ipl-logo

Simple Moments Of Life In The Play Our Town By Thornton Wilder

613 Words3 Pages

Our Town
Human beings often neglect the seemingly simple moments of life. Thornton Wilder portrays this idea through his play, Our Town. Our Town depicts a small American town in the early 1900s. The plot puts emphasis on the profound simplicity of daily life. Emily Webb goes through life in her small, intimate town and lacks appreciation for the simple moments that appear in her everyday life. It is only through death that she recognizes what she has missed. Thornton Wilder encourages his viewers to appreciate the seemingly simple moments of life and to recognize their beauty.
Through the script and execution of the play, Thornton Wilder is able to portray the beauty in the simple moments of life. “No curtain. No scenery” (Wilder 3). Wilder purposely wrote a play with limited props and scenery in order to draw the viewer's attention to the characters and the events taking place, rather than to the unnecessary adornments of the theater. This is in order to put emphasis on the hidden beauty in everyday life. People are blinded by the unnecessary frills that they often miss what is truly important. By incorporating a minimalistic theater style, Wilder is able to focus on the beauty of simplicity. …show more content…

Thornton Wilder expresses this idea throughout his play. “You're twenty-one or twenty-two and you make some decisions; then whisssh! you're seventy: you've been a lawyer for fifty years, and that white-haired lady at your side has eaten over fifty thousand meals with you” (Wilder 62). Life goes by quickly, yet most people do not stop and acknowledge the simple moments in their daily lives. It is only through the forthcoming of death that one realizes the transience of life. Ultimately, one will realize that the true beauty of life lies in the simple, slow

Show More
Related
902 Words | 4 Pages

The news of a break-in that left a Windsor woman dead made the headlines on December 11 2014. She was later identified as 31 years old Cassandra Kaake, a 7 ½ months pregnant expectant (CBC News 2017a). During the investigation, the crime unit identified her murderer as 28 years old Matthew Brush from LaSalle, Ontario (Windsor Star 2017). Upon further investigation, it was revealed that on the night of December 10 2014, Brush broke into Kaake’s home with the intent to steal her underwears and masturbate, an obsession he’s had since his teen years (CBC News 2017a). The perpetrator's lack of self control over his obsession and his actions following his discovery lead to the loss of this young soul.

Read More
885 Words | 4 Pages

There were also scenes including partial nudity, sex and drugs. The directors choice to visually display some of the more graphic content of this play instead of merely alluding to it, gave the piece a raw and relatable feel. The audience was able to put themselves in the characters shoes and truly empathize with their

Read More
1106 Words | 5 Pages

Life currently today in 2017 has its many similarities and differences to the book Our Town. The events that transpired in the book Our Town relate and differ to daily life in many ways. The book is a fictional story narrated by a man called the “Stage Manager” who explains daily life at Grover's Corners , New Hampshire. Life in 1901 in this small New Hampshire town isn't much different than life today in towns across the world. In the first act of the book, the Scene starts off at Grover's Corners , New Hampshire, where the Stage Manager’s explains the daily life for the people living and growing up in grover's corner.

Read More
777 Words | 4 Pages

The play Our Town is about the people of a small town of Grover's Corners in New Hampshire. This play focuses mainly on two families, the Gibbs and the Webbs. The play portrays teenage years, love and marriage, and death throughout the three acts. Throughout the play, Emily Webb, Mrs. Gibbs, and Joe Crowell suddenly die suddenly when they had their whole lives ahead of them. Wilder conveys that death happens at any time so one should live every day like it will be their last.

Read More
252 Words | 2 Pages

Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, is about a small, fictional town in New Hampshire called Grover’s Corners. It takes place in the year 1901. In the play, we see two families, the Gibbs family and the Webb family in which kids grow up, get married, and in turn, die. Time flies by in the life of the characters and before you know it they are all grown up. The two main characters, George and Emily, grow up together and get married.

Read More
304 Words | 2 Pages

Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town in 1938. The scenes in the play are allegedly taking place between 1901-1913. Many thematic elements of the play are timeless; they can be seen even in modern times. The change of characters, setting, time and similar aspects does nothing to change the plot and overall meaning of scenes in the play.

