant, outstanding phenomenon of English classical literature is the play "The House where the hearts are broken." The summary of the drama, in principle, can be stated in one paragraph of the text. However, this, of course, is not enough to feel the power of the talent of Bernard Shaw. Our presentation will be more detailed.

About the characters of the play

In the father's house, Hesion's eldest daughter (Mrs. Heshebai) invites guests:

• His unmarried girlfriend, Ellie Dan, along with her father Mazzini Dan;
• Millionaire Mangen.

Why is she doing this? From boredom, she comes up with the idea of upsetting the marriage of this couple: a young, untenable young lady, Ellie, with a sixty-year-old rich man who once saved her father from bankruptcy and poverty. Apparently, Hesiona considers this intention to be magnanimous. In addition to her and her father, her husband Hector Hashebai is also in the house - a man with beautiful, regular facial features.

However, not only these characters include in the script of the play Bernard Shaw ("The House where the hearts are broken"). The summary of the work contains other images. Incidentally, at the same time, Hesiona's younger sister Ariadne Etheruord came to visit her father's house, recently married to Hastings Etherward, despite her father's will. The latter does not participate in the play, but only mentioned. Obviously, the father, Captain Shadowover, is annoyed with Ariadne's unauthorized wedding, so she accepts it emphatically coldly, as if she arrived unexpectedly by an uninvited guest.

Among the actors of the play are also secondary characters: Hector Randall's brother and Gynes's maid, the former nurse Hesiona and Ariadne. Also in the house-ship during the action climbed quite unexpected visitor, the thief Beal Dan, who is the former husband of the nurse Guinness and the former boatswain of the owner of the house.

Hesiona and her naive desire

How is Hesiona going to realize his plan? Obviously, she had previously agreed on his performance with his father. Mrs. Hasheby starts a frank conversation with his girlfriend Ellie, to dissuade her from the idea of unequal marriage. And at this time her father, Captain Shadowover, just as frankly talks with the industrialist Mengen, urging him to abandon the very idea of the wedding. About what leads to the leisure activities of Hesiona, says Bernard Shaw ("The House where hearts are broken"). The summary of the play will convince any of its readers that each of the guests of Captain Shadowover proves to be a hypocrite, a snob, a deceiver, an ill-wisher. Every hero of the play conceals his plan, which is not safe for others. An unusual house forces all these people to confess their secret sins, but they still do not have a sincere repentance.

The trick against the trick

While staying in a strange house and talking with Hesiona, Miss Elly Dan (despite being going to marry Mr. Mangan) unexpectedly confesses that she is in love with Mr. Mark Daril, whom she met recently and was fascinated by his stories about the experiences she had experienced. But when during the conversation of the girlfriends Hesiona's husband enters into their room, Elli turns pale and loses the thread of conversation. The secret is simple: he is the lover of Ellie. An unfaithful husband in search of amorous entertainment under the name of another person gets acquainted with the girls, trying to deceive them by deception. In the past, Hector was a charismatic man, but being married had turned him into a henpecked and liar.

Further on the plot of the work of her husband Hesiona flirting with the younger sister of his wife, who behaves himself to him.

Note that the impartial characterization not only of Hector contains a short summary of the play "The House where the hearts are broken". How does Ellie react when she learns of the deception of the person she loved?

The girl begins her even more insidious game. Now a friend of Hesiona is trying to marry a rich man. She does not hesitate for a long time, starts a conversation with Mengen, lulling his vigilance with an imaginary enthusiasm for his generous act. The millionaire, under the influence of an unusual house and carried away by a confidential conversation, admits in his authorship of the ruin of her father.

How did this happen? Father Elli Mazzini Dan was not a rich man, but he had a talent for business. And he had a real chance to get rich. However, the master of wiles, his "friend" Mangan did not want this ...

Mengen and Ellie

The word is not a sparrow! Mengen recides, but it's too late. His desire to get married is lost. However, he opened his cards. Now the pragmatic Ally begins methodically to blackmail him. In hysterics, the rich man falls on the chair, and Ellie "pulls out her secret trump card" hypnotizing him. Then the girl leaves in cold blood, leaving him alone. Now the millionaire is in an altered state of consciousness. At the same time, it looks like a sleeping person, but in reality everything hears and understands.

