The Skin of Our Teethby: Thornton Wilder Section I. Thornton Wilder A Brief History

Born April 17th, 1897 in Madison,WI to Isabella Wilder and Amos Parker Wilder, a U.S. diplomat Spent part of his childhood in China due to his father's occupation Wilder began writing plays while attending The Thatcher School Was made fun of for being too intellectual In China, attended the China Inland Mission Chefoo School Returned to California with his mother because of growing political tensions in China Graduate from Berkeley High School in 1915 Attended Purdue for two years studying law Eventually dropped out Served in the Coast Guard during WW. Attended Oberlin briefly after the war Eventually earned his Bachelor of Arts from Yale in 1920 Was a member of Alpha Delti Phi, a literary society Earned a Masters of Art in French from Princeton in 1926 Taught French at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ First novel, Cabala was published in 1926 Second novel, The Bridges of San Luis Rey, was published in 1927 About interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Incan suspension bridge in Peru Won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Literature Gained commercial success Taught at the University of Chicago from 1930 to 1937 Play Our Town opened in 1938 Won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Play The Skin of Our Teeth opened in 1942 Won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force intelligence unit during WWII Subsequently taught at the University of Hawaii and Harvard Received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1957 Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 Novel The Eighth Day won the National Book Award in 1967 Wilder died in Hamden, CT, December 7, 1975 at the age 78

Section II. Facts about The Skin of Our Teeth

Opened on October 15, 1942 Premiered at the Shubert Theater in New Have, CT It was produced by Michael Myerberg and directed by Elia Kazan. Sabina was originated by Tallulah Bankhead A stage and film starlet Critical Reception Won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Nearly won the Nobel Prize Lost out on the award amid controversy surrounding the play's plot and language

being too similar to James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, a seemingly plotless novel about a timeless dead man. Themes History Repeats Itself The Stagnancy of Character Knowledge Is Power Language Colloquial Repetition Literary Allusions Historical Context High Modernism and Avant Garde A break of the norm (an anti-order) Fragmentation Breaking the Continuity of Language Stream of Conciousness

Section III. The Skin of Our Teeth Act Breakdowns

Act I: Ice Age News Slide Show 1. Sun rose causing the Society for Affirming the End of the World postpone the world ending for 24 hours. 1. Adam and Eve's wedding ring was found in the theater. 2. A glacier is covering the Land. 3. Slide of the home of George Antrobus, Inventor of the Wheel. Lily Sabina, the maid, is preparing the home in anticipation of George's arrival. She gives exposition on what type of family and people the Antrobuses are. The actress portraying Sabina breaks the fourth wall and lets the audience know she doesn't understand the play. She gets back in character. Mrs. Antrobus comes home and reprimands Sabina for not having the home properly prepared for George's return. In there interaction we discover there may be something between Sabina and George. Sabina gives her two weeks notice. A telegraph boy arrives with a message from George that he'll be late. He has finished creating the alphabet, has discovered multiplying tens, and invented the wheel. Henry, whose real name is Cain, and Gladys, the Antrobus children, enter. Their mother preps them for their father's return. George comes home and greets everyone. He talks about his work day. Refugees call from outside. George has invited them to stay in the house to wait out the cold. Mrs. Antrobus isn't pleased. Among the refugees is Moses, Homer, and the Muses. Mrs. Antrobus finally relents but forces George to put out his pet dinosaur and mammoth. They serve the refugees refreshments and discuss their thoughts on the world ending. Sabina gives another two-weeks notice. Moses asks Mrs. Antrobus about her other son, Abel. Sabina screams in the kitchen. Henry has killed the boy next door with a rock. He claims the lad was trying to take the wheel. We find out that Henry is very young. Only 4000 years old. George gives up hope in humanity due to Henry's act. Homer plays his guitar and the muses and Sabina sing Jingle Bells to cheer him up. Mrs. Antrobus reminds him of the other disasters they've survived together.

Henry recites multiplication tables and Gladys tell her father she presented a Longfellow poem in school. George's pride in his children's accomplishments makes him want to live. They build up the fire using any wood in the house. George teaches Henry multiplication tables while Mrs. Antrobus teaches Gladys the beginning of the Bible. Sabina asks the audience for their chairs for fire wood. She implores for them to help save the human race. Ushers rush down the aisle with chairs. The ice is upon them.

