Our Town By Thorton Wilder (1897 - 1975) Essays - Our Town

Our Town by Thorton Wilder (1897 - 1975) Our Town by Thorton Wilder (1897 - 1975) Type of Work: Presentational life drama Setting Grover's Corners, New Hampshire; 1901 to 1913 Principal Characters Stage Ma Beer, the play's all-wise narrator Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs, an ordinary small- town physician and housewife George Gibbs, their son Mr. and Mrs. Webb, a news editor and his wife Emily Webb, their daughter Simon Stimson , the town drunkard and church choir organist A conglomeration of other ordinary people living out ordinary lives Story Overveiw Act 1. Daily Life: The Stage Manager speaks while pointing to different parts of the stage: "Up here is Main Street ... Here's the Town Hall and Post Office combined ... First automobile's going to come along in about five years; belonged to Banker Cartwright, our richest citizen ... lives in the big white house up on the hill." A train whistle is heard, and the early birds of the town start to appear. The newsboy and the milkman begin their rounds just as the doctor is finishing his. They stop for a brief exchange of gossip: the school teacher is getting married, the doctor just delivered twins, and the milkman's horse refuses to adjust to a change in route. Now Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs are spotlighted in their respective kitchens, preparing breakfast. Mrs. Gibbs calls up to her children, George and Rebecca, and, as they appear, complains to her husband that George isn't helping with the chores. Mrs. Webb reminds her son Wally to wash thoroughly. The Gibbs daughter, Rebecca, doesn't want to wear her blue gingham dress. George negotiates for a raise in his allowance. Each child is reminded to eat slowly, finish his breakfast, stand up straight ... The day has begun. Later, coming home from school, Emily Webb promises to give George Gibbs some help with his algebra. At the Congregational Church, choir practice can be heard. In the Gibbs home, George and his father have a "serious" talk about growing up. Returning from choir practice, Mrs. Gibbs prattles on about the drunken choir organist, Simon Stimson. The town constable makes his rounds to ensure that all is well, and the Stage Manager calls an end to this typical day in Grover's Corners. Act 2. Love and Marriage: "Three years have gone by," muses the Stage Manager. "Yes, the sun's come up over a thousand times . . . " The date is now July 7,1904. It's been raining. As Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb reappear in their kitchens, he continues: "Both of those ladies cooked three meals a day - one of'em for twenty years and the other for forty - and no summer vacation. They brought up two children apiece, washed, cleaned the house ... and never a nervous breakdown. It's like what one of those Middle West poets said: You've got to love life to have life, and you've got to have life to love life ... It's what they call a vicious circle." Howie, the milkman, makes his deliveries to Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs, and at each house you hear talk of the same two breakfast-table conversation topics: the weather and the upcoming wedding of Emily and George. The chit-chat is typical of things people say before weddings. Mrs. Gibbs worries out loud about the inexperience of the bride and groom; the doctor reminisces about being a groom himself. His fear was that he and his wife would run out of things to talk about which, he chuckles, hasn't been the case at all. When George comes downstairs and is about to leave for a visit with Emily, his mother reminds him to put on his overshoes. But Emily's mother, though she invites George into her kitchen, won't let him see her daughter. Traditionally, she says, a groom is not allowed to see his bride on the wedding day until the ceremony begins. Mr. Webb placates young George: "There is a lot of common sense in some superstitions." The nervous groom sits down to a cup of coffee with Mr. Webb, his equally nervous future father-in-law. Mr. Webb makes various attempts at small talk and reassures George that his nervousness about impending matrimony is typical. "A man looks pretty small at a wedding ... all those women standing shoulder to shoulder making sure that the knot is tied in a might grand way." He then shares with George the advice his father gave him when he married; the stern counsel to keep his wife in line and show her who's in charge. George is puzzled until Mr. Webb goes on: "So I took the opposite of my father's advice and I've