"our town" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

^^^^^^^^^^OUR TOWN: STYLE

Style involves the way a writer uses language. Wilder was extremely conscious of the sounds and beauty of words as he put them on paper. In fact, his earliest attempts at writing have been criticized because they were "beautiful" but had no substance. As he matured, he outgrew his fondness for "fine writing" and developed an ear for the "right" word. The right word is not necessarily the beautiful one or the fancy one. It's the word that expresses exactly what you want to say. For a playwright, it's the word that is exactly the one a particular character would use in a particular situation.

Wilder was a very conscientious writer. This may be one of the reasons he wrote relatively little. In Our Town he accomplishes something of a tour de force. The entire play is written in a dialect that was not Wilder's normal speech. In his letters and essays he used far more formal language.

Why, then, did he write the play in this colloquial, folksy style? Part of the reason is obviously that this would be the normal speech of the residents of Grover's Corners. But why make it the normal speech of the Stage Manager as well? There are a number of possible reasons.

1. Wilder wanted to make clear that we are all ordinary people by having all his characters speak in ordinary language.

2. Wilder wanted to make it clear that the Stage Manager did not represent the author by having the Stage Manager speak the language of Grover's Corners, not the language of a Yale graduate.

3. Because the play is a celebration of everyday life, everyday speech is most appropriate.

Do any of these explanations appeal to you? Can you think of others?

When the play was being prepared for its New York opening in 1938, Wilder had frequent struggles with its producer, Jed Harris. Wilder kept trying to defend his "beautiful prose," while Harris argued that "prose doesn't play." Writing to a friend shortly before the opening, Wilder said, "As long as his [Harris's] suggestions for alterations are on the structure they are often very good; but once they apply to the words, they are always bad and sometimes atrocious."

Judging from the final result, Wilder must have won the battle over words. The language of the play is simple, natural, and frequently very beautiful. What could be more effective than the simple and homey images of Emily's speech as she bids farewell to the world?

^^^^^^^^^^OUR TOWN: POINT OF VIEW

The story in a novel is usually told either by a character, who acts as narrator, or by the all-knowing author, the omniscient or partially omniscient narrator. For example, in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Huck tells his own story, but in Charles Dickens's Tale of Two Cities, it is the omniscient narrator who tells you, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...." The narrator is important because you only know what the narrator tells you, and the outlook of the narrator usually affects the way you interpret the story.

In most plays there is no narrator. The evidence is placed directly in front of you, with no interpreter telling you what it all means. Our Town is unusual. The play is narrated by the Stage Manager.

Wilder uses this character to give information about the town and its residents the way he would use a narrator in a novel. The Stage Manager knows the past, present, and future. He knows what the characters are feeling, and he tells you what to notice and why. He tells you what he believes is the truth.

But you have the same problem here that you have in a novel. How much of what the Stage Manager says are you going to accept? You can obviously accept what he says about the town and its residents. But do you also accept the philosophy he offers? Do you believe that love is as important as he says? Do you think it's true that people miss the beauty of life? Do you agree that all people are connected in time?

Do you think Wilder intends you to accept what the Stage Manager says? Or is the Stage Manager just another character with his own limitations?

^^^^^^^^^^OUR TOWN: FORM AND STRUCTURE

In contrast to the very conventional and traditional characters and story in Our Town, the structure of the play frequently violates modern tradition and convention. As soon as you walk into the theater, you know this will not be the kind of play you're accustomed to seeing. The curtain is up, and you're looking at a bare stage, no scenery at all, just someone who looks like a stagehand dragging some tables and chairs around. You couldn't be blamed for thinking that you've come on the wrong night--that the play is still in rehearsal.

Once the play begins, the Stage Manager often reminds you that it is a play. Even his title emphasizes this. You are never allowed to think--at least for very long--that you are watching a slice-of-life, unique events that could only happen once. You are forced to recognize that these characters and events represent what the author sees as universal, not particular, truths. The form of the play has a definite purpose.

Some readers have also noticed the influence of Wilder's classical training. The similarity of the Stage Manager to the ancient Greek chorus has been discussed in The Characters section of this guide. Partly because the Stage Manager performs some of the functions of a Greek chorus, Wilder does not divide acts into the scenes that are typical of modern plays. In addition, the play seems to follow the three unities of Greek drama: unity of time, place, and action.

Unity of time usually means that the entire action of the play takes place within twenty-four hours. In one sense, quite a bit of time is covered in Our Town, including shifts backward and forward. In another sense, it all takes place in one day: Act I begins at daybreak and Act III ends at night, a single day of life.

As for unity of place, the location of the play doesn't change. It is all Grover's Corners (or, if you like, it is all the stage of the theater). And the action is unified in that no subplots complicate the story. (Some people say there isn't a real story at all. Do you agree with them?)

^^^^^^^^^^OUR TOWN: THE STORY

In order to feel the power of Our Town, you should try to imagine the play being presented in front of you. Plays are intended to be performed, and a playwright's intentions are often clearer on stage than on the printed page. This is particularly true in the case of Thornton Wilder's plays, because he considered the actors as collaborators in producing the final product.

^^^^^^^^^^OUR TOWN: ACT I