# Mazzini Dunn — Heartbreak House character guide

> Mazzini Dunn in Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mazzini Dunn, Mazzini, Mr. Dunn, Mazzini Smiling, Mazzini Dazed, Dunn, Mr. Mazzini Dunn, Mazzini Resigned, Mazzini Rising, Mazzini Ellie

**First appearance:** 0033-heartbreak-house

## Snapshot

Ellie's gently principled father, a man whose high ideals have somehow left him ruined, dazed, and smiling through other people's schemes.

## Who they are

Mazzini Dunn drifts through Heartbreak House as the amiable ghost of failed idealism, a man who trusted the wrong partners and lost everything while keeping his conscience intact. His daughter Ellie loves him, yet his helplessness shadows her every calculation about marriage and money. He matters because his ruin quietly indicts the world of business predators around him, and because his trusting nature makes the house's casual cruelties land harder.

## Relationships

### [Ellie Dunn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heartbreak_house_se/characters/ellie_dunn)

_family_

Ellie is the devoted daughter of Mazzini, who is a gentle but ineffectual father figure, and she feels protective of him.

### [Hesione Hushabye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heartbreak_house_se/characters/hesione_hushabye)

_social_

Hesione treats Mazzini with amused condescension as a harmless old acquaintance and the father of her protégée Ellie.

### [Captain Shotover](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heartbreak_house_se/characters/captain_shotover)

_social_

Captain Shotover regards Mazzini with a mixture of contempt and pity, seeing him as a weak and foolish man.

### [The Burglar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heartbreak_house_se/characters/the_burglar)

_social_

Mazzini is bewildered by the burglar's presence and treats him with naive politeness, not recognizing the danger.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heartbreak_house_se/characters/mazzini_dunn
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heartbreak_house_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/heartbreak_house_se/characters