Act II: Atlantic City, New Jersey

News Slide Show 1. Announcement of the 600,000th annual Ancient and Order of Mammals, Subdivision Humans convention. George is the president for the ensuing term. Other orders: the Wings, the Fins, the Shells, etc., have each sent two delegates to the convention. George gives his inaguration speech. We discover the dinosaur is extinct and the ice has retreated. George promises with lack of confidence a new era of security and he refutes rumors that he considered joining other orders. Mrs. Antrobus, now President of the Women's Auxillary Bed and Board Society, gives a speech. She announces the tomato has been deemed edible and that silk has been discovered. There's an ongoing debate on whether windows of a sleeping home should be open or shut. Mrs. Antrobus reveals that she and George will be celebrating their 5000th wedding anniversary. She slips and says she's regretted every moment of it. She announces her watch-word of the year as: Save the family. The Boardwalk is bustling with Bingo, a Fortune Teller calling out fortunes to conveeners. Sabina arrives at the Fortune Teller looking for George. She has a plan to steal George from Mrs. Antrobus and convince him to marry her and then steal every man in Atlantic City from their wife and cause an uproar in the world. The Fortune Teller breaks the fourth wall and predicts death of regret for members of the audience. She predicts the Antrobuses with go through a flood but will narrowly escape disaster yet again. The conveeners jeer her. The Antrobuses appear. Henry has an altercation with a black man who is a chair pusher and threatens to kill him. George reprimands him. The candidate that George defeated walks by and George waves. Mrs. Antrobus berate the man for telling lies about George. The conveeners laugh at her. She the berates George for not standing up for himself. Henry wants to get on a rollercoaster. Mrs. Antrobus wants to save money. George says they're on vacation and are allowed to spend a little. She warns him a rainy day is coming. Sabina walks by. George acknowledges her. He thinks she's Miss. Fairweather. Mrs. Antrobus knows who she is and is displeased by his obvious interest in her. Mrs. Antrobus takes the children to buy raincoats for the impending storm leaving George alone. Sabina approaches George as Miss Fairweather, flatters him, and invites him to her cabana. The actress playing Sabina stops the scene and informs the audience they are skipping the next scene. She says in it George leaves his wife for Sabina but she won't play the scene due to not wanting to upset a friend in the audience who has gone through a similar situation. George and Sabina pick up with the following scene. They kiss and enter the cabana. It is thundering and the storm is near. Mrs. Antrobus appears with Gladys who is

wearing red stockings. Mrs. Antrobus reprimands her for wearing them. The Broadcast Official enters looking for George who is to give a speech to the other conventions about the coming storm. George shows up and tells the official he'll be with him in a moment. George tells Mrs. Antobus he's leaving her and marrying Sabina. Mrs. Antobus tells Henry they are two imperfect people who are promised to each other and that makes up for their faults. Mrs. Antobus throws a bottle containing a letter of everything a woman knows into the ocean. She announces that woman are not what books, plays, advertisement, etc., say they are. They're themselves. Gladys tells them that Henry hit a black man with a stone and he's on the run from the police. She tells Henry if he doesn't like her mama, she'll have nothing to do with him. George attempts to give the broadcast but is interrupted by the storm. The Fortune Teller tells him to go to the boat with his family. He says he has none. She tells him they'll come and instructs him to take two of each animal on the boat with him. His family arrives sans Henry. Henry dashes out and joins them. Sabina pleads to come. Mrs. Antrobus allows it. They escape.

Act III Events: Back from War

Sabina enters the Antrobuses home and announces that the war is over and that George will be returning home. The actor playing George tells the audience an accident occured backstage. Seven actors have food poisoning and are in the hospital having their stomachs pumped. They can't finish the play. They'll proceed with volunteers but must have a rehearsal first. The stage manager drafts a janitor, a dresser, and other non-actors to fill their parts, which involve quoting philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle to mark the passing of time within the play. The stage manager announces the opening of Act III. Again, Sabina enters the Antrobuses home and announces that the war is over and that George will be returning home. Mrs. Antrobus emerges from a cellar followed by Gladys and her baby. Sabina appears and tells them the war is over and that George and Henry are alive and returning home. They talk about how peacetime will be. Henry arrives looking worn. Sabina says George doesn't want Henry in the house because Henry became a general in the enemy's army. Henry is angry with his father and his views. Gladys and Mrs. Antrobus greet Henry and feed him. Henry doesn't want to stay but Mrs. Antrobus tells him he belongs at home. Henry falls asleep. Mrs. Antrobus and Sabina arrange the room as it was at the top of Act I. Sabina complains about always starting over and beginning again not knowing if it'll be better the second time around. Mrs. Antrobus reprimands her and tells of striving and hoping to be better. George enters and pulls a gun on Henry. Henry begs to be killed. They argue over familial control. Henry tries to attack George but Sabina steps between them. Sabina stops the scene. The actor playing Henry apologizes for playing the scene to harshly, citing an abusive father in his past as the reason for his aggression. Sabina refutes this. The actor playing George takes blame saying that something in him reminds Henry of his past demons. Sabina takes the actor playing Henry away to cool off. George tells Mrs. Antobus he's lost the desire to begin again. Mrs. Antobus implores that he get it back. Sabina comes in and curses the world as an awful place. Dog-eat-dog. She leaves to go

to the movies. George rekindles his passion through his family and his books. The fill-in actors quote the philosophers again. Sabina repeats the beginning lines of the play and then tells the audience the play is never ending and sends them home.