Symbolic Elements In Thornton Wilder's Our Town

In both live and filmed performances, the performances will often differ in small ways from the plays. Whether this is due to the actors, the set, or to a change in the story itself, these often small differences can have great impacts on the finished product. In Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” play and “Our Town” performance there are various differences and similarities between the two. These come out in how well the performance follows the play, in the actors interpretations of their parts, in the scripts, props, and in the setting. The “Our Town” performance viewed in class was one of the more faithful of performances in regards to following the play.

The technical aspects of the production such as scenery, properties and costumes also played a keynote in the productions success. The scenery was fabulous it truly made the play. It was very realistic and extremely vibrant. Almost the entire play was performed in one setting, except for the railcar and dance scenes. The house, the main setting, was magnificent with painstakingly placed detail in every corner. All elements in the house matched wonderfully, for example the furniture, the photos on the wall, the telephone and even the trash can. Little bits of detail were everywhere adding to the beautification of the set, for example the lace decorations on the chairs, the etched glass above the front door and even the Christmas tree.

The less there was on stage allowed the audience to focus more on the play. The characters pantomize many of the things they do. The paperboy throws imaginary newspapers and the children eat imaginary food. The pantomizing allows the audience to create their own props. For example, the audience does not know what the mother is cooking.

Have you ever thought that even the littlest things in life can make the biggest difference? One of the themes of Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town is people never fully appreciate the wonders of daily life. People take everything for granted and don’t really realize how the little things in life actually make a huge impact on your life. Wilder shows examples of the little things in life many times in each of the acts throughout the play. Our Town is about a young couple who falls in love and ends up spending their life together. The young couple overlooks the small but important things in life. Throughout Our Town, Wilder informs us about how all people don’t appreciate the little things in life that actually make a huge difference.

Our Town is a story on how humans does not fully appreciate life until they die and realize what they did and want to go back and change it. Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town is about a town life in three acts. The three acts are as followed. Daily Life, Companionship, and Death.It shows how people live and die and how they regret things they did on earth and come to see the big picture of life. Wilder argues, because life is short we must appreciate the joys of living until we die.

Our Town is a play written by Thornton Wilder set in a small town known as Grover’s Corners. Wilder conjured the Stage Manager to be a representation to the theme of the play. The theme of universality placing Grover’s Corners in view with the rest of the world. Wilder makes a point to the audience that people have a big impact and influence over the next person, whether they were important or insignificant to that individual’s life. Therefore, the Stage Manager emphasizes on this very viewpoint that the lives of certain people are overlooked so are their influences. The Stage Manager himself is a physical embodiment of Wilders own views and opinions of humans and life itself. Throughout the play, the Stage Manager plays various of roles in order to force the realization to the audience into understanding the importance human life and the influence of others.

Our Town is a play that takes place near the turn of the century in the small rural town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. The playwright, Thornton Wilder is trying to convey the importance of the little, often unnoticed things in life. Throughout the first two acts he builds a scenario, which allows the third act to show that we as humans often run through life oblivious to what is actually happening. Wilder attempts to show life as something that we take for granted. We do not realize the true value of living until we are dead and gone. The through-line of the action seems to be attention to the details of life. Wilder builds up a plot that pays attention to great details of living.

Our Town is different from most plays. It starts with barely any scenery, forcing the viewer to use their imagination. In the beginning the set manager comes on stage and describes the scene while also making sure that everything is under control; he plays an oversoul or God-like figure. Act I describes birth. The play commences before dawn and the first call Dr. Gibbs receives that morning is for the

Our Town presents life as it truly is; as humans, we tend to only remember the big events in our life, and neglect the minute details. Throughout the book, Wilder entertains the notion that humans have learned to seemingly distance themselves from anything that doesn’t have immediate value to their memories. Our Town proves this notion by examining key aspects of the average person’s life in Grover’s Corners- childhood and marriage. To quote the Stage Manager as they exclaim in Act I, “This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying”.

Thornton Wilder's Our Town showed us that we should embrace all the little moments in life, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time. Our small, everyday lives are part of the bigger universe. We often overlook our daily routine and take it for granted. However, our existence here on earth leaves a mark on those around us. They are important to us and the people around us.

Everyone goes through life not noticing the small things all around you, but you need to stop and notice the beauty of the little things even if they're not very interesting. Ray Bradbury gets at this idea in the story “The Pedestrian”. Sam Mendes also gets at this idea in the movie “American Beauty”. Both character do what other don’t which is taking in the beauty that hides in plain sight. In each composition “The Pedestrian” and “American Beauty” they both show if you don’t take time to take in the beautiful things around you life won't be the same, and even more so, boring.

Now it appears that Thornton Wilder’s play “Town” is one of the most well- known performed play

Wilder technique of using simple and very few props in the play Our Town symbolizes that he wants us to to focus on the characters and their interactions. He wants the audience to not care about what they have but what they are doing. By not having any props it makes their small town seem like it could be any town in the world. The stage manager also gives a=description of the town and it characters to try and make them relate to your town. For example, in the play it shows how characters were familiar with each other and in small towns that usually the case, everybody knows everybody.

The set and props where very compact and were built and moved on and off by the cast because they are designed to be transferred by one person. The props where all cleverly done, for instance they made a bridge out of three ladders, a train out of four boxes and a house from just one door. The door I thought was one of the best props used because the cast managed to make a fairly small stage appear huge just by moving the door and pretending each time that it was a new room every time they passed through it. At one point in the play Richard and Pamela ask the scottish landlords for a sandwich and they come back with a loaf of bread cut in two with one slice of lettuce in the middle, this was such a simple idea but made a big deal and a laugh out of it

The setting of the play helped to develop the mood. First of all, the abundance of props brought the story to live successfully. For example, the bed and door created the forgotten, quiet feeling in the old man's room. Next, the floorboards were lifted up so it actually looked like the