"Friends": Mazzini and Mangan

In the room to him comes the father of Ellie, Mazzini Dan together with Hesiona. She convinces him not to marry her daughter on business partner out of gratitude. However, his answer convinces the reader of the richness of the plot of the play. Indeed, the author is completely non-linear, and with a lot of intrigues and turns of the plot wrote "The house where hearts are broken."

The summary of the chapters of this play contains numerous evidence that Mr. Mazzini is also not easy! He in his own way builds his chess game against Mr. Mangan.

Communicating with a millionaire, Father Ellie expresses her respect to him in every possible way. However, now (the influence of the miracle house is felt), he sincerely tells Hesiona that he really despises the rich man as a person incompetent and narrow-minded. Regarding the same marriage with his daughter, Mazzini considers it pragmatic, as an opportunity to take the property of a millionaire. He is sure that Ellie, after marrying, "will create a regime for him." The story of the father of the future bride is cynical enough, but in a hypnotic trance Mangan hears all this.

When the entered Elli takes the rich man out of hypnosis, he is enraged, accordingly, the intrigue of the play "The House where the hearts are broken" is growing.

The summary of the actions unexpectedly (which once in this play!) Differently reveals the image of Mengen. In it, a strange house suddenly enlivens the human feelings that are absolutely unacceptable to him: insult, disappointment, anger. He even cries. Hesiona, who did not expect such an expression of feelings from the money-worthy, comforted him. The scene is interrupted by a shot ...

The leitmotif of the work: a house with an unusual, amazing aura

Mazzini at the barrel of a revolver leads a thief, detained by him in the house of Captain Shadowover. In this case, all the characters present in the scene again behave uncharacteristically for such a situation. Again, the peculiarity of the miracle house.

Everyone is trying to act and speak in conscience. The thief does not want to escape, but declares that he wants to fall into the hands of justice after he has penetrated into the house where hearts are broken. The summary of the actions and phenomena of the play also contains an amazing example of the generosity of the family and the guests of the captain. The thief wants to let go home, providing enough money to learn a new specialty. However, the captain learns in the detainee of his former boatswain Beal Dan, who robbed him earlier, and locks him in the room.

In the further course of the play, the motives of irrationality and apocalypticism are intertwined.

Everyone diverge. Remain captain Shatover and Ellie. The owner of the house tells the girl about his difficult life, about the dream to reach the seventh degree of contemplation, and advises her still to marry a millionaire in order to end her poverty.

Guests gather near the house. Everyone has an elevated, unusual, revelatory mood. Suddenly, Mangan admits that he is not the owner of the money that he controls, but only is the manager in the service of the owners.

Ellie suddenly declares her refusal to marry Mengen, as she sympathizes with Captain Shatover, his spiritual father and husband. Hesiona, who heard this recognition, approves of her friend's decision.

Apocalyptic motif in the play

The phone rings in the house. The police warned of the danger of bombardment and asked to extinguish the light. But Captain Shadowover does the opposite: turns on all the lights and tears off the curtains. All but the thief and Mangan remain in the house. The two characters mentioned are hiding in a pit with sand. They do not know that the captain hid dynamite there.

Diving at home German aircraft throws a bomb. That falls into a pit, dynamite detonates. Mengen and the thief perish. The plane flies away. But Hesiona's face and her husband are disappointed.

They themselves wanted to die from the bomb that hit the house. The eldest daughter of the captain feels insane enthusiasm. She wants the bomber to return again tomorrow and surely bombed her father's house, destroying her.

Instead of concluding

Do not finish the Chekhov cherry garden play Bernard Shaw ("The House where hearts are broken"). The summary convinces that there is no hope in pre-war Britain that was felt in pre-revolutionary Russia. On the contrary, the representatives of the middle world who are gathered in the captain's house do not embrace repentance, but desire to commit suicide.

Therefore, the appearance of German bombers, marking the beginning of the war, the heroes of the play are met with a painful enthusiasm, believing that an air attack will save them from a meaningless life.