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Thornton Wilder

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The stage manager arranges some tables and chairs on stage while the audience enters the theater, and then addresses the audience. He tells them that they are about to see a play called “Our Town” about the town of Grover’s Corners. He introduces the audience to Dr. Gibbs and Mrs. Gibbs , as well as their neighbor, Mr. Webb , who edits the local newspaper, The Grover’s Corners Sentinel . The stage manager reveals that Dr. Gibbs died in 1930, and his wife died much earlier. It is early in the morning, and Dr. Gibbs is returning home after helping with the birth of a pair of twins. Mrs. Gibbs begins to make breakfast while in the Webb household Mrs. Webb does the same. Dr. Gibbs runs into Joe Crowell , a young boy who delivers the newspaper. The stage manager informs the audience that Joe graduated at the top of his class from high school and earned a scholarship to MIT. He had a promising career as an engineer, but joined the army in World War I and died in France. Howie Newsome , the local milkman, delivers milk to the Gibbs and Webbs. The two families’ children come down to breakfast: George and Rebecca Gibbs , and Emily and Wally Webb . The kids run off to school, and Mrs. Gibbs talks to Mrs. Webb. She tells Mrs. Webb that someone offered her $350 for an old piece of furniture in her home. She says she would consider selling it if she knew that Dr. Gibbs would spend the money on a vacation, and tells Mrs. Webb that she’s always wanted to see Paris. Dr. Gibbs, however, has no interest in traveling beyond visiting Civil War battle sites every two years.

The stage manager interrupts the women’s conversation and announces that he wants to give the audience more information about Grover’s Corners. He invites Professor Willard , a professor from the local state university, onto the stage to tell the audience about the town. He then invites Mr. Webb forward to give the “political and social report” on Grover’s Corners. Mr. Webb fields questions from three members of the audience, one of whom asks him if there is much culture in the town. Mr. Webb answers that there is not much. The stage manager says it is time to return to the play and announces that it is now the early afternoon. George and Emily return home from school and George asks her to help him with his homework (Emily is very intelligent and does well in school). The stage manager addresses the audience again to tell them about a new development in town. A new bank building is being built and the townspeople are burying various items in a time capsule with the cornerstone of the building. The townspeople are including copies of the New York Times and Grover’s Corners Sentinel , as well as of the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and the works of Shakespeare. The stage manager decides to include a copy of Our Town , as well.

It is now evening and a church choir is practicing singing “ Blessed Be the Tie That Binds ” for a wedding. At the Gibbs home, Dr. Gibbs speaks with George about doing the chores around the house and asks him what his ambitions are for after high school. George wants to go work on his uncle’s farm and eventually take it over from him. Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Webb, and Mrs. Soames return from choir practice and gossip about the alcoholic choir director, Simon Stimson . The women go their separate ways and Mrs. Gibbs returns home. She tries to talk to her husband about him taking a significant break from work at some point, but Dr. Gibbs refuses. They both lament how Grover’s Corners is becoming “citified” because people are starting to lock their doors at night. Upstairs in the Gibbs’ house, Rebecca tells George about a letter her friend received that had the address, “Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm; Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God.” The stage manager announces the end of act one.

The stage manager announces at the beginning of act two that three years have passed. Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb make breakfast in their respective kitchens, and Howie Newsome delivers milk, as before. Joe Cromwell’s younger brother Si now delivers the town newspaper . It is gradually revealed that Emily and George are getting married. In their kitchen, Dr. Gibbs and Mrs. Gibbs recall their own wedding and how nervous they both were. George goes over to the Webb home, but Mrs. Webb tells him he cannot see Emily on their wedding morning. She goes upstairs to keep Emily from coming down, and Mr. Webb and George talk. Mr. Webb shares some marriage advice from his father, about making sure that the husband is the boss in the relationship and orders around the wife. But Mr. Webb says he has done the exact opposite and has had a happy marriage.

The stage manager interrupts the play to flashback to when George and Emily’s romantic relationship started. It is the end of George’s junior year in high school, and after school one day George and Emily are talking. Emily confesses to George that she is not pleased with how he has been acting recently and says that girls at school think he is conceited. George thanks Emily for being honest with him and the two have ice cream sodas at the local drugstore. George discusses his plans for the future, and after admitting that he has feelings for Emily (and learning that she feels similarly), he decides not to go to agricultural college, but rather to stay in Grover’s Corners with Emily.

