Widowers' Houses by George Bernard Shaw

Characters in the play:
1. Harry Trench - a young doctor
2. Sartorius - a landlord, exploiting the slum people.
3. Blanche - the landlord's daughter
4. Lickcheese - rent collector dismissed by Sartorius
5. William Cokane-Trench's friend

Summary of the play:
There are three acts.  The first act deals with how Harry Trench falls in love with Blanche and gets engaged during their holiday treat in a place where Sartorius and his daughter meets Harry while holidaying.

In the second act,  how Sartorius has accumulated his wealth by exploiting the slum tenants is revealed that shocks Harry who, therefore asks Blanche not to receive any money from father after marriage.  After bitter argument,  they break up. In the same act,  Lickcheese is getting dismissed for being too lenient in dealing with poor tenants.

In the third act,  Harry compromises with his own moral principles and he along with Lickcheese meets Sartorius for a shady business deal.  Since he has realized that his money from the interest of mortgaged houses of the tenants is as dirty as Sartorius 's,  he is not having any conditions to Blanche in using her father's money.  The couples get reunited before the curtain falls.

Criticism :
The disparity between poor class and rich class is the central theme. Gentrification of a man of principles like Harry Trench is what Shaw has in his mind while staging his first play. A man of high moral nature has to compromise after getting disillusioned by reality. Shaw seems to say,  all money is dirty,  whether it is Harry's or Sartorius 's just as all people are dirty in terms of morality.