According to Lajos Egri and Gilbert Miller's concept of premise, conflict, and character, a well-written play has a purpose and destination. The premise of the play addresses three primary parts which include the conflict, character and the end as well clear thumbnail synopsis such as poverty leads to crime (Egri 6). The playwright spends much of his time trying to convince the audience about his conviction after choosing his side because much of the motivation force above everything else in the play comes from the premise. After reading the script of "Harvey" I agree with Egri that it is not a must for a play to start with a premise. It can start with characters or occurrences and then later the premise maneuver through the mass material as far as it will be found since it is important. The premise has no life of its own in the story so, it must be a conviction from the playwright. Therefore, both part of the story and the premise must unify in a harmonious whole.
The play has a bone structure of the characters branching into three parts. These include psychology, physiology, and sociology. The environment in the play portrays a constant fluctuation and change. In the playwriting concept documents, four sections are required as well which are the premise, character, conflict, and general. I may call it theme what Egri consider to be a premise. The premise helps the reader to think of it as the almost cut-down logline, which may compel him to yield to regard it with proper meaning. The premise needs to have three parts that show the major attribute of the lead character, the conflict, and ending (Egri 8). For example, pride leads to shame. The unity of opposites and premise is required to bring the dimension of antagonist and protagonist in need of opposite things to produce rising conflict. Having read "Harvey", character, conflict, and the plot is only shown through dialogue.
Application of Egri and Miller's Summary to Harvey
The three parts of the premise, conflict, character, and ending are well-developed in the play, Harvey. The kind of language used in the play is informed vocabulary appropriate for every character belonging to upper-class American. The main conflict is Harvey, the Pooka. Elwood shows a calm manner and polite way of speaking. He says "How are you doing today?" And what is your name, my dear?" (Chase 12). More stylish phrase shows the experiences in the social environment. Egri helps the reader to understand that character enhancement must be even. In the play “Harvey,” we see Myrtle and Veta trying to go through a process of changing Elwood from who he is. Elwood P.Dowd, the largest eccentric in the town, and his friends attempted to ‘mend’ him. However, as the story continues, the family started to notice that maybe it is alright to let Elwood remain as he is. They accepted him and the Pooka as they were. The premise seen in this scenario is that self-realization leads to acceptance. Hervey explores the premise of acceptance and put up with everyone despite their imagination and strangeness. The cab driver, a meek and sincere man, speaks to Elwood about the ruin of being normal. He surely knows "what bastard they all are"(Chase 27). Therefore, he does not like the "Perfectly normal human being". So, he seems to provide a different point of views other than those of Myrtle Mae, Veta and others.
In large part of the play, we see Veta looking for medication to get rid of Elwood craziness and of his rabbit. At the end of the play, we see her addressing ordinary, compliant people in society showing a moment of transparency, "I don't want Elwood that way. I don't like people like that" (Chase 28). Veta has finally accepted Harvey and Elwood as they are at this point and she is comfortable with them. Egri provided an answer to what I ever heard individuals saying about the characters in the film are three-dimensional. I realized that three-dimension is physiology (genetics, health, and physical appearance), psychology (capabilities, IQ, principles, goals, and personality) and sociology (religion, home life, status, and occupation). In the play, Elwood P. Dowd illustrates Harvey, seemingly an imaginary friend, as a six-foot, one and a half high Pooka that looks like an anthropomorphic rabbit. Psychologically, Veta seems to be embarrassed by the eccentric behavior of her brother, Elwood, making her think of committing him to a sanitarium.
Egri argues that ineffective character is one who cannot make a decision to act for any reason. Egri continues to state that if any character takes the correct position of attack, he or she can be strong. In this case, the premise acts as a goal to my two lead characters, Veta and Elwood in the script of "Harvey" especially Elwood and licenses their development. Veta seems to go from disappointment to love over his brother, Elwood. There is a likelihood that Veta is passing through some transitional stages such as embarrassment, ambivalence, concern, and liking. She is wrongly committed to sanitarium instead of Elwood by the young doctor, Sanderson. When Elwood arrived at sanitarium searching for his friend Harvey, his centricities seems to have the unusual effect to the sanitarium staffs as well as the director, Dr. Chumley. However, Veta decided to accept him as he is before he is given an injection that will make him "perfectly normal human" (Chase 28). Therefore, according to Egri, Veta missed out these changes leading to melodrama.
Subjective Personal Response
In exploring the character of Marvin through Egri concepts of physiology, sociology, and psychology, the play gives a clear background of his motivation and actions. Marvin is generally a self-centered, poignant, bad-tempered and childish character. The 22 young man and bachelor visit his uncle, Elwood with his father, Vernon after his grandfather died. He goes to his uncle with a self-centered motive since all the properties were left to his uncle. Marvin's intention is to live a happy life out of luck. Throughout the script, we see him evolving from psychologically immature child to attempting to resolve the importance of achievement and love. Towards the end of the play, it is astonishing on how this character goes through a radical change.
Egri's dissect of a script's crucial elements has given me an informative guide with which I have interpreted the "Harvey" Play. Anyway, it is an issue of individual choice to get the book that is most useful as many people have generated many books refining the real meaning of good writing. However, I have found that the concept of playwriting presented in the reading and application in the script of Harvey is inspirational, lucid and succinct. Therefore, the Egri's concept of a premise is tremendously important because it provides much of the motivation force above anything else to interpret the script and to understand the difference between a story and plot. However, I felt the character of Elwood P. Dowd could have been fully developed by finding his imaginary friend Harvey, a six feet tall white rabbit.
Works Cited
Chase, Mary. Harvey: Comedy in three acts. Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1971
Egri, Lajos. The art of dramatic writing: Its basis in the creative interpretation of human motives. Simon and Schuster, 1972
