Our Town
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Current revision
- See Our Town (1940 movie) for the adapted 1940 film.
Our Town is a play by Thornton Wilder that is set in the fictional community of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. It is a story of character development that details the interactions between citizens of an everyday town through their everyday lives (particularly the lives of George Gibbs, a doctor's son, and Emily Webb, the daughter of a newspaper editor). Our Town opened on February 4, 1938 in New York City. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938. It was adapted into a film in 1940 and a television musical starring Frank Sinatra and others in 1955.
The play, when staged, is often self-aware with many characters breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience. Traditionally, it is performed with little or no scenery, set, or props often with many of the characters miming the objects they interact with and their surroundings. Often the only props used are those that are more difficult to mime and/or signify important physical positions including chairs, tables, and ladders. Also, the scene in which Emily and George share homework answers through their windows is traditionally performed with the two actors standing atop separate ladders to simulate elevated windows of neighboring houses.
Characters
The named characters are:
- Stage Manager
- Dr. Frank F. Gibbs,
- Howie Newsome,
- Mrs. Julia Hersey Gibbs,
- Mrs. Myrtle Webb,
- George Gibbs,
- Rebecca Gibbs,
- Emily Webb,
- Professor Willard,
- Charles Webb,
- Simon Stimson,
- Mrs. Louella Soames,
- Constable Warren,
- Sam Craig,
- Joe Stoddard,
- Wally Webb,
- Joe Crowell,
- Si Crowell.
Plot
Throughout the play, the Stage Manager conducts the story being told, taking questions from the audience, describing the locations and making key observations about the world he or she creates for the audience. The Stage Manager also plays several different but key roles within the story he or she tells, such as a preacher and the owner of a soda shop.
Act One
The play begins with the Stage Manager providing a description of the town. After this are scenes within the Gibbses' and Webbs' homes of both families preparing their children for school. Then the Stage Manager guides the audience through a day in the life of the town. He also has Professor Willard, a long-winded local historian, and Mr. Webb, editor of the Grover's Corners Sentinel, talk about the town. After a scene within the Congregational Church, Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Gibbs, and Mrs. Soames discuss Simon Stimson. Stimson is the church organist with a reputation for being a drunkard. Due to his non-conforming nature, he is often the subject of the town's gossip. The act also includes a scene in which George and Emily discuss George's trouble in school, foreshadowing a future relationship.
Act Two
Three years pass and George and Emily announce their plans to wed. The day is filled with stress, topped off by George's visit to the Webbs' home. There, he meets Mr. Webb, who tells George of Mr. Webb's father's advice, telling George to treat Emily like property and never respect her needs. Mr. Webb continues to say that he did the exact opposite of his father's advice and has been happy since. Mr. Webb concludes by telling George to never take advice from anyone on matters of that nature. The wedding follows, where George, in a fit of nervousness, tells his mother that he is not ready to marry. Emily, too, tells her father of her anxiety about marriage. However, they both regain their composure and George proceeds down the aisle to be wed by the Stage Manager, who is playing a preacher.
Act Three
The Stage Manager introduces the location: a graveyard atop a hill overlooking Grover's Corners. Sam Craig, George's cousin, and Joe Stoddard, the undertaker, are walking through. Emily, after dying in childbirth, is being buried here today. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the living, the dead observe the living while seated in their "graves." Among the dead are Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Soames, and Simon Stimson. Emily soon joins them. As Emily tells them of her own demise, Mrs. Soames makes the remark, "My, wasn't life awful - and wonderful," a line that somewhat summarizes the whole play, showing that life has both its upsides and downsides and that we never really notice the importance of our lives while we live them. Emily finds that she is able to relive moments in her life and, against the advice of Mrs. Gibbs and with the help of the Stage Manager, decides to relive a day in her life. Mrs. Gibbs advises Emily that if she is to pick a day to relive, she should pick one that is insignificant; the reasoning behind this suggestion is that not only will Emily relive the day, she will also observe the day with the knowledge of the future. Emily decides to revisit her twelfth birthday. She is at first overwhelmed with joy, but this succumbs to tears, when she is unable to tell her mother of all the misfortune that will eventually occur. After one last look, Emily tells the Stage Manager she is ready to go back to the graveyard. She asks if any living person every truly notices everything as he or she lives it. The Stage Manager responds saying "saints and poets, maybe" but it seems as if no living person truly appreciates every detail in his or her life. Back in the cemetery, Simon Stimson, who hanged himself in the attic, reveals the bitterness of his soul, remarking that life was full of ignorant people who never cared. The rest of the dead eventually reassure Emily. The play drives its moral home when George Gibbs approaches Emily’s grave and collapses in tears. The play closes with the Stage Manager making a few comments about the fragility of human life.