What type of play is Our Town?
What type of play is Our Town?
Drama
| Our Town | |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Life and death in an American small town |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | 1901 to 1913. Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, near Massachusetts. |
What does Emily realize in Our Town?
After her death, Emily joins the dead souls in the town cemetery and begins to view earthly life and human beings from a new perspective. She realizes that the living “don’t understand” the importance of human existence.
What do the ladders represent in Our Town?
In the distance, the Congregational Church choir sings “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds ” Meanwhile, two ladders, representing the second stories of the two houses, are moved onstage. George and Emily mount the ladders.
What is the American dream in Our Town?
The American Dream is “an American social ideal that stresses egalitarianism and especially material prosperity” (“American Dream”). Material prosperity is the main element of the American Dream that was stressed in the twentieth century, as Mr. Webb in Our Town so accurately points out.
Is Our Town a tragedy or a comedy?
genre Wilder’s play defies most conventional theatrical genres. It is neither a comedy nor a tragedy, neither a romance nor a farce. It is, rather, a contemplative work concerning the human experience.
What is the tone of Our Town?
Morbid but hopeful. From the beginning of the play, the Stage Manager introduces the characters only to give their death dates. It’s like he’s making us read a book backwards – we already know what happens (hint: everyone dies).
What symbolic gesture does the stage manager make at the end of the play Our Town?
What two symbolic gestures does the Stage Manager make at the end of the play? What does each gesture suggest? One symbolic gesture was when he winds his watch. This showed the time and how fast life has gone by.
What happens at the end of Our Town?
As Emily settles in among the dead souls, George lays prostrate by her tomb. “They don’t understand,” she says of the living. The stars come out over Grover’s Corners, and the play ends.
What is put in the time capsule in Our Town?
The prospective contents of the time capsule include issues of the New York Times and Mr. Webb’s Sentinel, as well as a Bible, a copy of the Constitution, and a book of plays by William Shakespeare.
