Part 1. Exposition

The play is set on a spring day in 1950’s America. The scene moves between three scenes: library of Dowd’s, office of Chumley’s rest, and the sanitarium for mental patients. The play hints us that before it started, Elwood P. Dowd, who was once very popular for his good nature and manners along with his calm personality, befriends a Pooka named Harvey, a 6 feet tall rabbit. Elwood soon get well along with him, but everyone else thinks he is crazy because no one except Elwood can see this Celtic mythological creature. This gives Veta Louise, Elwood’s sister, a lot of stress. There are no society issues or deep social criticism in the play. Its mood is very light and comedic, with small jokes in it.

Along with the mythical pooka, the creature which fuels the play, an event motivated Mary Chase to write Harvey. The second inspiration came when one day she took notice of her widowed neighbor who had lost her only son in World War II just two months earlier. In reflection, Chase asked herself: "Would I ever possibly write anything that might make this woman laugh again?" Hoping to bring laughter and respite to the neighbor and the war-torn America, she set to work.

Her phenomenal play received many compliments from the critics, and Mary Chase got a Pulitzer award for Drama, and played for nearly five years and 1755 performances, making it one of the longest-run plays in Broadway. Due to its fame, it was made into a movie in 1950, starring James Stewart. In 2012, the play was reborn in Broadway, starring Jim Parsons as Harvey.

Part 2. Plot Diagram

Initial accident: Veta and her daughter Myrtle Mae invited important people for a party, trying to bond with their families and others. They tried to be very formal, but Elwood P. Dowd, Veta’s brother comes in and ruins the party by introducing everyone to Harvey, an invisible 6 feet tall rabbit.

Rising action: Veta cannot resist anymore of Elwood’s ‘illness’ so she goes to the sanitarium. In there, she talks to the doctors about the problem that Elwood has, and asks them to take him in. Kelly and Wilson from the sanitarium takes Elwood in, and reports to Dr. Sanderson. However, Sanderson tells Kelly that it is actually Veta who is sick, and she is just trying to use Elwood as a scapegoat. So they take Veta in and Elwood out, apologizing to Elwood. Later, it becomes true that Elwood was the one who sees the rabbit.

After Veta gets freed, she gets furious and goes to Judge Gaffeney, her family lawyer, and tries to sue them. She claims that the sanitarium did unspeakable tests to her to find out her mental status. During that time, the doctors find Elwood, who is finding for Harvey, and bring him in. They all meet at act 3 to decide whether they should give him the psychopath medicine.

Conflict: Even though the story is mostly about Elwood, he is a very kind and well mannered man, thus not having any conflict with the other characters. So both the internal and external conflict is lead by Veta. The external conflict in when Veta and the doctors argue. They argue several times in the play, and almost never agree on each other. The doctors also misunderstood Veta and took her in to the sanitarium, giving her shame. The internal conflict that Veta has comes out in the last scene. She has to choose whether or not Elwood will take the medicine the doctors got to ‘cure’ him.

Climax: The climax of the play is when Elwood, his family and the doctors all got together for Elwood’s shot. The doctors were getting ready to do it, and that was what Veta wanted. However, in the last moment, Veta ran into the room and stopped the doctors. She said that she wants Elwood to be happy and if Elwood wants to be with Harvey, she would be with him too.

Falling Action: The doctors did not understand Veta’s request , but they were not able to stop her because she was very clear, and she is the patient’s closest family. After everyone leaves, Elwood is on the stage himself. Then, a door opens and Harvey enters, and the play end with Elwood saying “Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you-“

Resolution
Elwood: He stays the well mannered weirdo he is. However, there will be no more stress from the family because Veta finally approved of him and Harvey.

Harvey: He will always be invisible to ones who do not believe in him, so only Elwood and occasionally Veta will be able to see him. A pooka will stay as a pooka himself, helping others and having a curious mind.

