our town essay questions

by Thornton Wilder

Our town essay questions.

How does Wilder use the hymn "Blessed Be The Tie That Binds" to reinforce the themes of the play? Do you think the reference is religious?

As a class or group, experience a production of Our Town -this can be a play, a radio adaptation, or even the 1940 movie adaptation. How does watching a production of the play affect your perception of the characters on the page? Do they seem more or less "archetypal" on stage than on paper?

Thornton Wilder once wrote: "I've always thought [Emily should live]. In a movie you see the people so close to that a different relation is established. In the theatre they are halfway abstractions in an allegory; in the movie they are very concrete. So in so far as the play is a Generalized Allegory she dies - we die - they die; in so far as it's a Concrete Happening it's not important that she die. Let her live - the idea will have been imparted anyway."

How do you interpret this quote? What implications does it have for your reading of the play? If you were directing a film of Our Town, would you let Emily live?

Although there is no direct, specific reference to Christianity or God in the play, Our Town can be read as a Christian play, if you interpret the Stage Manager's statement that the dead are waiting for something big to mean that they are waiting for the second coming. But Wilder did not identify as a Christian. Do you think Wilder intended the end of his play to be religious, non-religious, neither or both?

Many see an element of nostalgia and sentimentalizing in the portrayal of Grover's Corners, but the town is also shown as stifling for people like Simon Stimson. Is Our Town a celebration of small town life, or is it a criticism?

Imagine Our Town with realistic scenery and props, and no pantomime. Could such a production work? How would the play be affected by such a change?

How does Wilder dramatize the passage of time? Aside from standard dramatic elements like the changing seasons and the Stage Manager referring to his watch, what other techniques does he use to show the advance of the life of Grover's Corners?

We are told that Grover's Corners is an unremarkable town, and yet in some ways it is the main character of the play. How does Wilder employ the playwright's tools of characterization as regards to the town as a community?

The use of the pronoun "our" in the title of the play encourages inclusiveness for the audience - Grover's Corners is the town of the Webbs and Gibbs, and also the Stage Manager, and also the audience. What other cues does Wilder use to encourage audience identification with the town and its inhabitants?

Contrast the happiness of the Gibbs and Webb families with the misery of Simon Stimson. Is it true that Simon is just not cut out for small town life, or is there more to it?

Compare Mrs. Gibbs' wanderlust to her husband and son's resistance to leaving town. What are the implications of staying home-both positive and negative?

Our Town Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Our Town is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Match these -.-

1) "They'll have a lot of troubles, I suppose, but that's none of our business.

Everybody has a right to their own troubles." Doctor Gibbs

3) George, I was thinking the other night of some advice my father gave me when I got...

What type of behavior does the Stage Manager describe as “layers and layers of nonsense”?

stfu you stupid bean. I can tell your from mexico

What does Bessie’s reluctance to change her route reveal about the daily routine of the residents of Grover’s Corners?

It represents the lack of change in their society: the comfort they find in the familiar and the routine. These routines are part of their identity.

Study Guide for Our Town

Our Town study guide contains a biography of Thornton Wilder, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Our Town
• Our Town Summary
• Character List

Essays for Our Town

Our Town essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Our Town by Thornton Wilder.

• Hymns and Music as Markers in Time and Part of Rituals
• An Essential Foundation: The Role Setting Plays in American Theatre
• The Importance of Our Town's Narrator
• Medicine in the Early 1900's: Essential Context for Emily's Death
• A Mundane Story to a Life-Changing Experience: The Act-by-Act Insights of Our Town

Lesson Plan for Our Town

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Our Town
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Our Town Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Our Town

• Introduction

78 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Act Summaries & Analyses

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

How does Wilder’s choice to make the play metatheatrical illustrate and solidify the idea of ordinariness and universality found in the play?

The passage of time brings countless changes, yet things seem to remain the same. How does Our Town exhibit the cycle of life, love, and death that continues throughout human history?

What does the Stage Manager mean when he says, “There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being” (88), and why is this statement significant to the play?

What is the fundamental flaw in humans demonstrated by this play, and how is it demonstrated?

How is stage lighting used to convey mood , emotion, and context throughout Our Town ?

What is the significance of placing a copy of the play inside the cornerstone of the new bank (time capsule), and why does the Stage Manager feel that this glimpse into everyday life is worth documenting?

The cyclical nature of birth, life, love, and death is portrayed directly and indirectly throughout the play. Examine these portrayals and how they contribute to this underlying theme of Our Town .

Why is Emily so eager to revisit her life, and why do the dead warn her against it? What does she learn from her experience?

What is the stylistic impact of using minimal or no props, and what were the underlying statements behind Wilder’s choice?

Mrs Gibb and Mrs Webb live parallel lives. Emily dies in childbirth. What does this say about them, their role as women, and American life in the early 1900s?

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Our Town Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer..

• Why does Wilder separate the three acts as: Daily Life, Love and Marriage, Death? Why not other options, such as birth, marriage, and death?
• What is the role of war in this play? How is war portrayed? Is it essential to the play’s message and story, or would this all still be relevant in peace time?
• Why does Wilder follow George and Emily, and not other characters?
• Is this a quintessentially American play, or would people from other countries and cultures also appreciate it?

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Thornton Wilder

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Thornton Wilder's Our Town . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Our Town: Introduction

Our town: plot summary, our town: detailed summary & analysis, our town: themes, our town: quotes, our town: characters, our town: symbols, our town: theme wheel, brief biography of thornton wilder.

Historical Context of Our Town

Other books related to our town.

• Full Title: Our Town: A Play in Three Acts
• When Written: 1930s
• Where Written: United States
• When Published: 1938
• Literary Period: The play blends realism with modernism.
• Genre: Drama (the play does not fit any specific theater genre like comedy or tragedy)
• Setting: Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, between 1899 and 1913
• Climax: In act three, the deceased Emily relives her twelfth birthday but finds it too painful and realizes that it is foolish to try to relive the past.
• Antagonist: There is no real antagonist in the play. All the characters live ordinary lives, struggling only against the normal passage of time that affects everyone.
• Point of View: Dramatic play

Extra Credit for Our Town

Not in Our Town. In 1946, the USSR banned a production of Our Town in East Berlin, because the play was deemed too depressing.

Stage Manager. Thornton Wilder himself played the stage manager in some productions of the play on Broadway.

• Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more.