83 pages • 2 hours read
Val EmmichDear Evan Hansen
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Evan Hansen
Evan is a self-described shy, timid high school senior. He loves nature and watching documentaries. He struggles with severe social anxiety and takes medication to cope. Evan is ashamed of his mental illness and sees it as a mark of defection. He struggles to articulate his feelings not only because speaking to others makes him anxious, but also because he is afraid of revealing his true feelings, which he fears are too dark for his mother to handle. Despite his struggle to articulate himself, Evan is a talented writer. He won third place in a national short story contest, and his mother pushes him to enter an essay contest so he can win scholarships to help pay for his future college tuition. The summer before his senior year, Evan worked as an apprentice park ranger at a local park, where he found solace in trees and solitude.
Evan is hyper-observant; he perceives the nuances of his classmates’ conversations with each other, their outfit changes and food choices, and the subtle cues of their body language and location in the lunchroom. He’s also acutely aware of how he does, or doesn’t, fit in to it all. However, Evan fails to recognize that his classmates share many of the same struggles and fears as him, despite acknowledging that some of them occupy the same rung on the social ladder as him. Take Alana Beck, who Evan notes is invisible in school just like he is, but he never considers why she puts so much pressure on herself to achieve, or whether someone else is putting the pressure on her. In Evan’s mind, he is the only with problems, the only one with a therapist, and the only one taking medication. This is not true, of course. Connor reveals that he also saw a therapist and took medication, but Evan’s social anxiety prevents him from forming connections with his classmates that would allow him to see that others are struggling along with him.
Connor Murphy
Connor Murphy is the resident outcast at Evan’s high school, and his suicide kickstarts the novel’s central conflict. He has a reputation for angry outbursts and drug use. However, Connor asserts that his anger is misunderstood. Underneath it all, he just wants to be heard like the rest of his classmates.
Connor Murphy is a foil to Evan. As Evan learns more about Connor, he is surprised by how much they have in common. From their taste in books to their disdain for sports, Evan finds that he may have had something to talk about with Connor when he was alive, if only he had known. Both Connor and Evan struggle with their mental health, and both feel misunderstood by their families, though their pain manifests in wildly different ways.
Zoe Murphy
Zoe Murphy is Evan’s crush and Connor’s sister. Evan likes her not because she is the most popular or beautiful girl in school, but because she is just herself: effortlessly cool and normal. Zoe is a musician, playing guitar in both her school’s jazz band and at open mic nights.
She resents Connor for his cruel treatment of her and for demanding all their parents’ attention when he was alive. After his death, she struggles to reconcile her complicated feelings for her brother. She claims to not be affected by his death, and she often accuses her parents of painting too rosy a picture of Connor after he is gone, yet she’s moved by Evan’s lie that Connor talked about her constantly and admired her.
Cynthia Murphy
Cynthia Murphy is Connor and Zoe’s mom. Devastated by her son’s death, she shows the most emotion of any of the Murphys. When Connor was alive, she pursued nearly every treatment imaginable to help save her son. However, she struggled to see Connor beyond his bad behavior.
Larry Murphy
Larry Murphy is Connor and Zoe’s father. He is a lawyer who works long hours and spends little time with his family. Connor resents him for working all the time and for retreating to alcohol to cope with the stress of work and family life, especially after Connor’s death. Mr. Murphy takes a more rigid approach to raising Connor, in contrast to Mrs. Murphy’s more patient and forgiving manner of dealing with their son.
Heidi Hansen
Heidi Hansen is Evan’s mother. She raises him alone after Evan’s father moves to Colorado following their divorce. She works long hours as a nurse’s aide in addition to taking night classes. She often has a fatigued, disheveled appearance. She finds comfort in astrology and motivational quotes, and often passes them on to Evan, who finds them corny and embarrassing. She cares deeply about Evan, but she struggles to give Evan the attention he needs due to her busy schedule.
Jared Kleinmann
Jared is Evan’s self-proclaimed “family friend” who doesn’t want to be seen as Evan’s actual friend for fear that it will tarnish his reputation. However, Jared often sits alone at lunch, coding on his computer. He hides behind trendy outfits, is both goofy and blunt, and often criticizes Evan through jokes.
Alana Beck
Alana Beck is Evan’s overachieving classmate. She is always the first to raise her hand in class, leads several student organizations, and completes numerous prestigious internships even before leaving high school. When Evan approaches her with his idea for the Connor Project, she jumps at the chance to be involved. With her experience and drive, she is a perfect fit for the position, and she pushes Evan to build the project into something great. However, her search for greatness clouds her judgment, and she often makes decisions that defy Evan’s wishes.
