Harvey

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Elwood P. Dowd and Harvey.

"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

Harvey is a 1944 Pulitzer Prize winning play which has been made into a 1950 film starring Jimmy Stewart and a 1996 TV Movie starring Harry Anderson.

Harvey himself is a giant rabbit who is also a Pooka and who is Invisible to Normals. (To those who can see him, he is white.) He is quite friendly. He may or may not have several Stock Super Powers...

Of course, since he is invisible and usually unobtrusive, his existence is frequently doubted.

His best friend is Elwood P. Dowd, who is the local useless eccentric who is living off his inheritance. He spends his days in bars, drinking and introducing people to Harvey. He wants everyone to meet Harvey, including the local socialites whom his sister wants to impress so her daughter can get married. His attempts to get everyone to meet Harvey tend to disturb the socialites, though.

After one garden party too many is wrecked this way, his sister calls an insane asylum so that she can cure Elwood of seeing and recognizing Harvey. This is made difficult because Elwood is a nice man who charms most of the hospital staff and who doesn't understand that there might be a problem. It also doesn't help that she herself also isn't quite sure whether Harvey is real or not—she just wants Harvey gone.

The questions: Does Harvey exist? Can Elwood be cured of believing in him? And is it worth it?

While the 1950 version is the most popular, over five other film versions have been made and a sixth was abandoned in 2009/2010.

Tropes used in Harvey include:

Dr. Sanderson: "How did you come to call him Harvey?"
Elwood: "Well, Harvey's his name."

  • Basement Dweller: Subverted. Early on, Myrtle Mae complains that Elwood is this, as he lives with his sister and won't move out or get a job. Veta at once reminds her that, since Elwood got the entire family fortune, they're the ones living with him.
  • Bow Ties Are Cool: Harvey seems to think so, if the portrait is to be believed.
  • Catch Phrase: Elwood is always introducing himself:

Elwood P. Dowd. Let me give you one of my cards.

    • He's also delighted to meet new people, even if they aren't as nice as he is (or even nice to him).

I want you to know that I'm glad to have met you.

I started to walk down the street when I heard a voice saying: "Good evening, Mr. Dowd." I turned, and there was this big white rabbit leaning against a lamp-post. Well, I thought nothing of that, because when you've lived in a town as long as I've lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name.

Attractive sales lady at a department store: What can I do for you, Mr. Dowd?
Elwood P. Dowd: What did you have in mind?

"After this he'll be a perfectly normal human being. And you know what bastards they are!"

  • The Messiah: Dowd.
  • My Card: Anyone, anyone, Elwood meets, he gives them his card, telling them which number to call him at.
  • Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Harvey.
  • Rich Idiot With No Day Job: Elwood, but he's a friendly Rich Idiot With No Day Job, and it isn't brought up much.
    • In fact, his sister and niece can be seen as this as well.
  • Sanity Slippage: Veta progressively becomes more unbalanced as the story progressive, as if she's losing contact with reality and cannot make up her mind if Harvey is real or not. She gets better at the end, in that she can accept Harvey so long as Elwood stays as nice as he always is.

Dr. Chumley: "I want to observe his face as he talks to the rabbit. He does talk to it, doesn't he?"
Veta: "Yes, they discuss all things together."
Dr. Chumley: "What?"
Veta: (without changing her expression or tone from her last line) "I said yes, he does talk to it."

  • Shipper on Deck: Elwood is so completely on board the Dr. Sanderson/Ms. Kelly train that he even believes they're together when he's first meeting them when they insist they're just coworkers. Once Wilson and Myrtle Mae are seen together, he's endorsing their pairing, too.
  • A Simple Plan: Early on it's established Elwood sees a six-foot rabbit no one else can see and his sister and niece decide to send him to the insane asylum. Given Elwood's behaviour and accepting demeanor you'd think nothing could go wrong with that strategy... and you'd be mistaken. Minor subversion is that there's an indication that Harvey himself might have something to do with things not quite going to plan.
    • The rabbit's only 6' in the play, in the movie it was changed to 7' because Jimmy Stewart was too tall to look up to a 6' bunny the way he needed to.
    • Six feet three and a half inches, now let's stick to the facts.
  • Spooky Painting: Played for Laughs in this case. Somehow, the painter who did Elwood's portrait also saw Harvey and included him in the picture, too. It's used as a joke when Veta gives Dr. Chumley a lecture about paintings showing the reality of life, her being unaware Harvey's painting is standing where her mother's painting was.

Veta: (points at painting of Harvey) "Doctor, that is NOT my mother!"
Dr. Chumley: "Yes, well, I'm very glad to hear that."

  • The "Unicorn In The Garden" Rule: Elwood's world is the same as ours except for the invisible presence of Harvey the Pooka—and every fantastic element of the show results from that.
  • Took a Level In Kindness: Spelled out in the scene between Elwood and Dr. Chumley. The page quote sums it up nicely.
    • Also Veta throughout the play, as she learns to stop fussing about her social status and being "respectable" and try to make people happy.
  • Urban Fantasy
  • White Bunny: Harvey. If you can see him, that is.

"You don't believe that story about the doctor sitting here, talking to a big white rabbit, do ya?"
"Well why not? Harvey was here."

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