The stage manager returns to the wedding day, where he performs the ceremony as the minister. Both Emily and George are nervous about the wedding and panic at the last minute, both anxious about leaving behind their childhoods and growing up. The two realize their love for each other, though, and are happily married by the stage manager, who then announces that the second act is over.

As the third act begins, the stage manager announces that nine years have passed since act two. Mrs. Gibbs, Simon Stimson, Mrs. Soames, and Wally Webb are standing in the cemetery, all deceased. Joe Stoddard , the town undertaker, talks with Sam Craig , who grew up in Grover’s Corners and has returned for the funeral of his cousin, who turns out to be Emily Webb, who died in childbirth. George, Dr. Gibbs, and Mr. and Mrs. Webb gather for the funeral, at which “ Blessed Be the Tie That Binds ” is sung. Emily enters and joins the other deceased characters. She asks if she can go back and relive her past life. Mrs. Gibbs tells her she can, but she and the stage manager try to dissuade her from doing so, because it is so painful.

Disregarding their warnings, Emily decides to relive the day of her twelfth birthday, and the stage manager takes her back to that day. She is amazed to see the town as it used to be and to see her parents look so young. But, she is also pained by knowing what will happen in the future (including the premature death of Wally). Ultimately, the pain is too much and Emily asks to be taken back to the cemetery. There, she and the other deceased souls agree that the living don’t “realize life while they live it” and don’t value their everyday lives as much as they should. George walks into the cemetery and kneels before Emily’s grave, grieving. The stage manager tells the audience that most of the citizens of Grover’s Corners are now going to sleep and they should get some rest, too, as the stars do “their old, old crisscross journeys in the sky.” He draws a curtain across the stage, ending the play.

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Author Interviews

Wilder created 'our town' with a bit of everywhere.

Thornton Wilder works in a Berlin hotel in 1931. His titles include the plays Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942), as well as the novels Heaven's My Destination (1935) and The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927). AP hide caption

Thornton Wilder works in a Berlin hotel in 1931. His titles include the plays Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942), as well as the novels Heaven's My Destination (1935) and The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927).

Thornton Wilder's Our Town is widely considered to be a classic American play: It puts plain-spoken lyricism on an empty stage with a story as simple as life and death.

Wilder was also an acclaimed novelist and essayist, but none of his dramas were as enduring as Our Town , which won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize. The play explores life — from childhood to marriage to death — in the fictional town of Grover's Corners, N.H. It's been produced for film, radio and television, starring, at times, Paul Newman, Hal Holbrook, Helen Hunt and Frank Sinatra. In fact, the play is probably being performed by a community, church, high school or professional theater group somewhere this fall.

Now, acclaimed biographer Penelope Niven has written a book, Thornton Wilder: A Life, that tells the story of how the signature play came to be written. She joins NPR's Scott Simon to discuss Wilder's life and the universal appeal of Our Town.

Thornton Wilder

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Interview Highlights

On Wilder's lost twin brother

"Thornton was the second live child born into the Wilder family. He had an older brother, Amos, and Thornton's twin brother died at birth. Like many twinless twins, this was a death event which haunted him for most of his life. He felt a certain incompletion because that brother had not survived. He felt ... some guilt because he was the survivor and perhaps he had deprived that brother of blood or tissue or breath or life. The last novel [he wrote], Theophilus North, is Thornton's imagined re-creation of the life of that twin who didn't survive. He put his wonderful imagination to work on inventing some experiences, some episodes, designing a life that that twin brother might have lived had he survived the birth."

On Wilder's radical decision to forgo curtains and scenery for Our Town in favor of a bare stage

"I think I speak for many theatergoers when I say that it takes a few minutes to absorb the impact of the bare stage. But soon you give yourself up to it, and you do what Thornton hoped you would do and that was to envision the play, to experience it, through the filter of your own life and your own imagination. He told us, soon after he had written Our Town, that our true lives are lived in the imagination and the memory, and that was one of the principal reasons that he avoided props and sets and scenery. He didn't want to define that for his audience. He wanted each member of each audience to bring his or her unique experience, unique imagination and memory to the experience of that play."

