Annie McCormick-Vass

03 July 2006

The Unique Style of Thornton Wilder in Our Town

            We have read plays from playwrights with differing backgrounds and different life experiences this semester.  Each of the plays includes elements that not only help people identify with the action taking place, but also that encourage readers, or viewers, to take something more from the play and apply it to their lives.  In all actuality, that is what all good literature should do.  It should provoke feelings and encourage thought and, at times, even action.  We spent a lot of time dealing with Eugene O’Neill this semester and another amazing American playwright who is often spoken of alongside O’Neill is Thornton Wilder.

            Personally, I have never read any of Wilder’s plays.  He was an incredibly prolific writer and wrote both plays and novels.  I have read his novel Heaven’s My Destination and I loved his characterization of people trying to come to terms with religion, a higher being, and themselves.  That struggle is illuminated in many of his works.  In fact, “…he often fused the traditional and the modern in his novels and plays, all the while exploring the cosmic in the commonplace” (Magulies 177).  In my final I discussed the combination of the classical element of family in tragedy with the modern idea of dreams to create a tragic work that appeals on many levels to an audience.  Wilder did the same thing as the others playwrights we have read this semester.

            As we have seen with O’Neill, a playwright’s family and upbringing can have a monumental effect on the works produced.  Thornton Niven Wilder was born on April 17, 1897 as a twin.  Unfortunately, his twin died shortly after birth (Siebold15).  This fact alone is useful into gaining insight into Wilder’s character.  Twins often times develop incredibly close bonds, even in the womb; they are bonds that non-twins do not particularly understand.  I have a friend who also lost her twin shortly after birth.  The way she relates to people is slightly different than non-twins in the fact that she tries to establish a twin-type bond with those close to her.  Similarly, Wilder also tried to find a sort of replacement twin in his siblings (15-16).  It makes sense that writing would become an outlet for him to deal with the loss and separation he had already experienced at such a young age.  His family moved around a lot and he spent time overseas as a young child (17).  As Wilder grew up, his father was not supportive of his choice to be a writer, which obviously created some tension between the two (24).  Ultimately, Wilder pursued his love of writing and enjoyed great success.  In fact, he won three Pulitzer Prizes, one of which was for Our Town (13).  After a highly successful career, Wilder died during his afternoon nap of a heart attack on December 7, 1975 (35). 

Our Town is a unique play on many levels.  There is no scenery whatsoever and very few props are on the stage (Benet 1115) and this ties back to Aristotle’s idea that there should not be a lot of spectacle in tragic works.  With little to no props and no scenery, it makes it a little difficult to do anything too spectacular and over-the-top.  Wilder is able to simply describe his premise for Our Town:  “The play is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events in our daily life” (Magulies 171).  That description is what really helps Wilder to stand out above other playwrights.  He proves that everything in life can be significant and have meaning, no matter how insignificant it might seem.  He believed that “whatever ‘truth’ there is will be discovered in the lives of ordinary people” (Benet 1115).  This ties in directly with the notion of the evolution of tragedy.  In my midterm I discussed power and tragedy and how early tragedies have kings in power but through the centuries anybody could be considered powerful, such as in O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms.  According to the greatness of tragedy handout, “tragedy adapts to changing history”.  In America, with our supposed democracy, it becomes at least more believable for ordinary people to take on the roles that Aristotle said were reserved for the “highly renowned”.  Basically, Wilder is proving to be an excellent playwright based on the tenets we have outlined in the course this semester.

Back to Our Town, it is a mix of many different genres, the Romance and Tragic narratives being most obvious; it definitely upholds some of the notions of tragedy that we have discussed thoroughly this semester.  There is not too much to say about the plot itself because it is so straightforward.  It is set in three acts dealing with the lives of two families (the importance of family just can not be escaped).  The first act explores the two families; the second act unites the two families in marriage; the final act separates the families through a death (Siebold 37).  It simply imitates the structure of life, making the play a perfect illustration of the notion that “art imitates life”.  The highly simple structure of the play is immediately obvious.  This is something done frequently on purpose in many of Wilder’s works.  In this particular instance, this play is meant to be set in any town in America and the characters are meant to be people anybody would know (Porter 71).  Wilder makes it so easy for people to be able to identify with the characters and action that it is almost impossible not to do so—and he really wants people to make that connection.

Our Town has been one of America’s favorite plays for many years (Siebold 33) and is now required reading in some school districts.  This fact makes sense considering that it encourages so openly that those who read it, or see it, recognize that no one is exempt from the human cycle of birth and death.  It is up to individuals to do something meaningful with the time between those two inevitabilities.  This is only a miniscule amount of information about Wilder and Our Town.  I would be interested in, first, reading the play, and then exploring the family interactions more closely.  I would like to discover if the parents have any dreams (as they so often do in many modern plays) and if those dreams are unrealized.  If so, it would be interesting to see the effect on the children as compared to the plays we read this semester as I discussed in my final.  Overall, Thornton Wilder proves through Our Town that excess and spectacle are not necessary in plays.  Instead, he emphasizes the importance of individuals and the time we have together, something each and every one of us needs to consider in our own lives.

Works Cited

Magulies, Donald. Foreword. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts. By Thornton Wilder. New York: Perennial Classics, 2003.

“Our Town.” Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia. 4^th ed.

Porter, Thomas E. “Our Town” as an American Myth. Readings on Our Town. Ed. Thomas Siebold. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000. 66-73.

Siebold, Thomas, ed. Readings on Our Town. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000.

“Thornton Wilder.” Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia. 4^th ed.