¶ … happiness of the Gibbs and Webbs families with the misery of Simon Stimson. Is it true that Simon is just not cut out for small town life, or is there more to it?
On the surface, Thornton Wilder's drama Our Town depicts the happiness present in small town life. Its major plot revolves around the marriage of Emily Webb and George Gibb. Emily dies and in the third act when she comes back to the town as a ghost she marvels how people do not appreciate the goodness of life while they are living. On the surface, the play appears to celebrate small town life. However, there are many indications, particularly in the life of the minor characters, that small town life has a confining, depressing aspect to it. The most obvious example of this is the choir director Simon Stimson who hangs himself. But although not all of the misery of the minor characters is as florid and obvious as that of Simon's, it is clearly and palpably present.
For example, George's mother longs to visit Paris. However, she is never able to realize her dream. While the narrative offers the possible reading that Paris was simply an illusion and she is really happiest giving her money to her children, the way in which small town life circumvents her dream and prevents her from escaping could also be seen as chilling. Tellingly, her husband says that he does not want to go to Europe, for fear that it will make him less content with his lot in the small town. Some people dimly -- or distinctly -- perceive that Grover's Corners is not the whole world, but they can do little to...
Their dreams are more depressing than they are inspiring. When, for example, Mrs. Gibbs expresses her desire to see Paris, the audience knows she will not ever get to achieve her dream because of her husband's stubborn closed-mindedness. Emily's frustration with the lack of awareness on the part of the living in the third act also draws attention to the stubborn clinging to outmoded ways of thinking that can
All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being (Wilder, p.68). Looking at what happens in Act III with reference to that quotation, it is clear that Wilder is trying to say that something about Emily lives on in the
By capturing the these seemingly simple values in the life of a "typical" American small town, Wilder was telling a profound story that exploded the accepted norms of drama and in one explosion catapulted the American play from the nineteenth century to the twentieth via the chautauqua esque visage. This is why it is a mistake to typecast Wilder as a traditionalist. Rather he was a modernist that translated
Towns, Alike in Dignity Modern theatrical literature has become increasingly concerned with the goings-on in small towns and often largely un-notable communities. The epic plots and larger-than-life characters that occupied plays in Shakespeare's day and in much subsequent drama took place either in large metropolises, both real and imagined, or else in wildernesses of untamed forest or uninhabited isles. The small towns and hamlets that most people occupied were largely
She laments that no one looks at one another, and really listens during the seemingly casual rituals of the precious day. However, it is also possible to view the play as a tragedy: despite their ambitions (George wants to go to college), the pressures of society and the pull of unexplored sexuality cause George and Emily to enter into an overly hasty marriage. Emily dies in childbirth as a result
Eugene O'Neill's play, "The Emperor Jones (1921)," is the horrifying story of Rufus Jones, the monarch of a West Indian island, presented in a single act of eight scenes of violence and disturbing images. O'Neill's sense of tragedy comes out undiluted in this surreal and nightmarish study of Jones' character in a mighty struggle and tension between black Christianity and black paganism (IMBD). Jones is an unforgettable character in his
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