On where Wilder wrote Our Town

"He wrote the play all over that map. He wrote Our Town at the MacDowell Colony [artist retreat] up in Peterborough, N.H.; and he wrote Our Town in a little hotel on the outskirts of Zurich, Switzerland; and he wrote Our Town on Long Island; he wrote it on ships and he wrote it on trains and he wrote it wherever he happened to be. And all the while, Scott, while he was traveling around to write, gypsy that he was, he was listening, he was observing, he was a witness. He loved to pick up some conversation in a bar or on the train or in a restaurant and somehow later to incorporate that into the play. He's very much attuned to the American vernacular while he's working on Our Town . Even if he's working on it in Switzerland, he still has in his ear the cadences and the vocabulary of the American experience."

On the universal appeal of Grover's Corners

"This is a little mythical village. And in this mythical village, he incorporates characteristics from every mythical village. I grew up in a little town in North Carolina, population 800. When I read Our Town as a teenager, I was positive the play had been written about Waxhaw, N.C. And it's so interesting to look at translations. There've been 70 or more translations of Our Town and I love picking up those editions and looking at the covers and, if it's been translated in Poland or Germany or Korea, the cover picture is not Grover's Corners, N.H.; it's a village or a town in that particular country. It's just vivid, graphic documentation of the universal connection that this play has made."

Penelope Niven has also authored biographies of poet Carl Sandburg and photographer Edward Steichen. Louis Kapeleris/HarperCollins hide caption

Penelope Niven has also authored biographies of poet Carl Sandburg and photographer Edward Steichen.

On the much-quoted speech from Our Town in which the character Emily Webb returns to earth for a day after dying in childbirth: "Goodbye to clocks ticking — and my butternut tree! And Mama's sunflowers — and food and coffee — and new-ironed dresses and hot baths — and sleeping and waking up! Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anyone to realize you! Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it — every, every minute?"

"I think it comes from deep within Thornton Wilder's heart and spirit. It brings to mind conversations I've had recently with so many people about the play; people who were in the play, people who saw the play, people who directed the play. But two actors in particular ... in their wonderfully mature years, have said to me that they never fully comprehended Emily's words until now, in their 70s and in their 80s. The play has brought them to tears in ways that didn't when they were 20 or 40 or 60 years younger. ... It's something I've certainly taken to heart since I've had the privilege of working on this biography. That is, as Emily says, every, every day matters, every moment. And Thornton was so concerned about expressing in his work and in his own life just the value of every moment of the most ordinary part of the most ordinary day. The idea that Tuesday can be a particularly ordinary day ... that on that day or any other day of life at any moment, we simply need to experience, to treasure those things; to look at the now and look at each other — really look at each other. How wonderful that Thornton and Emily remind us of those opportunities."

Essay on My Hometown

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Hometown in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Hometown

Introduction.

My hometown is a special place filled with memories and joy. It’s a small, peaceful town with friendly people and beautiful landscapes.

Nature’s Beauty

The beauty of my hometown is breathtaking. It’s surrounded by lush green fields and a sparkling river flows through it, creating a serene atmosphere.

People and Culture

The people in my town are kind and welcoming. They celebrate various festivals with enthusiasm, showcasing our rich culture and traditions.

My hometown is my paradise. It’s a place where I feel at home, surrounded by nature’s beauty and warm-hearted people.

250 Words Essay on My Hometown

Every individual carries a soft spot for their hometown, a place that holds an abundance of memories and experiences. My hometown, nestled in the heart of the countryside, is no exception. Its charm lies not in grandeur, but in its simplicity and tranquility.

The Landscape

The landscape of my hometown is a harmonious blend of rolling hills, lush green fields, and a serene river that meanders through the town, providing a lifeline to the local ecosystem. The view from the hilltop, especially during sunrise and sunset, is a spectacle that leaves one in awe of nature’s beauty.

The people of my hometown are its true wealth. They are warm, welcoming, and deeply rooted in their traditions. The local festivals, celebrated with much fervor, are a testament to the town’s rich cultural heritage. These celebrations are a spectacle of unity, with people from different backgrounds coming together to partake in the joyous occasions.

The economy of my hometown is primarily agrarian. The fertile lands yield bountiful crops, sustaining the local population and contributing to the nation’s food supply. The town is also known for its handicrafts, with skilled artisans creating exquisite pieces that reflect the town’s cultural ethos.

My hometown, in its quiet and unassuming manner, has shaped my perspective of the world. It has taught me the value of community, the beauty of nature, and the importance of cultural heritage. It remains a place of comfort and nostalgia, a refuge that I can always return to. It is more than just a geographical location; it is a part of my identity.

