Evan Hanson IS a sociopath

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/5/18 at 1:30pm

Discuss

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 2/5/18 at 1:34pm

I don't know who that is, but Evan Hansen is questionable.

[Jonathan Laurence Andrews]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 3:14pm

I'm reviving a dormant thread, because I am interested in the topic, and in people's reactions. For the record, I believe that Evan Hansen is a sociopath. Sociopathy is a spectrum; he is not completely amoral, nor the most egregious, and he more than meets the criteria.

Dear Evan Hansen is a monumental work in musical theater, of equal parts bravery and cowardice. Brave for its steely gaze at suicide, depression, grief and other topics that merit more discussion than they get in everyday life. I also give the creators mega-kudos for holding the tension in the storyline as long as possible, however uncomfortable it makes people. Still, it is cowardly for its portrayal of Evan as a hero. He's an anti-hero, but the writers try so hard to shoe-horn him into a likeable character mold.

We can appreciate a good story like The Talented Mr. Ripley, a central character of dubious moral fibre. We just need to call a spade a spade. In the real world, Evan's multi-layered deception would make a grieving family's process so much worse. He's also kind of a PoS to his mother and friends, and I need receipts from the money that poured in for the Connor project. Through all of this, we're supposed to pity Evan's broken arm, his depression, his love-sick obsession? Mitigating circumstances, sure, as is his age. Btu they do not absolve him one bit.

Many folks seem to say he's not a sociopath because they don't WANT to believe he's a sociopath. They identify with the show or they empathize with his struggles, and all of that is fine. Just don't let the sugar-coating fool you, EH is a bitter pill.

[artscallion]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 3:52pm

He's certainly got his problems. But I wouldn't call him a sociopath since he demonstrates empathy for others. And it's clear that he doesn't consider himself to be superior to others. Those are two of the main defining characteristics of a sociopath.

I think he behaves badly, but I don't think it's out of the scope of what many people would be capable of. I don't think he's a hero. But I also don't think he's a sociopath. I think he's just a human who made some really bad choices and doesn't have the life skills to get himself out of them, which is why so many people relate to him. 

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 4:42pm

artscallion said: "I think he's just a human who made some really bad choices and doesn't have the life skills to get himself out of them, which is why so many people relate to him."

This, exactly.

Let’s not forget that all of his bad decisions come from a place of good intent. He goes along with the note misunderstanding because he saw that it gave Connor’s family some peace while losing him, and then gets sucked into the lie of it all because he doesn’t want to disappoint or hurt anyone, more than he (accidentally) already has.

A lot of the pushback on this show, in my real-life experience, has been from people who haven’t actually seen the show. I do agree that the ending could be better but as a whole I think the show is incredible in how it portrays the human response to the loss of a loved one, depression, family dynamics, outcasts, and most importantly - the impact our actions have on everyone around us.

 

[Impossible2]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 4:43pm

No he is not.

Sociopaths are incapable of empathy or remorse and he had both of those things once he was found out.

He was dumb kid trapped in a lie that he didn't know how to get out of, end of x

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 4:48pm

Me: Hi, how-

NYU students/edgy teens: EVAN HANSEN IS A SOCIOPATH AND SHOULD DIE IN PRISION HE'S LITERALLY WORSE THAN HITLER BEN PLATT PUNCHED MY MOTHER AND CALLED MY SISTER A WH*RE THE GREAT COMET WAS ROBBED

[UncleCharlie]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 4:53pm

They say this cat Evan Hansen is a bad mutha

Shut yo mouth

I'm takin' bout Evan Hansen

Then we can dig it

Updated On: 3/12/19 at 04:53 PM

[Impossible2]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 4:55pm

GeorgeandDot said: "Me: Hi, how-

NYU students/edgy teens: EVAN HANSEN IS A SOCIOPATH AND SHOULD DIE IN PRISION HE'S LITERALLY WORSE THAN HITLER BEN PLATT PUNCHED MY MOTHER AND CALLED MY SISTER A WH*RE THE GREAT COMET WAS ROBBED"

In fairness Great Comet was robbed, but that doesn't make Evan Hansen a sociopath x

[Scott19]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 5:05pm

What @unclecharlie said.

Afternoon laughs don't get any better!

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 5:34pm

 

In my defense, this was a parroty thread that never got deleted.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 6:06pm

Far from a sociopath. He’s a lonely, anxious teen. People relate to him because at some point in their lives most people have felt isolated or “other.”

Words Fail is a great song because it beautifully articulates his conflict, guilt and remorse.

