Thornton Wilder\'s Play Our Town

Thornton Wilder's play Our Town conveys a part Buddhist, part Americana theme. The playwright achieves a unique ambiance through a spartan set, an equally minimalist plot, and an existentialist tone. The Stage Manager literally walks between worlds. He is at once part of the action and detached from it; he is in the play yet he interacts with the audience. This creates dramatic irony as well as it draws the audience toward the philosophical undertones of Our Town. Although a romance between George Gibbs and Emily Webb develops and culminates in marriage, they are not the sole concern of story. Our Town has an existentialist tone to reflect the prevailing ideologies and social realities of the early 20th century. At the same time, Wilder points out how small town America retains a stubborn insularity that causes residents to resist change. The frank exploration of the boundary between life and death, reality and fiction, creates a unique ambiance in Our Town that encourages audience introspection. In fact, no characters in the play are inherently strong, for the play is theme-driven. Thornton Wilder's Our Town is a quintessentially 20th century tale, influenced by the prevailing values and ideologies of early 20th century America.

The existentialist tone of Our Town reflects in large part the changing social, political, and economic realities during turn-of-the-century America. Cities blossomed, causing a mass exodus of Americans from rural areas to urban ones. The shift from countryside to cityscape is not directly dealt with in Our Town but is nevertheless implied through items like the time capsule. More importantly, the hidden theme of urbanization is invoked through subtle criticism of small town life. For example, Mrs. Soames is the epitome of the nosy gossip who makes everyone else's business her own. The anonymity of the city seems like a haven to young people like George and Emily. Similarly, Dr. Gibbs tells his wife that traveling to Paris would be sure to corrupt her, turning her off to the small town family values he believes are exemplified in Grover's Corner. The emphasis on the rhythms and cycles of everyday life also underscores Wilder's suggestion that beneath the seeming stability and normality of small town life rests the burgeoning passions of the new generation. The small town in New Hampshire might as well be Anywhere, USA, for Wilder is making a sweeping social commentary already by the end of the first act.

Therefore, Wilder explores how stagnant American values are in spite of the broad changes taking place in the United States and the rest of the world. While America lies on the brink of becoming a dominant power in the world, it was still emerging from a sort of slumber in the early 1900s, when the play was set. Gender roles and norms seem remarkably stifling and outmoded for modern readers. Mrs. Gibbs and Webb are housewives who live through their families. Their dreams are more depressing than they are inspiring. When, for example, Mrs. Gibbs expresses her desire to see Paris, the audience knows she will not ever get to achieve her dream because of her husband's stubborn closed-mindedness. Emily's frustration with the lack of awareness on the part of the living in the third act also draws attention to the stubborn clinging to outmoded ways of thinking that can characterize small town existence. Wilder explores small town insularity with aplomb in Our Town, and this in-depth exploration is the play's greatest strength.

Globalization dawned around the turn of the century, introducing East to West and West to East and in Our Town, Wilder delves into Buddhist and other Eastern philosophies. The playwright does so subtly and possibly unintentionally, examining the barriers between reality and fiction, life and death. The Stage Manager begs the audience to rethink their role as viewers. Whereas most plays take for granted the audience's suspension of disbelief, their unwavering attention to the characters and their concerns, in Our Town, the audience is asked to participate more fully than they normally would. This element is ultra-modern and ultra-realistic in keeping with the modernist theme that evolved in the arts during the fin-de-siecle. The Stage Manager's dramatic irony also adds an Eastern element to the play by demanding a be-here-now attitude on the part of audience members. Instead of passively accepting what transpires on stage, the audience is continually reminded of watching a play. Being asked to relate the play's plot and theme to their own life, the audience views the production with an engaged and self-reflexive attitude. The Buddhist undercurrent culminates in Act Three, when Emily has died. Meeting the dead encourages Emily to appreciate her life and life itself to an extent she never could when she was alive. This is the turning point of the play, the moment at which Wilder clarifies the reason for writing Our Town.