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Technique, Symbol, and Theme in Heartbreak House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2021

Fredekick P. W. McDowell
Fredekick P. W. McDowell*
Affiliation:
State University of Iowa, Iowa City
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Extract

Heartbreak house, begun in 1913 and completed In 1916, is one of Bernard Shaw's most provocative plays and merits fuller aesthetic analysis than his critics have yet given it. Distinctive both for its architectonic firmness and its elusive symbolism, Heartbreak House is one of Shaw's major accomplishments as artist. It summarizes, furthermore, the themes and attitudes of his previous work, in particular the ideas broached in “The Revolutionist's Handbook” appended to Man and Superman (1903). It also holds in embryo Shaw's departures in doctrine and technique in the plays beginning with The Apple Cart (1929).

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , June 1953, pp. 335 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1953

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References

page 336 note 1 . Strauss, Bernard Shaw, Art and Sciolism (London), p. 76; Blanche Patch, Thirty Years with G. B. S. (New York), p. 53; “Shake Terns Shsv,” Buoyant Billons, Farfetched Fables & Shakws versus Shav (New York, 1951), p. 137.

page 336 note 2 Heartbreah House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War (New York: Brentano's, 1919), p. 90. Subsequent references to Heartbreak House and its Preface will be by page number incorporated into text of article.

page 338 note 3 Misalliance (1909-10), a similar play, is less incisive in its dialectic and relies heavily upon the farcial

page 338 note 4 Preface to Misalliance, to Misalliance, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, and Fanny's First Play (New York: Brentano's, 1914), p. Ivi.

page 339 note 5 John Bull's, Other Island, in John Bull's Other Island and Major Barbera (New York: Brentano's, 1907), p. 97.

page 340 note 6 The Perfect Wagnerite, (New York : Brentano's, 1912), p. 30.

page 343 note 7 The Doctor's Dilemma, Getting Married and The Shewing-up Blanco Posnet (New York: Brentno's, 1911), p. 233.

page 345 note 8 H. C. Duffinn, “Bernard Shaw and a Critic,” Cornhill Mag., Jan. 1924. Quoted in Eric Bentley, Bernard Shaw: A Reconsideration (Norfolk, Conn., 1947), p. 77.

page 345 note 9 “TV Impossibilities of Anarchism,” 1893. Quoted In Bentley, p. 89.

page 345 note 10 Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant: I, Unpleasant (New York: Brentano's 1905), p. 221.

page 346 note 11 Man and Superman:A Comedy and a philosophy (New York: : Brentano's, 1912), p. 206.

page 348 note 12 New York: Brentano's, p. 238.

page 349 note 13 Dodd, Mead & Co., p. 191.

page 351 note 14 “The Revolutionist's Handbook,” Man and Superman, p. 217.