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Our Town
In Act I of Our Town by Thornton Wilder, George and Rebecca, brother and sister, are introduced. George is a prominent character who marries Emily, Mr. Webb's daughter. George and Emily want a...
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Our Town
The star symbolizes the eternal. It has been a fixed constant in the sky since time immemorial. The first inhabitants of earth stared at the same sky as the townspeople of Grovers Corners do...
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Our Town
Towards the end of Art I (right after Emily asks her mother whether she is pretty and they have a conversation about that subject) the Stage Manager tells the audience that "the Cartwright...
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Our Town
In Act 3, Emily dies in childbirth and joins the dead at the cemetery. There, she discovers what the others who have passed before her already know: you can't go back into your old life again and...
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Our Town
In Our Town, you're right in thinking that this is a vague reference to "the real hero," for it is. The "real hero of this scene" isn't defined but hints, clues, are given to the identity of this...
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Our Town
In Act III of the play, Emily has died. As she takes her place among others from Grover's Corners who have died, she requests to relive just one day of her life. Mrs. Soames tries to discourage...
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Our Town
The question you have been given is asking you to consider how the presence of the Stage Manager is or is not helping your understanding of the characters and action in the play. You are being...
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Our Town
Before taking her place among the dead for eternity, Emily is allowed to "relive" the happiest day of her ife. She chooses her twelfth birthday. First, she sees people going about the...
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Our Town
Our Town is full of foreshadowing, perhaps more so than in almost any other play. Much of this foreshadowing is provided by the narrator, who is called the Stage Manager. He seems to know...
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Our Town
After Emily accuses George of being stuck up during the flashback in Act II, George takes her to Morgan's drugstore to have an ice cream soda.While they are at the drugstore, George and Emily have...
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Our Town
In Our Town, the American Dream is achieved through small-town normalcy, ordinary stability, and savoring the small moments in life. As Mrs. Gibbs says, . . . choose an unimportant day. Choose the...
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Our Town
Thornton Wilder reveals his sense of humor in this scene at the end of Act One: "Daily Life" in which Rebecca Gibbs tells of a letter her friend addressed, ultimately, to God. Grover's Corners...
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Our Town
Thornton Wilder's Our Town is not only a masterpiece of American drama but one of the earliest and finest works of modernism in theatrical plays. The play, which is set entirely in Grover's...
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Our Town
The Stage Manager has the same kind of role that would be filled by a minor character who is the narrator of a short story or novel. His main function is to provide exposition. He introduces most...
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Our Town
Mr. Webb's comment about the townspeople paying special attention to the birds indicates at least two things about Grover's Corners. First, life in Grover's Corners is quiet and without event or...
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Our Town
The play was first performed in 1938 and is presented from a modern, matter-of-fact, in-the-omniscient-present point of view. Thus, since everything that happens in the play begins in 1901 and ends...
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Our Town
This is spoken in the context of a wedding, in which the Stage Manager (who plays all kinds of bit parts in the play) acts as the minister. Emily and George are about to begin their lives...
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Our Town
The stars mentioned in Act III of Our Town connect to the Act I mention of "the Universe; the Mind of God" and are part of the thematic element thus initiated in Act I. One of Wilder's themes is...
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Our Town
The "American Dream" is a trope that has been explored in many different works of literature, film and television, as well as music. There are a number of examples worthy of exploring. One of the...
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Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play. The acts are not given titles. The narrator, who is called the Stage Manager, tells the audience that "The First Act shows a day in our town." So it might be said that...
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Our Town
This is one of the most interesting episodes in the play because Emily is like a ghost revisiting her own home and cannot be seen by her mother or father, although she is visible to the audience....
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Our Town
This is actually a very interesting question, as this play, plot wise, does not seem to have the normal structure of a text in having a character that is trying to achieve something that other...
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Our Town
The Stage Manager in Our Town by Thornton Wilder provides background information for the town. All towns across the United States have geographic differences, diversity in cultures, immigrants from...
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Our Town
Set at the Grover's Corner cemetery, Act III opens on the summer of 1913 and begins with a brief soliloquy by the Stage Manager in which he discusses the nature of death. He says that over time,...
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Our Town
In Act II when Mr. Gibbs appears for breakfast on the morning of their son's wedding, his wife "puts a plate before him." He says, "Why, Julia Hersey--French toast!" She replies, "'Tain't hard to...
