SOCIAL CHANGE IN THORNTONWILDER’S PLAY

(OUR TOWN)

BY :

RIZKY HANDAYANIF211 04 012ANDI MAURAGA F211 05 039

OUR TOWN

Our Town is short play drama which is consist of three acts written by Thornton Wilder

The first performance of this play took place at Mc Carter Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey on January 22, 1938The first New York performance was at the Henry Miller Theatre, February 4, 1938.

INTRODUCTION

Our Town is one o the most frequently staged American plays. It is an unconventional work in that it has no scenery or props except for tables, chairs, ladders, and a few other objects. Author Thornton Wilder presented the play in this way to force the audience to concentrate on the characters and the themes.

INTRINSICExposition : This drama begins with the daily activities of each characters. Husbands goes to work, children goes to school, mothers do the house activities and gardening, the milkman delivers the milk to families n Grover’s Corner, Joe delivers the newspaper, choir-member bussy with their practices. The residents of Grover’s Corner eat, sleep, work, study, greet, etc.Rising Action : George and Emily is a close friend since childhood. They expressed their feeling about each other. George asks Emily to be his wife, and they married. They had a child, but Emily dies while giving birth to her second childbirth.Climax : The deceased Emily returns to life briefly in the final act to visit Grover’s Corner. She tells that she is not enjoyed her life yet and she wants to come back to human life.

Falling Action : Emily returns to the day of her 12th birthday. Her experience bitter sweet making her realize the importance of simple, ordinary events that makes up the pattern of life.

Resolution : Emily returns to the cemetery. She realizes that now her life, her condition is totally different. Stage manager tells the audience to get a good night’s sleep 

CHARACTERS

Round Characters Stage Manager : He sets up the stage, introduces the pay, describes the

setting, provides background information during the play, and sometimes steps into scenes to talk with the character. In some ways, he resembles the chorus of an ancient Greek play or the omniscient narrator of a novel

Emily Webb : Intelligent, pretty, engaging daughter of Charles and Myrtle Webb. She marries next-door neighbor, George Gibbs, but dies nine years into her marriage while giving birth to her second child.

George Gibbs : Upright son of Frank and Julia Gibbs. He is a star baseball player who has always loved Emily Webb. When she dies, he is broken-hearted.

Julia Gibbs : Devoted wife of Dr. Gibbs. She dreams of visiting Paris with her husband but never gets the chance. She dies o pneumonia after 20 years of marriage

Frank Gibbs : Hard-working physician who goes out to tend to his patient at all hours. At the beginning of the play, he arrives home after just delivering the twins of a woman in Polish town, a section of a Grover’s Corners

Charles Webb : Editor of the Grover’s Corners Sentinel and the father of two children, Emily and Wally

Myrtle Webb : Devoted wife of Charles Webb. Louella Soames : Choir member and friend a Myrtle Webb and Julia Gibbs. She

criticizes Simon Stimson for his drinking.

Flat Characters Wally Webb : Little brother of Emily. He dies after his appendix ruptures on a boy scout camping trip.Rebecca Gibbs : Little sister of GeorgeHowie Newsome : Milkman who makes deliveries from a cart drawn by his old horse Bessie, 17 years old.Joe Crowell : Newspaper boy who became an outstanding student in high school and later at MIT but died in Word War I.Si Crowell : Joe’s younger brother. He takes over his brother’s paper route.Sam Craig : Emily Webb’s cousin. He went west to pursue his career but returns for Emily’s funeral.Joe Stoddard : Undertaker in charge of Emily Webb’s funeral.Bill Warren : Constable who keeps law and order and once rescued a man from a snowdrift.Professor Willard : Expert on the geological and anthropological background of Grover’s Corners. In a boring speech, he helps the stage manager describe the town and its history to the audience.Simon Stimson : He is the choirmaster (church organist) at the Congregationalist church and a town depressed alcoholic.Woman in the balconyMan in the auditoriumLady in the boxThree baseball playerA woman from among the dead The man from among the deadMr. Carter

SETTING

Setting of time : Between 1901 and 1913 May 7, 1901 at dawn (act 1) July 7, 1904 on the morning (act 2) Summer of 1913 (act 3)

Setting of place : Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire just North of the Massachusetts line 

THEMEThe theme of this drama is “seize the day” or in Latin phrase Carpe diem. This Latin phrase urges people to live for the moment, seizing opportunities to enjoy or enrich their lives. Life is short, after all; such opportunities may present themselves only once. This is an old literary motif, written about many times over the centuries.

In Our Town, Wilder reminds the audience again and again that time is “a-flying” with references to passing trains-which, like life, move swiftly forward-and with references to the generations of Grover’s Corners residents who have come and gone. The flowers in the gardens of Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb are still another reminder; Smell and appreciate them now, for they will not last long. The wheels of history and its life cycle spins rapidly.  

SYMBOLISM

Among the symbol in the play are :Trains, the tombstones, and the stage manager’s watch all representing the passage of time and the inevitability of deathThe birth of the twins in Polish town, the birth of Emily’s second child, and the blooming of flowers all representing the continuing life cycleThe moon, the mountains, the lakes, and the gardens of Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb, all representing the glories of nature that people tend to ignore.     

POINT OF VIEW

This drama use omniscient point of view. It is “all knowing” and “shifting multiple” narrator firmly imposes himself between the readers and the story, and retains full and complete control over the narrative. The omniscient narrator is free to dramatize or summarize, to interpret, to philosophize, to moralize or to judge. The character stage manager as the omniscient narrator of this drama

EXTRINSICLife style : Consists of fashion, food, music, performing acts.

Social Life :   Introducing the 1910's. The 1910's was a decade of entertainment, science, technology, fads and many more!  Some popular interests in the second decade were,  going to the movies, a dance craze called the Tango, and The Saturday Evening Post.  People also enjoyed the abstract work of Picasso and Matisse. A different type of artist people enjoyed was Stravinsky. In the years before WWI, there was enormous confidence science and technology. For as long as many people could remember, inventors had produced one wonder after another, and there seemed no reason why this should not go on forever. Then in 1912 came a disaster, and shook this confidence, the sinking of the Titanic.   

Science and Technology : There were many new inventions in the 1910’s some of them I can’t imagine living without. One thing that is very important is the telephone and traffic light. Another thing that was invented was the refrigerator. Can you imagine life without a fridge? This one is really funny, the zipper. There were many different inventions. See if you can find some more. 

THE OTHER SIDE OF COIN

For all the optimism, prosperity, power, and scientific, technological and educational advances, however, much of the American life at the turn of the century was unworthy of celebration. Everywhere one could see glaring examples of exploitation, corruption, and injustice, and much of the ear, ugliness and pain was directly related to industrialization, urbanization, and the other new developments that were generally associated with progress.Increasingly, men and women were becoming sensitive to the nation’s social and economic problems and were challenging the assumptions that dominated American lie and thought. Indeed, a powerful age of reform was on the horizon(taken from Twentieth-Century America a Brief History by Thomas C. Reeves ). 

MESSAGES

People should appreciate life while they are living it

Little things in life are really big things

No town can isolate itself from the rest of the world

No community is perfect, not even idyllic Grover’s Corners 

THANK YOU