Harvey

Harvey Summary | Act 1, Scene 1 Summary

The scene opens in the library of the Dowd family mansion. The room is filled with lots of old-fashioned and grandiose furniture, but the most obvious thing in the room is an oil painting of an older woman above the mantle. A woman's voice, singing badly, can be heard coming from the next room.

The telephone is ringing and Myrtle Mae, a young woman, comes to answer it. The phone call is for her mother, Veta, and Myrtle Mae calls her in. Upon learning that the call is from the Society Editor of the newspaper, Veta gladly takes it. It becomes apparent that Veta and Myrtle Mae have guests in another part of the house, and Veta is describing the particulars of the gathering over the phone. While doing so, she motions to the portrait above the mantle, and proceeds to describe her late mother's great accomplishments.

Myrtle Mae announces that Mrs. Chauvenet, a very important guest, has arrived and Veta quickly gets off the phone. Veta advises Myrtle to be nice to Mrs. Chauvenet as she has a grandson about her age, but Myrtle starts to protest, citing that with a "screwball" uncle like her Uncle Elwood, it would make no difference whether she was nice or not. She also mentions her anger at a friend of Elwood's named Harvey. Veta gets very upset at the mention of that name, and insures Myrtle that neither Elwood nor Harvey will be around that afternoon to spoil their party. Myrtle wonders why they have to put up with either of them to which Veta reminds her that her mother had left everything to her brother and that in fact Elwood is putting up with them. The singing in the next room stops and Myrtle Mae and Veta exit the room.

A moment later, Elwood P. Dowd enters the room. He is a friendly-looking 47-year-old man and, although he wears a raincoat and hat, he carries an extra set of each in his hands. He is alone when he enters, but he appears to be making bows and gesturing for another invisible person to walk in before him. Elwood excuses himself from the invisible person next to him, whom he calls Harvey, telling him that he has to pick up the phone. After this, the phone rings. It is a sales call from a Miss Greenawalt who would like to sell a subscription to Elwood. Elwood is exceedingly polite over the phone and orders two subscriptions from Miss Greenawalt: one for himself and one for Harvey. He then proceeds to invite Mrs. Greenawalt to join him and his sister at his sister's party before hanging up the phone and exiting the stage.

Veta and Myrtle Mae enter followed closely by Mrs. Chauvenet, a wealthy older woman. Veta calls Mrs. Chauvenet Aunt Ethel, and Mrs. Chauvenet makes some humorous remarks about thinking that Veta was dead since she had not seen her in so long. Mrs. Chauvenet also makes some remarks about how much she wishes to see Elwood. As she does, Elwood enters, and Mrs. Chauvenet is thrilled to see him again. Despite Veta and Myrtle's insistence that she join the party as quickly as possible, Mrs. Chauvenet proceeds to talk to Elwood and asks him to join her for dinner soon. Elwood then introduces Mrs. Chauvenet to Harvey and tells her that Harvey is a Pooka. Elwood then talks to Harvey about Mrs. Chauvenet in front of her, while she becomes increasingly alarmed at witnessing Elwood's perfectly calm conversation with an invisible creature. Eventually, Elwood says that he and Harvey will go talk to the rest of their friends and motions for Harvey to step in ahead of him into the next room. Seeing the expression on Mrs. Chauvenet's face, he stops to tell her not to be alarmed because Harvey stares at everyone like that and that he in fact liked her very much. Elwood goes into the parlor and Mrs. Chauvenet immediately leaves the house, very flustered.

Myrtle goes to the parlor door and announces with great anxiety that Elwood is now introducing Harvey to the rest of their friends. She wonders aloud why her uncle cannot be run over by a truck. Veta scolds her and claims that it is not Elwood's fault he is the way he is. The phone rings, and Veta picks it up to discover Mrs. Greenawalt on the other end, wondering if she should bring some whiskey over to the party. Veta hangs up the phone and proclaims to Myrtle that Elwood has disgraced them for the last time. She calls him in from the parlor. Myrtle claims that Veta is no match for Elwood as she exits the drawing room while Elwood is entering.

Veta asks Elwood to sit down in the parlor and wait for her, as she has something very important about which to speak to him. Elwood happily accepts, and Veta leaves the room, locking the door behind her. After she has gone, Elwood walks over to a bookshelf, takes out a certain book and pulls out a bottle of liquor from behind it. He walks over to a chair and answers Harvey's unheard questions about the title, author and publisher of the book he is about to read.