Dec 26, 2009

Harvey | Style

Setting
The scenes in this play alternate between the library of the Dowd mansion and the foyer of the sanitarium. These two settings help to accentuate the different possible ways of looking at Elwood P. Dowd’s eccentricities.

Within his home environment, Dowd’s behavior almost makes sense. The big, ornate mansion with relics of an earlier time, which the set direction describes as ‘‘faded grandeur,’’ gives readers an understanding of his personality even before Dowd arrives. He is a throwback, courtly and generous, with all of his real human relations...