버나드 쇼의 Heartbreak House 읽기: 국가는 누가 구할 것인가? = Reading Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House: Who Does Save the Country?

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In Heartbreak House(1919), Shaw attempts to dramatize the disintegrating British society before the First World War. Here he describes the impending national crisis and explores the question as to ‘who does save the country from the crisis?’. The set is the ship-shaped house called Heartbreak House. It functions allegorically as a ship of state.
In this play the upper classes are indifferent to the public world and pass the time to absorb themselves in private worlds of romantic dreams and sentimental flirtations. Shaw suggests that their lives are sustained mostly by illusions and plays. The last scene may be apocalyptic warnings of the judgment. But there is no denying that these warnings have no effect on the inhabitants of Heartbreak House. Immediately when an imminent danger by the air-raid is disappeared, they hope for another one. In this vein, Heartbreak House reveals a deeply pessimistic view on the upper classes considering the war as a kind of amusement.
Shaw tries to find the possibility of saving England through Ellie. At first Ellie is an innocent girl who has fallen in romantic love with Marcus Darnley but experiences heartbreak by realizing that he turns out to be Hector. Under Hesione’s influence, Hector loses his potentiality as an idealist and reformer and is reduced to an impotent Byronic lover. It is Ellie’s disillusionment with him that marks the beginning of her progress towards maturity. After her disillusionment with Hector, Ellie becomes a snobbish girl to marry old Mangan for her physical complacency and material happiness. With Shotover’s help, Ellie gets out of the marriage-for-money trap and finally turns to Shotover for his wisdom. But she immediately discovers that he, though wiser than the others, needs rum to sustain himself.
It may be true that Ellie acquires new spiritual values under Shotover’s influence, but it is not clear to what purpose. Shotover may be the person with wisdom but can’t do anything without rum. Even though their marriage may be a symbol of saving the country, it is doubted that England can be saved through their marriage. Because it cannot promise any fruit of love.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 필링, 헨리, "영국현대사" 탐구당 1969

2 황훈성, "버나드 쇼의 교훈극 플롯 구성: 입센의 영향을 중심으로" 한국현대영미드라마학회 19 (19): 147-168, 2006

3 심킨스, 피터, "모든 전쟁을 끝내기 위한 전쟁: 제 1차 세계대전 1914~1918" 플래닛미디어 2008

4 Bryden, Ronald, "The Roads to Heartbreak House, In The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw" Cambridge UP 180-194, 1998

5 Evans, Judith, "The Politics and Plays of Bernard Shaw" McFarland 2003

6 Mendelsohn, Michael J, "The Heartbreak Houses of Shaw and Chekhov, In Bernard Shaw’s Plays" W.W. Norton 399-407, 1970

7 Gibbs, A.M, "The Art and Mind of Shaw" Macmillan 1983

8 Davis, Tracy C, "Shaw’s Interstices of Empire: Decolonizing at Home and Abroad, In The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw" Cambridge UP 218-239, 1998

9 최경희, "Saint Joan과 쇼의 역사의식" 한국현대영미드라마학회 21 (21): 85-107, 2008

10 Clurman, Harold, "Notes for a Production of Heartbreak House, In Bernard Shaw’s Plays" W.W. Norton 407-416, 1970

11 Crompton, Louis, "Heartbreak House, In Bernard Shaw’s Plays" W.W. Norton 416-430, 1970

12 Shaw, George Bernard, "Heartbreak House" W.W. Norton 75-149, 1919

13 Davis, Tracy C, "George Bernard Shaw and the Socialist Theatre" Greenwood 1994

14 Chesterton, Gilbert K, "George Bernard Shaw" The Echo Library 2008

15 Chothia, Jean, "English Drama of the Early Modern Period" Longman 1890-1940, 1996