Levenson’s Dear Evan Hansen is a well-written story about an intelligent but highly self-conscious high school student, Evan Hansen. The play explores the themes of loneliness, self-acceptance, suicide, lies, and the hardships of being a teenager’s parent. The main characters are high school students and their families going through the suicide of one of the students. Levenson discusses many significant issues in the play, and readers can find characters, their thoughts, and experiences relatable. Despite some uncertain moments, Dear Evan Hansen is an intriguing story that explores important themes, raises interesting questions, and has wonderful music and characters.
The play draws parallels between the characters, which makes the script exciting and helps describe characters, and how they change throughout the story. In the first act, Evan Hansen writes himself a letter, mentioning that he should not worry about anything and be the way he is (Levenson 8). However, he thinks about what can go wrong and desperately tries to stay optimistic. He is frightened of staying alone with his thoughts and trying to understand himself because deep inside, he hates his personality. However, at the end of the book, Evan’s last letter shows how much he has improved as he truly embraces himself and finally does not try to hide or lie anymore (Levenson 163). The script has a simple language, and events move pretty fast, which could be why the book is so popular. Events that rapidly happen, the modern language, and remarkable parallels keep the reader entertained.
The story is exciting and has a profound meaning as it raises such significant problems as suicide and its consequences, loneliness, and self-hatred. Suicide is one of the book’s central themes, and Connor, the student who committed suicide, leaves his parents and sister confused and heartbroken. His parents are desperate about their son’s unexpected death and blindly believe Evan’s lies, possibly feeling obliged to take care of Evan because they failed with Connor. The book shows how suicide affects the people around and raises awareness about the issue of teenage suicide. Dear Evan Hansen explores the theme of loneliness and successfully depicts this feeling. After signing Evan’s cast, Connor tells him that they can now “both pretend that [they] have friends” (Levenson 25). Readers can notice that Connor and Evan have many similarities but are too afraid to open up. Evan was afraid of social interactions, and he hated himself for self-consciousness. The author discusses significant problems teenagers face, which makes the characters relatable. Evan’s change can motivate readers to embrace themselves and give hope to those struggling with similar problems.
The music in Dear Evan Hansen helps readers understand the characters better as they often express their emotions and share their thoughts in the songs. The idea of the difficulty of being a parent to a teenager is described in Cynthia’s and Heidi’s song. They try to be good parents but do not know how to get closer to their children and feel like they are in a maze with no map (Levenson 13). The songs in the book are impressive, and they help the writer convey the characters’ emotions.
The moment in the play where Connor’s parents mistakenly think that their son wrote a letter to Evan before his death could be a little confusing to a reader because it is evident that Connor did not write the letter. Evan, the actual author, mentioned that he does not know Zoe Murphy in the letter, while Connor certainly knows his sister Zoe (Levenson 23). However, this is a minor detail, and the play had many other intriguing moments. For instance, Evan talks to Connor in his head when the boy reveals that Evan lied about how he broke his arm, as he did not fall from the tree but willingly jumped (Levenson 141). This moment implies that Evan has suicidal thoughts and that he is finally ready to admit to his problems and try to embrace himself. Dear Evan Hansen has touching and exciting moments that leave the reader impressed.
Even though Evan is not a conventionally likable guy who makes many mistakes, his character is appealing. He lied about the letter, which was a terrible and selfish decision. However, Zoe eventually tells Evan that her parents needed it, and the letter saved them, so his lie served a good purpose (Levenson 161). Evan’s character is relatable to readers because he is vulnerable and makes mistakes. Evan is not perfect, but he learned to accept himself, which motivates readers and makes the character attractive.
Dear Evan Hansen explores themes of loneliness, self-acceptance, suicide, and its consequences, lies, and parenting difficulties. The book excellently examines issues teenagers and their parents face and portrays characters in a relatable way through well-written lines and music. Levenson’s story intrigues and impresses readers, while the improvement of some characters can motivate them to face their problems. Dear Evan Hansen is a well-written play that can be interesting for many people and is worth reading.
Work Cited
Levenson, Steven. Dear Evan Hansen. 1st ed., Theatre Communications Group, 2017.