Perspective & Our Town

Everyone has a moment that they are looking forward to. Times like weekends, holidays and days off help guide us through our life. While this way of thinking has many positive aspects, we lose the appreciation of all details of the moments that pass us by. Because we may see moments like holidays as "better" moments, we often fail to see the quality of the smaller ones that we overlook. We see these "small moments" in Thornton Wilder's play Our Town. The play takes us to a small town in New England and we see how simple it is, to the point where we may get bored due to the similarity to our lives. After witnessing events in the play we might have formerly perceived as big and important portrayed as relatively simple and straightforward, we begin to question how important these events are in our life. Not until death does one of the characters realize how much of life was ignored. But after death, she can see how much everyone goes through life without noticing the events that are occurring all the time. To show us that these lessons are true in our own lives, Wilder uses devices such as the lack of props and directly connecting us to the cast to enable us to better relate to the play. He then uses drastic shifts in focus and perspective on events in our lives to drive home what is truly important in life. Finally, by quickly jumping around through time, Wilder shows us that while time passes, our lives stay relatively the same. Wilder uses these techniques to set up the important lessons about how to live our lives. Our Town shows us that everything in life is unique and special, so we should appreciate every moment.

The lack of props helps generalize the play and makes it easier to relate the story to our own lives to teach us that every moment is important in our life. The absence of props is the first thing that is even in the play: the first stage direction reads "No curtain. No scenery." (p. 4) The lack of props is a key element of this play. By removing them, we are forced to create our own imaginary surroundings. By creating our own environment, we become connected with the play and can easily relate the town in the story to our own town. A short bit later, the Stage Manager is showing us around the town. He announces "There's some scenery for those who think they have to have scenery" (p.7). The Stage Manager is telling us that while some people "think they have to have scenery," we should fill in these gaps with scenery from their own life. Because Wilder's objective is to show us a better way to live our life, we must be able to see that the characters in the play are no different than we are. When we can connect with the characters in the story, we can learn how to better relate to them and appreciate the big and small moments of our life.

Throughout the play, Wilder uses a rather unconventional shift in focus by frequently moving back and forth between big and small events to show the significance of each moment. In the beginning of the play, we are taken to a simple and insignificant moment in Grover's Corners, Dr. Gibbs stopping to talk to Joe the paperboy. While many see this as boring and lacking plot, it is meant to represent the actions we take every day that become part of our routine and begin to lose meaning. Dr. Gibbs asks him if anything serious is going on in the world, to which Joe replies "Yessir. My schoolteacher, Miss Foster,'s getting married to a fella over in Concord"(p.9). This statement shows that our perception of big and little events is relative. Most people would consider that a big event in the world would deal with much larger issues than a local teacher getting married, but in the eyes of Joe, this is very big news. This transition between big and small events shows us that small moments in life are just as important as big ones.

Wilder uses another device to us perspective on our lives by dramatically shifting through time, showing the lack of change as time goes on. Early in the play, the Stage Manager introduces Doc Gibbs and his wife. Immediately after introducing them, he states "Doc Gibbs died in 1930...Mrs. Gibbs died first-long time ago, in fact" (p.8) By already knowing about his death, we view his actions in the play differently. Had Doc Gibbs known he would die in 1930, he would have lived life differently, appreciating every moment and spending time with his family. Wilder is trying to teach us the way that we should live our lives. We do not know anything about what happened between now and when he died, but we can assume that most of his life was the same as it had always been. By living a simple life and not taking notice to his surroundings, we can simply remove years of his life from the story without changing it. Although many people live their life aiming at a point in the future, once that moment arrives their life will still be basically the same, and the time spent waiting is time lost and unappreciated. The compression of time shows us the importance of time and how each unique moment should be appreciated rather than rushing towards a point in the future.

Unlike most plays, Our Town is unique in its connection between the cast and the audience to teach us the importance of appreciating insignificant events. In Act 1, the Stage Manager calls Professor Willard and Mr. Webb on to the stage to talk to us about Grover's Corners. He directly addresses the audience, asking "Is there anyone in the audience who would like to ask Editor Webb anything about the town?" (p.24). Actors placed in the audience respond to the Stage Manager with questions, such as a woman in a box seat who asks "Is there any culture or love of beauty in Grover's Corners?" (p.26). By directly involving us in the play, Wilder breaks the "fourth wall," and we can more easily relate to the story. Audience members do not feel the separation of themselves and the play because the play involves them and those around them. This is important because Wilder is trying to prove a point to us about the way that we live our lives, and by including us in the play, we can clearly see how our lives are the same as the characters in the story. By involving us in the play, we can better see Grover's Corners as our town, allowing us to more easily understand or appreciate Wilder's message.

Wilder points out that things that we may see as very important to our life are really not as significant as we may think. In the middle of Act II, the Stage Manager brings us back in time to when George and Emily were still in high school. He sets the scene by saying "George has just been elected President of the Junior Class... And Emily's just been elected Secretary and Treasurer. I don't have to tell you how important that is." (p. 63) The Stage Manager uses sarcasm here for us to understand how we exaggerate the importance of events. Although George and Emily probably saw their election as very important, this distracts them from noticing the truly important events. The truly important event occurs after this, when George and Emily walk home together. The Stage Manager is sarcastically calling these positions important so we realize that although something like being elected president of your class may seem important at the time, it is insignificant in the picture of your whole life.