People lie all the time to decrease their loneliness. Anyone clutching their pearls over his behavior may be the ones lacking empathy.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 6:22pm

How can the snowflakes keep insisting EH is a sociopath? Don't they have dictionaries? EH goes along with the Big Lie in the first place because he emphathizes with Connor's parents and can't bare to let them think Connor had no friends. He confesses the Big Lie because he feels so guilty; IIRC his mother never threatens to unmask him, but because she knows the truth, EH feels such shame he comes clean.

These are NOT the actions or reactions of a sociopath.

I don't know why this question keeps coming up. Evan Hanson is no worse than Harold Hill, Dolly Levi, Annie Oakley, Pseudolus, Nathan Detroit, Madame Rose, the Baker and his Wife, Lorelei Lee or any of the characters of Plautus.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 6:51pm

'Sociopath' is described as having a lack of conscience. If Evan has no conscience, why would he confess in Words Fail? Why would he have a verse about the guilt driving him insane in Good For You?

BTW, the Venn Diagram of people who call Evan a sociopath and people who thought Great Comet was better is one circle.

[denali.fire]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 7:01pm

Just for the record 

Most HS students are sociopaths,

Take it from a retired teacher.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/12/19 at 7:13pm

I dont think he's a sociopath, but did want Comet to win.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/13/19 at 8:46am

For what it's worth, the tie-in novel describes him explicitly as having an anxiety disorder and STRONGLY implies he is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum.

[Dave28282]

Posted: 3/13/19 at 9:13am

I think so too,

But that doesn't mean there can't be show with one. There's room for everything in storytelling. 

As long as people are not going to celebrate his actions in real life.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/13/19 at 9:15am

darquegk said: "For what it's worth, the tie-in novel describes him explicitly as having an anxiety disorder and STRONGLY implies he is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum."

I thought that was pretty obvious from the production, too.  (However, I'm a teacher and therefore much more aware of both anxiety disorders and autism than the average bear.)

[Jose]

Posted: 3/13/19 at 9:46am

http://joseonbway.com/2016/04/

I have believed so since I first encountered him.

Dislike the character, dispise the show.

[Rainah]

Posted: 3/13/19 at 9:59am

Evan is a sociopath in the same sense that 99% of ALL teenagers are sociopaths:

Short term thinking, lack of perspective, difficulty seeing how his actions effect others, self-centeredness, etc

He causes real harm, but he doesn't intend to cause harm and in a lot of cases is completely unaware he's causing harm. I am frustrated that the musical basically says nothing's his fault because he means well, but he's not sociopathic.

[Impossible2]

Posted: 3/13/19 at 10:05am

I find it amazing that poor old Evan always cops this label and yet Dolly Levi who is definitely a sociopath escapes judgement because she's supposedly 'funny'.

[Consistency]

Posted: 3/13/19 at 10:45am

"BTW, the Venn Diagram of people who call Evan a sociopath and people who thought Great Comet was better is one circle."

Eh? I thought Great Comet was a better and more affecting show - but I also think calling Evan a sociopath is nonsensical.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/13/19 at 11:23am

The more I think about this, the more complicated it gets. If we define a sociopath in broad strokes as "a person who is relentless in pursuing their own goals or ideals, feeling no guilt and even sometimes taking pleasure in the damage it causes," Evan wouldn't be a sociopath: he's clearly overwhelmed with guilt and paranoia about the whole thing throughout, though he can't seem to stop himself from going forward with it.

What we could be looking at as well is a case of what used to be called a fabulist or a pathological liar. Nowadays, we class that as a subset of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The only thing we can really draw from all this is that Evan is a carefully drawn but poorly delineated Generic On the Spectrum Boy. Like Abed Nadir and Sheldon Cooper on TV, the character we get is a laundry list of symptoms and neuroses flung together to depict "high functioning mental illness and non-neurotypical development," but without the precision and specificity of being able to say "yup, this is a story about what used to be called Asperger's Syndrome."

(An unrelated thought: Peak TV's quality boom has trickled down to the lowest common denominator, hasn't it? The TV show most commonly recognized as pandering low-quality entertainment, Big Bang Theory, is STILL a show dealing with the relationship issues between a neurotypical woman and her asexual, autistic husband. Ten years ago that would be Sundance-drama stuff.)

[Rainah]

Posted: 3/14/19 at 8:16am

I don't even think he can be called a pathological liar. Nothing about his lies in the show were really pathological, and he doesn't lie for no reason.