Our Town

By Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder 1897-1975

• Born in Madison, WI• Oldest of four kids• Poet mom, strict dad• Studied at Oberlin and

Yale• Visited MacDowell

Colony (artist retreat) in New Hampshire for the first of ten visits in 1924

Our Town - Thornton Wilder

• Published in 1938• “It’s a little play with all the big subjects in it.” Wilder, 1937

• Won the 2nd Puitzer Prize for Wilder

• Addresses major themes of love, death, and time

Background Information

• Play was written in 1938

• Takes place at the turn of the century

• Set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire

• Act I begins May 7, 1901

Point of View• Narrator: Stage Manager

(3rd person omniscient)

• He knows past, present, future

• He knows all feelings and thoughts

• Some believe he represents “God”

• Most important character in the play

Themes

Wilder’s main purpose in writing Our Town was “an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events in our daily life.”

He addresses six main themes throughout the play…

Importance of Love

• Act One: Family love and friendship

• Act Two: Romantic love and marriage

• Act Three: Spiritual, selfless love

Life

• Continuity of Life:-cycle from birth to death

-ancestors and new generations

• The Beauty of Life:

-most obvious theme

• Meaning of Life:

-Religious?

-Churches as setting?

-Deeper meaning to life

More Themes…

• Universal v. Particular-characters are part of something bigger

• The Nature of Time:-manipulable-role/ power of the stage manager