Literary Analysis Of Our Town By Thornton Wilder
The play “Our Town” written by Thornton Wilder is about a small town of Grover’s Corners in New Hampshire, telling the story of its humble town through the lives of its citizens, set in 1901, Grover’s Corners is an old fashioned country town heavily differing in the way of doing things compared to the modern day. The 3 act play focuses mainly on the lives of George Gibbs and Emily Webbs and taking us along through their childhoods, marriage and Emily’s untimely death. The play uses many dramatic techniques to enhance the viewers’ experience and to further reinforce its major themes of Appreciating life/Circle of life, Friendship/Marriage and the Artificiality of the Theatre. Allegories are a core technique used by Wilder but countless other techniques are utilized throughout the play to improve the experience, a lot of symbolism and imagery is used to portray the “life” theme and the lack of props on set with characters miming out most actions is a constant throughout the entire play, Even the Stage Manager himself serves as an omniscient presence to aid the viewing experience and to overall improve the play and its themes.
Although the play only runs through 3 days of life, it is structured as an allegory that represents the entire life span of Emily Webbs furthering on the “life” theme. The repetition of the sun’s cycle everyday parallels the life cycle, but unlike a sun when a person dies he does not rise again, significantly when Emily comes to the end of her life in Act 3 she is seen begging the Stage Manager to turn back the time and send her back, watching on at her own funeral only realising the value of what she had after she had lost it, Although Emily still had atleast 1 child to survive her and continue with the circle of life, bringing us back to one of the core themes. The play shows us that we should appreciate every moment because we never get a second chance and emphasizes the idea that our lives are fleeting by jumping from Emily’s wedding day to her funeral in the blink of an eye.
The Lack of / Minimalistic approach to the props used in the play further reminds the viewer of the artificial feel of the play and the characters miming out every action allows the audience to focus entirely on the characters, their interactions, and their development. Only utilizing the major props needed for the play such as; doorways and furniture, allow the viewers to get an improved feel of the characters without distraction but not to take away from the play completely.
Throughout the play the Stage Manager serves as an omniscient presence that acts as both a guide and a narrator, utilizing his powers to select what the audience views, asking characters to leave/enter scenes and to pose questions to assist in interpreting the play, further contributing to the Artificiality of the Theatre and reminding the viewers that this isn’t your conventional play.
Marriage and Friendship are also key themes that add another layer of realism and are played with throughout the play. Marriage in Our Town is shown as a big step, the penultimate moment of a young person’s life. Love and companionship are prized as giving meaning to life. Yet marriage in Our Town is not something that is forced into the story or happens in an unnatural way, as we see when Mr. and Mrs. Webb reminisce over the early days of their marriage, and when George and Emily have their hesitations going into it. Similarly friendship plays a similar role in the play as George and Emily’s friendship blossoms into a romance and eventually marriage, but it also serves an important role in illuminating some of the characters’ thoughts and brings to light some details we only learn through the characters friendly conversations, such as the fact that Simon-Stimson is an alcoholic and that Mrs. Gibbs wishes to travel.
Overall throughout the play many different dramatic and literary techniques are used to assist in portraying the core themes of the play (Life, Love and Artificiality of the Theatre).
