Our Town - An Essay On Theme Of The Play
Uploaded by Admin on Oct 08, 2000
The theme of the play has to do with the way that life is an endless cycle. You're born, you have some happy times, you have some bad times, and then you die. As the years pass by, everything seems to change. But all in all there is little change. The sun always rises in the early morning, and sets in the evening. The seasons always rotate like they always have. The birds are always chirping. And there is always somebody that has life a little bit worse than your own.
In act one when the stage manager pulls Mr. Webb out of the play to talk with him on page 528, the lady in the box asks "Oh Mr. Webb? Mr. Webb is there any culture or love of beauty in Grover's Corners?". Mr. Webb her, there isn't much culture the way she might think, but "... we've got a lot of pleasures of a kind here: We like the sun comin' up over the mountain in the morning, and we all notice a good deal about the birds. We pay a lot of attention to them. And we watch the change of the seasons..." These are the things that the people of Grover's Corners appreciate, the things we take for granted.
Also in act one, after the choir rehearsal on page 532, Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs are gossiping about the town drunk. Dr. Gibbs says "I guess I know more about Simon Stimson's affairs than anybody in this town. Some people ain't made for small-town life. I don't know how that'll end; but there's nothing we can do but leave it alone." This shows that there is always someone that has things worse than you do.
At the very beginning of act two when the stage manager tells that three years have gone by, but nothing has really changed, and the cycle continues. In act three at the beginning on page 547, the stage manager tells that nine years have gone by. "Gradual changes in Grover's Corners." He then tells how horses are being replaced by Fords, and that people lock their doors now at night. Then he says, "You'd be surprised, though—on the whole, things don't change much around here." Again this indicates the endless cycle.
My idea of the theme of the play doesn't differ all that much from Wilder's theme. My idea of the theme only adds to Wilder's...