Our Town Play Analysis

In February 1938, during the Great Depression, Our Town opened on Broadway, Tappen Wilder in the afterword states, “in spite of mixed reviews when the box-office opened Saturday morning there were 26 people in line; the line continued all day, the police had to close it for ten minutes so the audience could get into the matinee” (Wilder, 114). Even with continued mixed reviews of Our Town, the play itself has remained popular throughout cultures with multiple runs not only on Broadway and foreign theaters, but also, television and radio adaptions making the play itself more accessible to the public. Throughout the play by Thornton Wilder, many issues central to the overall human experience are addressed such as relationships/marriage, and the
For example, a critic states “although the play begins and ends in one precisely described place, Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, it ranges far beyond the village boundaries in each of its three acts. By eliminating scenery and props, except for two small trellises to appease persons who cannot do without scenery, Wilder avoids from the outset any suggestion that the meaning of the action relates only to Grover's Corners” (Goldstein). The play opens with scenery as such: “No curtain. No scenery. The audience, arriving, sees an empty stage in half-light” (Wilder, 3) establishing the simplistic nature of the play, which allows for the creation of a universal meaning. Furthermore, another critic states “Wilder uses his characters allegorically to convey his universal truth. If he were merely concerned with the importance of Grover's Corners as a particular town in the cosmos, he might have used scenery. But his town represents the universe so that the events in the lives of his characters happen in the lives of all people (D’Ambrosio). Wilder’s characters represent far more than their story lines applied to them, throughout Wilder’s relatable characters allow for the audience to more easily understand the
For example, at the beginning of the second act the stage manager states “You’ve got to love life to have life, and you’ve got to have life to love life…it’s what they call a vicious cycle” (Wilder, 49) establishing a paradox of life, one that must be lived in order to be truly appreciated. Moreover, opening the third act the stage manager tells the audience “we all know something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars…everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that has something to do with human beings” (Wilder, 87-88) creating the central idea that the things in life don’t matter, but rather the relationships established are what is truly important. Furthermore, following her death Emily tells Mrs. Gibbs and the rest of the dead, “I’ve never realized before how troubled and how…how in the dark live persons are” (Wilder, 97) which establishes Wilder’s ideal that live people are missing out on living. Additionally, Emily asks “do any human beings ever realize life while they live it—every, every minute” (Wilder, 108) further establishing that so many people are missing out on their lives instead of appreciating it while they can. In addition, defeated Emily states “they don’t understand, do they” (Wilder, 111) furthering the strong sense that there is