500 Words Essay on My Hometown

Geographical setting.

Nestled in the heart of the country, my hometown is an amalgamation of urban and rural landscapes. It is a place where the serenity of the countryside meets the hustle-bustle of city life. The town is surrounded by lush green fields, while the city center is adorned with historical monuments that stand as a testament to our rich cultural heritage.

Cultural Diversity

The cultural tapestry of my hometown is rich and diverse. The town is a melting pot of various cultures and traditions, which are reflected in the many festivals celebrated with great pomp and show. The harmonious coexistence of different communities is a hallmark of my hometown, making it a model of unity in diversity.

Education and Economy

Local cuisine.

The local cuisine is a gastronomic delight, with dishes that are a perfect blend of flavors and spices. From hearty meals to delectable desserts, the town’s culinary offerings are a treat to the palate.

Challenges and Opportunities

While my hometown is a place of beauty and tranquility, it is not without its challenges. The lack of proper infrastructure and limited job opportunities are pressing issues. However, with the advent of digital technology and the government’s focus on rural development, there is a renewed sense of hope and optimism.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Act Summaries & Analyses

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Our Town (1938) is a three-act play written by American playwright Thornton Wilder. Wilder served in both World War I and World War II and wrote honestly about life in America. He wrote several plays but considered Our Town to be his best work. It was performed for the first time in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1938. Wilder received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Our Town , and the play is widely considered to be the quintessential American play. Countless adaptations have been staged or otherwise performed.

Our Town stands out among other plays because it is metatheatrical. It serves as Wilder’s statement on what he believed to be the disappointing direction that theater had taken. Wilder saw an increasing reliance on props and scenery that he believed obscured the raw themes and characters that theater traditionally offered. Audiences were no longer required to use their imaginations. Our Town is centered on the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, a town like any other, between 1901 and 1913. It brings to light themes of the simplicity of American life, appreciation of life while one has it, the importance of love and family , and the cyclical nature of humanity.

The edition used for this guide is the Harper Perennial Modern Classics Edition paperback reissue from 2003.

Plot Summary

Act I takes place in 1901 and is titled “Daily Life.” The entire play is set in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, where nothing remarkable seems to happen. All of the play’s characters are presented here as the Stage Manager , who narrates the play, explains their origins, their purpose in the town, and whether or not they have since died. The audience sees the Gibbs and Webb families going about their day, sending their children off to school while the men work and the women tend the house. Each family has two children, they live next door to one another, and the mothers are best friends.

Other town characters, such as the milkman, paperboy, choir ladies, and more, are also introduced. There is a repetitive nature to life in the town and a sense that each day is relatively the same. The town is said to have been inhabited by the same families since the first settlers in the early 1600s, and the Stage Manager describes it as ordinary and unremarkable. Act I provides the exposition , setting , and characters through direct descriptions and scenes acted out by players. The townspeople go about their regular lives, have simple interactions, and conclude their day by appreciating the bright moonlight as it takes them home and into bed for the night.

Act II, titled “Love and Marriage,” sees two teenagers, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, fall in love and marry three years later. The entire act centers on their story of falling in love, their fears and anxieties about marriage, and the societal expectations that push them into it despite these fears. It starts as George wants desperately to see Emily on their wedding day, but when he visits her, he is rebuffed due to superstition and made to sit with her father instead. George asks Mr Webb for marriage advice but is given enigmatic counsel. Instead, he is left to navigate marriage blindly.

The Stage Manager then returns to when George and Emily first realized they were in love. George offers to walk Emily home from school, and the two of them get ice cream sodas together. Emily tells George that she does not appreciate his conceited attitude, and George vows to change while professing his love for her. She admits that she feels the same. The scene cuts back to the wedding day, and everyone is at the church awaiting the ceremony. George and Emily both have moments of panic when they reach the end of the aisle, but their parents quell their concerns, and they are married. Act II ends with one of the town ladies remarking on the importance of happiness in life.

