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 Asian and European ideas into the American idiom via drama (ibid, xv). Wilder's experience of this style of drama came about as he was influenced by the economy of the storytelling of Noh drama. This drama style boldly compressed a huge time span into a short period of time with a minimum of scenery (ibid, xvi). This gives it an appeal that is beyond just the American experience. The popularity of the play around the world attests to the play having universal human appeal that is much greater than just the American experience. Indeed, it captures the...
It forces the actors to concentrate on the acting and to relate to the audience on a real level. This is especially important in the twenty-first century in our era of special effects and cinema fakery of avatars and computer generated effects. It makes us appreciate the acting and script and forces script writers to do this as well. All of this attests to the continuing appeal an influence of "Our Town" more than eighty years after Thornton Wilder wrote it.
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
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 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
Trip to Chinatown / Hello, Dolly! One might not ordinarily associate comedienne Carol Channing with formidable erudition, but the Broadway premiere of Hello, Dolly! In 1964 would manage to unite them both thanks to the participation of Thornton Wilder. Wilder remains persistently underrated in the canon of American drama, partly because his own achievement had originally derived from fiction -- yet an examination of Wilder's own notebooks reveals that his
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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