This play helps us understand that what many people see as the most important day in a person's life is no different than any other day. In Act II, we see the wedding of Emily and George. During the ceremony, Mrs. Soames turns around to talk to us. "Don't know when I've seen such a lovely wedding," (p.77) she says.  Although Mrs. Soames is enjoying the wedding, it seems like a typical wedding to us. Mrs. Soames has built up the idea in her head that the wedding will be "lovely", so when it turns out to be a routine wedding, she assumes it is "lovely." From this we see that when we expect enjoy an event, we usually do. Unfortunately, we also tend to have the opposite expectation of other regular days. When we plan on having a normal day, we fail to notice the simple pleasures of the day; we simply pass them off as routine. Wilder wants us to appreciate every day for the way it is, not to just label the important days "good" and ignore the rest. Every day of our lives are unique, the ones with large events may seem more important, but they are really just as significant as any other day.

Act III begins to wrap up Wilder's lessons by clearly showing us that we do not fully appreciate life. The act starts with the funeral of Emily, however the focus of the act is not on her funeral but her experience in the afterlife. Emily enters the afterlife at her funeral and sits down in a chair next to Mrs. Gibbs. She is happy to be there, but she is still thinking like a living person. She begins to tell Mrs. Gibbs about their new drinking fountain, and tells her "We bought that out of the money you left us," to which Mrs. Gibbs replies "I did?"(p.88) Mrs. Gibbs understands the true importance of life, while Emily still thinks that money and possessions make life good. Wilder is showing us that we, like Emily, spend our lives focused on objects instead of experiences. We can never truly be  happy until we can learn to simply enjoy life. Emily soon realizes that she is thinking differently than the rest of the dead and asks Mrs. Gibbs "When does this feeling go away?-Of being... one of them?"(p.89) Emily is starting to comprehend what the living do not: that life should be enjoyed for the small events that happen every day, not the big events that happen rarely.

While many moments of our life seem boring and ordinary, Emily shows us how unique these moments really are. After Emily has died, the Stage Manager informs her that she may return to a day in her life. However, others among the dead advise her against taking this journey, calling it unwise. Emily disagrees, claiming "It's a thing I must know for myself" (p.92). Mrs. Gibbs provides one last piece of advice: "Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough" (p.100). In spite of this, she still chooses a rather important day, her 14th birthday. Emily's return to her past life is a shocking experience, as she realizes how much of her life she has passed by. She appears fourteen years into the past, watching the daily routine of the town. Everything that happens we have seen before, common things such as the milkman delivering bottles of milk and making conversation with others. Emily is delighted to be back in her town at first, but she soon begins to see her life under a different light. After spending time back in life, she breaks down in tears. "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?-every, every minute?" (p.108) she asks the Stage Manager. By reliving her life, she notices that no one stops to appreciate all that is happening every moment. From an outsider's perspective, she can see the world moving around her, while others maintain a narrow focus. Wilder uses this scene to reach out to us and urge them not to wait until it's too late to appreciate the world. If we can acknowledge the fine details of life every day, we would live a better life. Waiting for holidays and occasions to enjoy life is a waste of our time on this planet. As Emily discovers only after her death, we miss so much of every day as we rush towards the future, ignoring the present.

As the play comes to a close, we are reminded how everything in our life is viewed relatively and what may appear small upon first glance may be much greater. After returning to the others in the graveyard, Emily informs the deceased that it truly was a mistake to return to her life, as she has realized the way that humans ignorantly live their lives on Earth. After this, Mrs. Gibbs looks to the sky and exclaims, "Emily, look at that star. I forget its name"(p.101). This final quote sums up the fact that relatively small things can be huge. A star in the sky appears as just a speck, an intricate snowflake in a blizzard. However, that star in the sky can be millions of times bigger than our planet, and composed of an incomprehensible amount of energy. We look up to the sky and all we see is a field of bright dots, but close observation reveals much more than that. In our own lives, we find ourselves only paying attention to things that are blatant and in our face. Just like the star, paying close attention to small moments reveals more than we could ever imagine. Wilder uses this to teach us that our life consists of overlooking small things and paying attention to what holds our focus. For the small moments to which we do notice, such as a star in the sky, our knowledge is too often limited to a brief label, such as a name. Mrs. Gibbs only knows the star for it's name, not the wonders which occur on it. Mrs. Gibbs reference to the star in the sky truly provides us a way to see how many moments we let slip through our grasps, unappreciated.

The play Our Town warns us to appreciate every moment of our life or we will end up missing the truly important ones. While the first two acts of the play may bore the viewer, the third act shows that it is our life that we allow to be so boring. This proves Wilder's point better than any line could, by making us think about our lives and the way we handle day to day events. Wilder teaches us that to live a fulfilling life, we must appreciate every moment no matter how big or small. By ignoring what is happening around us and only looking towards the future, we miss out on the simple yet magical moments of the present.