Act III jumps ahead nine years to the year 1913. Several characters have died of various causes common for the period, such as Mrs Gibbs, the Webbs’ son Wally, the church choir leader, and several others. They sit at their graves atop the hill of Grover’s Corners, waiting for whatever may be coming next and slowly growing indifferent toward earthly matters and their previous lives. It is revealed that Emily Webb died giving birth to her second child, and her funeral begins. Emily wanders into the graveyard, confused and with an air of innocence. She realizes immediately where she is but begins thinking about her life and wants to revisit those memories. She begs the Stage Manager to take her back to a special day, despite warnings from the other dead, and he takes her to her twelfth birthday. There, she sees her mother toiling away needlessly instead of spending time with her family and paying attention to what matters. Emily realizes that she wasted her time while alive, just as almost all humans do. She becomes distraught and asks to be returned to the graveyard. George comes up to her tombstone and drops to his knees, sobbing. Emily stares at him indifferently, as if the experience she just had separated her from her life before. The play ends as the Stage Manager remarks that the earth, and everyone on it, works so hard to make something of themselves that they need to rest every night.

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by Thornton Wilder

Our town summary and analysis of act ii - "love and marriage".

The Stage Manager welcomes the returned audience by saying that three years have passed, and "the sun's come up over a thousand times." Many young people have fallen in love and gotten married, as nearly everyone does. "The First Act was called the Daily Life," says the Stage Manager, in the only place where these titles are identified. The second act is "Love and Marriage," and the third act, "I reckon you can guess what that's about."

It's 1904, just after the commencement at the high school, the time when most of the town's young people get married, and that's just what's about to happen to George and Emily. Events are recycled from the First Act to show the continuity of life-for instance, Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb begin fixing their family breakfasts, just as they did at the play's beginning; the Stage Manager describes how these women cooked three meals a day for decades, and "never a nervous breakdown."

Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs sit down to breakfast and talk about how George and Emily seem too young to be out in the world alone. They reminisce about their own wedding, predicting that the newlyweds will have their rocky times but nevertheless that marriage is for the best: Mrs. Gibbs says, "People are meant to go through life two by two. 'Tain't natural to be lonesome." George comes downstairs and goes next door to visit his girl but Mrs. Webb won't let him inside because a groom can't see his bride on the wedding day. Mr. Webb offers that there is sense in some superstitions as Mrs. Webb leaves George and his future father-in-law to chat awkwardly.

The Stage Manager then introduces a flashback to the conversation when George and Emily first knew they were meant for each other, when George had just been elected President of the Senior Class and Emily had been elected Secretary and Treasurer. While walking home from school, George asks Emily why she's been treating him so funny lately. Emily says she doesn't like that he's become so caught up in baseball, and he's gotten conceited. George is grateful for the honest criticism. Over a shared ice cream, George tells Emily about his plan to attend agricultural college; over the course of talking to her, however, he realizes that maybe he doesn't need to leave Grover's Corners and meet new people after all. "I guess new people aren't any better than old ones." George alludes that if he were to stay he'd want to go steady with her, and Emily says that she "always [has] been" his girl. George concludes, "So I guess this is an important talk we've been having."

The Stage Manager moves the action to the wedding, in which he himself plays the minister. He alludes to the sacredness of marriage, saying that the "real hero" of the scene is God, for whom he is merely standing in. Following the Stage Manager's sermon, the wedding begins. Both George and Emily have crises at the thought of taking this major life step, but their elders reassure them and the wedding continues. Their vows fade out as Mrs. Soames gossips to the audience about the loveliness of the wedding and how she always cries. The wedding scene ends in pantomime and freezes in a tableau, while the Stage Manager/Minister talks to the audience. He suggests that weddings are all the same and, instructing the audience to "remove any sense of cynicism from the next line," he continues, "Once in a thousand times it's interesting."

The tableau breaks, Mrs. Soames' gossip continues and the bride and groom descend into the auditorium and run up the aisle joyously. The Stage Manager dismisses the audience for the second intermission.

The opening monologue of the second act, describing the passage of three years in terms of a thousand risings of the sun, contrasts with the motif of the moon in the closing scenes of the first act. Each day ends with a moon and begins with a sun. These two constants, marking both the unity and temporality of human life-its phases, its journey across the sky-tie each day to the next, just as the human lives within the play undergo cyclical changes.

Thus the Second Act continues the First Acts emphasis of the continuity and repetition of human life. The actions of the characters, presented in pantomime, are all cyclical - daily or seasonal activities, like fixing breakfast and feeding chickens and stringing beans. Even the changes that have occurred are placed within a context of memory so that they don't seem like changes at all, just more repetitions. For instance, when the newsboy is distressed at losing George's pitching arm the Constable points out a previous ball player who had also quit the game to get married. The same will happen again, George will be replaced as a ball player.