Read More
668 Words | 3 Pages

The Little Things in Life In life, everyone wishes to have a simple life neglecting the fact that it is truly impossible for nothing interesting to happen in day-to-day life. Everyone experiences struggles and happiness within their day. In the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder the theme that simplistic events turn out to be the most memorable is stressed extravagantly. Little things such as hearing the train when helping a friend, birthdays, and a family member sacrificing something may go along way regardless of how small it may seem at the time.

Read More
1078 Words | 5 Pages

The Wildness of Thorton’s Characterization In his play Our Town, Thornton Wilder focuses on the message that every moment of life is valuable and unique, even in the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. Wilder’s characters are now famous, as audiences continue to see George Gibbs and Emily Webb fall in love during high school and get married, only to endure Emily’s pain after she passes away and realizes that living people almost never appreciate life while they live it. But to craft his message, Wilder not only uses characterization, but he also uses dramatic elements, such as his Stage Manager, time shifting, and direct messaging. This essay will illustrate how Wilder combines his use of characterization with other dramatic

Read More
2113 Words | 9 Pages

Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town, so he would be able to get his idea out everyone overlooks ordinary days, the little things, and we take them for granted, “No… I should have listened to you. That’s all human being are! Just blind people. ”(pg.109). This quote shows that Thornton Wilder is serious about the lesson he wants the readers to comprehend.

Read More
460 Words | 2 Pages

By doing so, Thornton Wilder simplifies his play and further develops the Stage Manager’s definition of eternity. The props symbolize the small details of life since their absence does not affect the play, and characters recognize the small details of life after they transition into eternity; therefore, this absence conforms to the Stage Manager’s belief that eternity serves as a bridge between ungrateful and modesty. Audience members observe the missing props in the beginning of the play: “...he stops, setting down his-- imaginary-- black bag, takes off his hat, and rubs his face with fatigue…” (Wilder 24) along with Emily’s realization of smaller details, such as how young her mother is, in Act III, after she passes into eternity. Evidently, the events in the play concur with the Stage Manager’s definition of eternity and the purpose it

Read More
840 Words | 4 Pages

Mohammad Hasan Mrs. Loux English 8 P 24 January 2023 Universality Our Town is a play that most people in the world can find relatable due to its sense of universality. Thornton Wilder, the author of Our Town, wrote this play so that it has components that make everyone feel a sense of nostalgia. One of these many universal components is life. Everyone lives and dies, as do the characters in Our Town, but in real life, people do not get a chance to look back at their life.

Read More
646 Words | 3 Pages

Death of a family member reminds us of our own mortality, that we have limited time on this

Read More
1603 Words | 7 Pages

It mainly discusses our lives from seventy to ninety. It goes on to say how those in their twilight years can be full of life and happy, however we will all slow down before death. As we age, we approach a space between Earth and eternity, and begin to dwell more in eternity. Often times this is in an end of life care facility: a hospital, nursing home, etc. At this point in our lives we are at our wisest.

Read More
721 Words | 3 Pages

In the following passage from the novel We Were the Mulvaneys, Joyce Carol Oates laments that even though most everything in one’s surrounding is dying, not everyone has managed to find the adequate amount of maturity to accept the fact that they are not immortal, even though the idea of death is difficult to come to terms with. Oates conveys this universal idea and characterizes the narrator through the usage of a depressing tone and dismal imagery. The tone set in the passage is fairly dark and depressing. An “eleven or maybe twelve,” year old child should not be fixated on the idea that “every heart beat is past and gone.”

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

From the beginning, children are taught to fear the concept of death. Most people spend their lives fearing death, but it’s not death that they are afraid of. It is part of nature to die, and our minds know that, what scares most people is the thought of death before they have had time to accomplish what they want in life. In “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be,” John Keats put into words how people feel about dying before they have been successful in whatever mission they have set forth for themselves. His poem touches the reality of people’s feelings though imagery and figurative language.

Read More

More about Simple Moments Of Life In The Play Our Town By Thornton Wilder

Related Topics

Open Document