In the second act we learn about the love and marriage of Emily and George Gibbs. Emily's crush, love, and widower is protective of Emily and tries very hard to impress her. The audience can also assume he is trustworthy, because the soda jerk was alright with waiting for his payment In act one Emily's character is pretty, smart, proper and well composed, George's idea of perfection in a lady. Emily is critical of George; but he takes her criticisms well, because both expect the other to be perfect in accordance with the standards of their small town.
When Emily is compared to the stage manager the differences are almost endless. He is completely omnificent and detached from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. He can however join in the real world by playing multiple characters tell stories of individuals and comparing them to higher philosophies. Emily is one of the living and is not even aware of his existence until she dies and joins the spiritual realm,
The living Emily and the dead Emily can be compared as well. The ghost of Emily has accepted her death and it seems as if anxiety and fear were left behind with her body. When she asks to go back and reexperince her memories she was very upset with how she lived. The living Emily did not value every precious moment in life, she devoted too much emotional input into trivial things. The dead Emily sees life as too quick and says that the living are blind to the wonder of life. This is of corse the common theme in the story.
In the classic American play, "Our Town", Wilder, contradicts expectations from begging to end. He provides an omnipotent narrator, and places him in the midst of oblivious peon-like humans. He follows Emily and her husband who both expect perfection from one another. He even dares to show her change in the after life.
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