Even the seemingly extraordinary-this is, after all, a wedding day-is made ordinary by such perspective. Wilder makes sure to contextualize George and Emily's wedding as one of many million such weddings, whose participants have followed ritual superstitions "since the cave men." Wilder does not disparage this repetition; rather, he praises it, suggesting that these superstitions make an awful lot of sense. Superstition, however irrational it may seem, is another way of passing on tradition, and tradition, at least in Our Town has the glowing virtue of the test of time. Anything that has survived so many generations of scrutiny, the play suggests, must be worth something.

The play does not suggest that all human life is strictly cyclical, just that it is overwhelmingly so. Still, the exceptions to tradition are presented as important. The Stage Manager says of weddings that only "once in a thousand times it's interesting." This line rings with the earlier talk about nature being interested in both quantity and quality. Nature reproduces itself endlessly; everything repeats and re-cycles and renews. But every once in a while there's an anomaly, something truly out of the ordinary, and it is through those anomalies that nature can evolve. Likewise, human life cycles through birth and marriage and death, birth and marriage and death, each life fundamentally the same as the last - but one time in a thousand, something interesting happens, and that's how society naturally changes. Of course, even those changes are ordained-even the unusual is limited to "one in a thousand," and thus, in its unique way, is also cyclical.

The wedding itself balances two meanings, so to speak, of getting married-a wedding as a symbolic, public act, and a marriage as a private life-long connection. Much talk in the second act distinguishes the ceremony of a wedding from the lived fact of a wedding. When George complains that he wishes "a fellow could get married without all that marching up and down," Mr. Webb reasons that it's the women "standing shoulder to shoulder making sure that the knot's tied in a mighty public way." But Mr. Webb values the institution of marriage, even as he belittles its outward trappings. And at the wedding itself, both Emily and George panic when confronted with the ceremony and symbols of the wedding, but they are talked back into continuing down the aisle by appeals to what their marriage will really mean. Both the wedding-the public approval of the bond-and the marriage-the private bond itself-are important to the reproduction of a society, to its stability and endurance.

Similarly, the play Our Town balances symbols of things with things themselves. Wilder writes that all theater is symbolic. When Juliet kills herself, the actress who plays Juliet does not actually kill herself; in other words, what we watch on stage is not life - it is like life. Wilder uses this self-evident truth of theater to his advantage by making the artifice of the theater as noticeable as possible, eliminating the symbols like houses and costumes (or, when symbols are used, calling constant attention to their symbolic rather than real status) and concentrating on the meanings behind the symbols. Thus he hopes to offer a depersonalized human drama to act as a template, as it were, for our own everyday human dramas-which we can costume and "prop" with our own particular clothes, people, places, things, selves.

Our Town Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Our Town is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Match these -.-

1) "They'll have a lot of troubles, I suppose, but that's none of our business.

Everybody has a right to their own troubles." Doctor Gibbs

3) George, I was thinking the other night of some advice my father gave me when I got...

What type of behavior does the Stage Manager describe as “layers and layers of nonsense”?

stfu you stupid bean. I can tell your from mexico

What does Bessie’s reluctance to change her route reveal about the daily routine of the residents of Grover’s Corners?

It represents the lack of change in their society: the comfort they find in the familiar and the routine. These routines are part of their identity.

Study Guide for Our Town

Our Town study guide contains a biography of Thornton Wilder, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Our Town
• Our Town Summary
• Character List

Essays for Our Town

Our Town essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Our Town by Thornton Wilder.

• Hymns and Music as Markers in Time and Part of Rituals
• An Essential Foundation: The Role Setting Plays in American Theatre
• The Importance of Our Town's Narrator
• Medicine in the Early 1900's: Essential Context for Emily's Death
• A Mundane Story to a Life-Changing Experience: The Act-by-Act Insights of Our Town

Lesson Plan for Our Town

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Our Town
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Our Town Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Our Town

• Introduction

• study guides
• lesson plans
• homework help

Our Town Essay Topics & Writing Assignments

What are the titles given to the three acts in this play, and what significance do they have to the plot?

This play takes place in a few different settings. Describe some of these settings and how they affect the course of the plot. Why might Thornton Wilder have chosen these particular places for this plot to take place?

Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs are very similar in nature although very different in many other areas. What are some of these intrinsic differences and similarities, and what message(s) was Wilder was trying to send with these two characters?

(read more Essay Topics)

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