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Our Town
In Act II from Our Town, Thornton Wilder presents the second phase of life: falling in love and getting married. At the end of the Act, the Stage Manager steps into the role of the minister who...
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Our Town
The Stage Manager establishes himself as being a very personable and easy-to-talk-with individual from the beginning of the play. His language is not complicated or difficult to understand; he...
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Our Town
Although their styles and genres are very different, both Thornton Wilder's play Our Town (1938) and Sandra Cisneros' short story "Woman Hollering Creek" (1991) show how a young woman anticipates a...
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Our Town
Our Town by Thornton Wilder is set in the imaginary "everytown" called Grover's Corners, and the two "everyman" families in the play are the Gibbses and the Webbs. On the morning the play opens, we...
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Our Town
“A thousand years from now…” The Stage Manager controls the events of the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. As one of the most fascinating characters in American theater, the Stage Manager...
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Our Town
In Our Town Act III, the "something" that is "way down deep that's eternal about every human being" is never named by Wilder but is generally called the soul and is represented by Wilder by the...
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Our Town
I agree with everything in the first answer but I'd like to add that an allegory also has some kind of moral message. In this case the message is to appreciate life while we have it, for life can...
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Our Town
Literary mood, also called atmosphere, is created by a combination of many elements including diction, setting, description and characterization. Mood is something that has a focus within the...
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Our Town
I don't have the text right in front of me, but Wilder describes the Stage Manager as a happy-go-lucky person...the one everyone knows and says "hello" to on the street. He is the...
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Our Town
“Act II” in Our Town by Thornton Wilder is labeled “Love and Marriage.” The play portrays the lives of the citizens of a small town in New Hampshire at the turn of the twentieth century. Using...
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Our Town
The speech in Our Town in which the Stage Manager/Minister mentions "M marries N" is in a sort of soliloquy for the Stage Manager in which he reveals personal thoughts and impressions. We know he...
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Our Town
Although Our Town can be shown to have a lot more than just "two central ideas," that's a good place to start. First, not to sound so much like Disney's The Lion King, but probably the main (and...
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Our Town
One of the central themes of the play relates to an idea of the universality of the human life cycle. This notion is conveyed and explored on several levels, from direct commentary to the choice of...
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Our Town
Near the end of Act I, Dr. Gibbs says about Simon Stimson: "Some people ain't made for small town life." As the organist and director of the church choir, Simon Stimson likely feels rather confined...
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Our Town
Emily is bragging, though what she says is true. This statement provides us with a concise exposition of Emily's character and also connects later to her realization that people are essentially...
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Our Town
The beautiful hymn “Bless Be the Tithe That Binds” purveys Thornton Wilder’s theme iOur Town. Men are gregarious and require human relationships to flourish. The song permeates the play during...
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Our Town
Our Town by Thornton Wilder won the Pulitzer Prize for the best drama in 1938. The play ranks as a masterpiece in American theater. From the name of the play to the set decorations, this is a play...
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Our Town
I think to a large extent this message is accurate. It is similar to Whitman's poem, "The World is Too Much With Us." We are busy, overwhelmed with work and school and family, and we...
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Our Town
In this passage, Emily has died in childbirth. She is allowed to go back home and see her family from beyond the grave. Once home, she realizes it was a mistake to return. She understands, now that...
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Our Town
Doc Gibbs is the town doctor. He is awake at an early hour because he had to go and deliver a baby in "Polish Town." Doc Gibbs is the father of George Gibbs, who will marry the pretty girl next...
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Our Town
Thornton Wilder breaks a few traditional conventions in Our Town. First, he breaks down the fourth wall, or the imaginary dividing line between actors and audience. The Stage Manager addresses...
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Our Town
Our Town by Thornton Wilder focuses on the precious moments that occur in people’s lives. This play on the everyday occurrences that all people experience won the Pulitzer Prize for Wilder. In...
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Our Town
In Our Town by Thornton Wilder, the last act is reserved for the part of life that comes to all—Death. The graveyard is the ultimate equalizer. Whether a person is the mayor or the town drunk,...
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Our Town
By the time Emily learns what she learns about life, as seen in Act III, she is dead. And that's part of the point of what she learns: there is no way to know about the life we live as we are...
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Our Town
As Act II of Our Town by Thornton Wilder begins, the Stage Manager informs the audience that this is the wedding day of Emily and George. The day begins as usual with Mrs. Gibbs coming down to...