Veta: While the other two main characters will not have a dramatic change in life, Veta will. She will no longer be stressed by the whole town thinking of Elwood as a psychopath, and finally knew that in order for her to be happy, people she loves should be happy too.
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Part 3. Characters:

Elwood P. Dowd: The protagonists of the story, he was once a very popular man in town with his good manners, but one day, he met Harvey and befriended him. Elwood has a very calm character, and surprisingly did not wonder how a 6 feet tall rabbit can come to him and ask to be friends. Despite his 47 year old age, Elwood is a symbol of innocent. His first line to everyone he meets is very interesting, “…let me give you one of my cards…. Now I would like to introduce a good friend of mine…” This comes out like a motif throughout, and shows even though some people might think he is crazy, he keeps his pace and does not get influenced by the world.

Harvey: Also the title of the play, Harvey is a 6 six feet and one and a half inch tall rabbit. He is Elwood’s best friend, and also a pooka, a Celtic mythological creature. Throughout the play, he is not visible on stage, but he is there most of the time. No one except for Elwood seems to notice him, and is the basis of the whole plot line. Inferring from Elwood’s lines, he seems to be a very childlike and cheerful character, he knows lots of people in town, and has a very curious mind. He also likes to wear a jacket and a hat just like his best friend.

Veta Louise: Veta is Elwood’s sister. She might seem hysterical, but it is from the stress from Elwood and his friend. Veta loves Elwood, and wishes the best for him, and after he ruined the party, she thought that it would be best to Elwood to just go in the sanitarium and have specialized mental cure. Unlike the other main characters, Veta is a very normal person. She is not overly mannered and has the stress just like everyone in the real life.

Some of the other characters include Dr. Sanderson, a doctor working for the sanitarium, and is almost fired by mistaking Veta as the mental patient, Kelly, a nurse working with Dr. Sanderson and has a slight love relation with him, Dr. Chumley, the head of the sanitarium, and his wife Betty. Also, Veta’s daughter Myrtle May, the taxi driver, Wilson, judge Gaffney, Ethel, and Miss Johnson comes out as minor characters.

Part 4. Themes:

As stated earlier, the play does not have any deep issues that might be used as a theme. Since the play was written to entertain the people suffering from the loss of World War 2, it focuses on the humor and other aspects to amuse the audience. Nevertheless, it shows theme such as innocent, and friendship.

Elwood was like a child throughout the play, he displayed innocent of a child. The word innocent did not appear in the play as a word to describe Elwood. They were replaced by words such as crazy or psychopath. Still, the innocent of Elwood and the other character’s response to it is the main idea that fuels the plot. The play suggests that Elwood is neither drinking nor is crazy, and the staging shows Harvey is not Elwood’s imaginary friend, but an invisible friend. However, the other characters do not understand this and believes that Elwood is showing psychopathic behaviors. This is when Elwood’s innocent and kind nature is at its place. He agrees to take the mental disease cure shot so that Veta and Myrtle Mae can be happy. Later on, Veta realized that this is not right and changes her mind, not giving Elwood the shot and continue living with him and Harvey.

Friendship also plays a big role in the play. The main friendship is between Harvey and Elwood, but other friendship such as Elwood and Chumley, Elwood and Logfren, and even Kelly and Sanderson. The most interesting friendship was the one between Elwood and Logfren, the taxi driver. When Logfren came to Veta and ask for money, he was being very rude. No one liked his attitude, and this caused a short fight between him and the other characters. However, Elwood was different from the others, he politely said hello, gave him his card, and invited him to dinner, forming some kind of friendship.

Part 5. Personal Reaction

At first, the play did not amuse me, I thought it was boring, and some of the jokes were very old fashioned. However, as the play progressed, it had such mood that was very enjoyable. My favorite part of the play was when Elwood always says the same phrase when he meets new people, and how he asks ‘what do you have in mind’ whenever some asks if he wants something.

Personally, I think that this is a very good play to perform at SMIC. It does not have any dramatic sets or need a large crowd of actors. It has jokes that many people can enjoy, and is comedic. Also, it has 5 scenes in total but they all shift between 3 places so there are no needs to have very high quality sets.

Neverthless, there are some parts that are not fit to the school play purpose, and most of the characters are pretty old, so it would be a little difficult to act it as high school students. Also, the costumes need to be one from the 1940’s America, so they also have to be brought from outside.