"Cliff Notes - Our Town" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

The Stage Manager enters, interrupting the conversation between the two women and sending them away. This is another reminder that this is a stage play, not real life.

Wilder constructs reality on the stage in such a way that the audience can easily relate to what is taking place. At the same time, he constantly reminds you that this is a theatrical production, a game that a group of people are playing on the stage. He wants you to realize that the only things that are real and important in life happen inside of you. It's not what's being acted out on the stage that's important, but how you respond to it. This idea is crucial in the final act, so keep it in mind.

Now the Stage Manager invites Professor Willard from the State University to sketch in the town's history. Very briefly you go from Archaeozoic granite ("some of the oldest land in the world") to the twins who had just been born when the play began. In between you have the same sort of zigzag, from sandstone outcroppings three hundred million years old to Silas Peckham's cow pasture, from tenth-century Cotahatchee tribes to possible traces in three families.

NOTE: This broad view of the world juxtaposed with a close-up view of the town will be repeated throughout the play. Wilder is commenting on the greatness of the universe, the smallness of daily human existence, and the simultaneous importance of both. Wilder did not see human existence as small or petty in contrast to the vastness of history. Instead, he believed that the humdrum activities of daily life were common to all people in all times, and that this bound humanity into one great living force. The Stage Manager acts as the link between the two concepts. He keeps putting the "action" of the play into proper perspective.

The play begins by showing you the lives of a few people in a small town. By the end, the characters will have become representative of all humanity. Wilder starts with one small idea and expands it until he is dealing with very large ideas. If you are aware of this as you read, you can appreciate how Wilder is able to accomplish it.

The Stage Manager dismisses Willard and asks Editor Webb to come out. Mrs. Webb comes out instead to explain that her husband has just cut his hand and will be right out. Her impatient call, "Charles! Everybody's waitin'," is so believable and typical that you are immediately back in Grover's Corners.

Mr. Webb enters and offers you some statistical information--the kind you'd find in an almanac or a sociology book. He says it's a "very ordinary town." Does it sound ordinary to you? Is the kind of population it has anything like the population in a town you know of?

The Stage Manager calls for questions from the audience (only actors are expected to respond). The Lady in the Balcony asks about drinking. The Belligerent Man asks about social injustice. The Lady in the Box asks about culture. These are all Major Issues, Important Questions, but they aren't of much importance in Grover's Corners. Drinking? There's some, but not enough to make anyone think it's a serious problem. Injustice? Everyone knows it exists, but until someone can figure out a way to eliminate it, the citizens of Grover's Corners are content to help those who need help and otherwise mind their own business. Culture? Love of Beauty? Well, they know their Bible, and in place of art they have the beauty of nature. Why bring this up? What is Wilder's point here? Is he saying that we should all be simple folk and not try to think about culture or social problems? Is he saying that these problems are transitory, that they will be solved, and we should concentrate on eternal, timeless questions? What do you think?

NOTE: SOCIAL ISSUES One of the strongest criticisms leveled against Wilder, especially in his early work, was that he was unconcerned about the social and political issues of his day. Some readers believe that he should address current problems like war and poverty. Others say he was concerned not with the particular, but with universal issues of human existence. This is part of an ongoing argument among students of literature. Does the artist have a responsibility to deal with the problems of his society? Or are timeless issues more important? What do you think?

Wilder may have been giving his critics an answer in this scene. In 1901, the "Evils of Drink" was a popular issue, and many social activists sought to completely ban consumption of alcohol. In 1919 the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States was prohibited. In 1933, however, prohibition was ended on the national level after proving less than successful.

The Stage Manager dismisses Mr. Webb and announces a shift in time. Now it is early afternoon. People have had dinner, all the dishes are washed, Mr. Webb is mowing the lawn (in pantomime, remember), and the children are coming home from school. Emily is calling to her friends and walking along pretending that she's a great lady. George is tossing a ball in the air--until he bumps into Mrs. Forrest.

NOTE: THE STAGE MANAGER You have by now seen quite a bit of evidence indicating the unusual nature of the Stage Manager's role. Like the Greek chorus he comments on the action and fills you in on the background, but he has greater power than that. He can call forth and dismiss the characters, control their actions without their even noticing him, stand by invisibly as they go about their daily life, or suddenly become a character like Mrs. Forrest. He interrupts time and moves it up. He could be a frightening character if he were presented in a different tone. Maybe that is partly why Wilder gives him the friendly, folksy speech of Grover's Corners.

On the way home from school, George and Emily stop to talk. Emily is good at school work. George has been watching her doing homework in the evening. She promises to give him some "hints" to help him do his. In return, he confides his ambition to become a farmer.

Emily helps her mother with the string beans and asks one of the questions that often bother young girls: "Am I pretty?" She can't pry a satisfying answer from her mother--no guarantees here of future romance. All Mrs. Webb says is that Emily is "Pretty enough for all normal purposes."

NOTE: Exotic ambitions don't seem to take people very far in Grover's Corners. Mrs. Gibbs never visits Paris--in fact, when she does go away, to see her daughter in Ohio, she dies. Emily doesn't become a fine lady and doesn't spend her life "making speeches." The emphasis here is all on "normal purposes." Why do you suppose this is so?

Now you are back with the Stage Manager again. He tells you about the cornerstone of the new bank. It will have a time capsule in it, so when people a thousand years from now dig it up they will know about Grover's Corners. In it will be a copy of The New York Times and of Mr. Webb's Sentinel, a Bible, the Constitution of the United States, and a copy of Shakespeare's plays.

Then the Stage Manager says to the audience, "What do you say, folks? What do you think?" He almost sounds like a teacher. But what do you think? Would those items tell people a thousand years from now what life was like in Grover's Corners? You might notice that those items cover religion, politics, and culture, the same topics covered by the questions from the audience.

Next comes an important passage, worth reading closely:

Y'know--Babylon once had two million people in it, and all we know about 'em is the names of the kings and some copies of wheat contracts... and contracts for the sale of slaves. Yet every night all those families sat down to supper, and the father came home from his work, and the smoke went up the chimney,--same as here. And even in Greece and Rome, all we know about the real life of the people is what we can piece together out of the joking poems and the comedies they wrote for the theatre back then.

Here past, present, and future are being tied together--the people in ancient Babylon, those in Grover's Corners, and the ones a thousand years from now who will look into the time capsule. All are the same when it comes to real life. What does Wilder mean by real life? Obviously not the things that find their way into history books, not the Treaty of Versailles or Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic. For Wilder, this play, with children doing homework and mothers stringing beans, is about the real essence of life.

In that speech the Stage Manager also comments that what we learn about real life in Greece and Rome we learn from comedies and joking poems. Maybe that gives you a hint about the reason for the tone of this play. The play may deal with enormous themes of life and death, but the tone is most often friendly, joking.

The choir now begins to sing "Blessed Be the Tie that Binds." They are being led by Simon Stimson, the choirmaster and organist. Two ladders have been pushed onto the stage; they suggest the second stories of the two houses. George and Emily each climb one and pantomime doing homework. The Stage Manager, still standing at the front of the stage, tells the audience, "The day's running down like a tired clock."

NOTE: "BLESSED BE THE TIE THAT BINDS" This traditional hymn is used in each of the three acts. Wilder chose it for its words:

Blest be the tie that binds

Our hearts in Christian love: