Do humans take life for granted? Pondering this question, it's fair to say that, as a society, we've steadily moved towards convenience, towards getting through everything as quickly as possible. With this desire for speed, we seem to forget the value of life and appreciate it. We live in a world where everything is driven by efficiency and human interaction is slowly becoming rarer and rarer. While this may seem like a very melodramatic description of our world, it's not that far-fetched. The idea of ​​"taking it slow" and the idea that all aspects of life have meaning are explored in the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Our Town is a play that tells the story of a generic American town, Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, which seems banal at first, but then begins to show that meaning can be imbued in anything in life, even its insignificant parts. The first act of the play focuses on the usual American life of 1901, which can be extremely boring, to put it mildly. In this act a romance begins between George Gibbs and Emily Webb which is further developed in Act II. This part of the play, "Love and Marriage", focuses on the marriage of George and Emily, probably a very significant event in their lives. Then, the last act of the play deals with the inevitability of the end, of death, and how humans only truly realize the gift of life once it's gone, once they've rushed through it . This idea is represented through Emily, who dies in childbirth and realizes that humans never realize life as they live it. Intentionally offering microscopic and macroscopic perspectives, unorthodox theatrical elements, exploration and manipulation of time and space, investigating life after death, and challenging our notions of what is significant throughout the work, Wilder urges us to appreciate more our lives while recognizing the meaning of seemingly insignificant parts without losing sight of our long-term goals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Act I of his play, Wilder uses unorthodox theatrical elements such as the lack of a fourth wall, a stage manager who is part of the play, and the absence of props that draw us into the play and make us make them feel part of it. Right from the start, this comedy begins in a surprisingly unusual way. “No tents. No scenario. The audience, arriving, sees an empty stage in the shadows" (3). Much to the audience's surprise, the stage manager begins speaking directly to them. Wilder does this in an attempt to make the audience feel like they are not simply watching but participating, and this goes a long way towards making the show much more relatable and impactful. This is further explored when the stage manager begins to describe his own city, or more accurately, our city. The description of the city seems so vague but so specific at the same time, with striking similarities to almost every other American city, even today. For example, during his brief tour of the city, he describes, “Here is Main Street. There's the train station over there [...] The public school is over there. The high school is even further away” (6). While this appears to be an account of one city, including directional references and relative locations, it draws parallels with nearly every small town in America. This powerful technique of involving the reader or viewer in the show lomakes you much more susceptible to new ways of thinking. In addition to this, Wilder also chooses to forego the use of props almost entirely. While this may initially seem like an unusual decision that would compromise the comprehensibility of the work, it is executed in a way that leaves just enough to convey the meaning. Since the majority of the set is reduced to just actors, tables and chairs, the scene is freed from distractions and allows the audience to fully enjoy the scene.grasp the deeper meaning of the events and nothing else. Overall, these unconventional theatrical elements are put in place to draw the reader in and maximize the impact of the rest of the work. After an unusual but effective start to the work, Wilder begins to reference space and time and rush through time to get the reader to think about a macroscopic view of his own life and the universe as a whole. This begins with the stage manager casually talking about events that will take place many years in the future. The stage manager states, "Doc Gibbs died in 1930. The new hospital is named after him," even though the setting of the show is Grover's Corners in 1901. He then goes on to describe other deaths, events, and concludes with the statement: “In our city we like to know everyone's facts” (7). Wilder does this intentionally in a sort of casual way to distinguish the stage manager from the other characters. Wilder is creating a means to explore the myriad of things he will cover, a method of conveying meaning that a conversation between "normal" characters could never effectively accomplish. In other words, the Stage Manager is establishing itself as a gateway between the world of the living and the dead. The stage manager appears omniscient and omnipotent while also having a character role in the show, making his philosophical speeches even more significant. The discussion about the future may have ended with that specific phrase because facts about people are “little things,” or in other words insignificant, but the people of Grover's Corners do not neglect or ignore them. Taking his cue from the stage manager's omnipotence, Wilder also references space and time in this act when Professor Willard states how Grover's Corners has “A platform of Devonian basalt runs through it with vestiges of Mesozoic shale and some sandstone outcrops; but everything is more recent: two hundred, three hundred million years” (21). At first, this may seem like an absurd thing to say, due to our naturally distorted view of time as it revolves around human beings. However, since those rocks are on a 4-billion-year-old planet in a 13-billion-year-old universe, it doesn't seem so strange. Wilder does this to give the reader a very humbling perspective on the universe. In a way, it makes us feel insignificant on a universal scale. While that may be the case, the intent of that part of the work was not to make us feel insignificant, but rather to give us a macroscopic perspective on what human existence is really about. Amidst this existential crisis the reader may be experiencing, they can take comfort in Wilder's generic and relatable characters, which he uses to further make the reader or audience feel like they are part of the work. By the end of the first act, the Webbs and the Gibbs are literally some of the most generic characters a story can have. The day begins with children rushing to get ready for school, arguments between siblings, chatter between parents, flirting and budding romance between two friends. Towards the end of the act, there is also a conversation between Emily and her father that goes like this: “I still can't sleep, Dad. The moonlight is so wonderful and the smell of heliotropeof Mrs. Gibbs. Can you smell it?" (44). This conversation seems to have absolutely nothing to contribute to the story and seems about as generic as it can be. Well, maybe it seems like superficial writing, but it's actually the opposite. Wilder does this deliberately in way that the characters in the work remain underdeveloped, allowing us to do so, perhaps even bringing the reader into the mindset of imagining himself as the character himself. In this way, the later events of the story have a significantly greater impact in changing the way the reader sees and appreciates life. This is the same idea of ​​making the city recognizable enough to be Our City, but with the characters, the technique leaves a lot of potential to become a driving force in making the reader really think 'Act II, Wilder uses fast forward time and emphasis on cycles to make us recognize the brevity of life. The stage manager's opening comment to this act states: “Three years have passed. Yes, the sun rose more than a thousand times. The summers and winters cracked the mountains a little more and the rains caused some of the earth to fall” (47). This profound openness to the act of “Love and Marriage” symbolizes two distinct ideas: the brevity of life and the idea that everything follows a cyclical path, including life. Starting from the idea that life is short, the very act of fast-forwarding time shows how humans try to rush through life, or at least not take time out of their days to appreciate the gift they have been given . Fast forward three years shows three years of the same things happening over and over again, people not caring, and the cycle repeats. The stage manager talks about the number of times the sun rises, or the cycle of the seasons, and this is also a macroscopic perspective of the world. In contrast to the microscopic perspective, which would represent the daily lives of our characters, this planetary perspective gives us even more reason to reflect on our importance, meaning and significance in this world. Wilder mentions how mountains were moved by the powerful but slow force of nature, while in Our Town “millions of gallons of water passed through the mill; and here and there a new house was set up under a roof” (46). The river, also part of nature, fed the mill with over a million liters of water, but humans managed to build only a few walls. If nothing else, this perspective will certainly change the way we look at life, and will probably even lead us to lead an overall better and happier life by considering the microscopic details and appreciating them. Later in Act II, Wilder uses everyday life examples in Grover's Corners and more unusual theatrical elements to effectively promote the idea that sometimes we let life become a series of cycles that fly by. The stage manager reports: “Here comes Howie Newsome delivering the milk. And there is Si Crowell delivering the documents like his brother before him” (48). First of all, there is a distinct cyclical nature to the two events here, Howie Newsome's daily milk delivery and the larger cycle of Si Crowell taking over from his brother as the town's paper boy. The first example fits the idea of ​​how people can, at times, be oblivious to the fact that they are simply sitting, waiting for something great, while life passes them by. The way this relates to Howie Newsome's routine is not that he inherently lives this way, but in the sense that many people can make their entire life a routine, almost like a job. Wilder is trying to show us that this is no way to live and that we need to take advantage of itmaximum every day. The second example offers a broader view of the way we lead our lives and, in a more positive light, shows how things change, yet remain the same. How things may seem to be evolving but in reality they haven't changed at all. In addition to the allusion to cycles, Wilder uses the technique of not using props to focus on what is important. In this scene, and many others, Wilder foregoes the use of props and scenery to draw the viewer's attention to important events taking place and commentary on our lives. Finally, it's time for George and Emily's wedding, the perfect example of microscopic and microscopic lenses, big things and small things. Naturally, for George and Emily, this event is one of the most important days of their lives. However, for Mrs. Soames it is (or should be) just another wedding ceremony. However, for Mrs Soames it is the best day ever: “I don't know when I've seen such a beautiful wedding. But I always cry. I don't know why, but I always cry. I just like to see young people happy, right? Oh, I think it's lovely” (77). Mrs Soames taking this marriage so seriously is another key example of a micro vs macro perspective. From a macro perspective, the event isn't all that important to most guests in attendance. However, with a microscopic perspective, everyone sees everything differently, so it is quite possible that one thing is boring for one and exciting for another. We continue with Act III, undoubtedly the most important and most meaningful act, in which Wilder uses many techniques to conclude the transmission of his message about the way we should live our lives. Time was suddenly moved forward 9 years. The use of unorthodox theatrical elements is particularly important here as not only can the dead speak, but they sit emotionless on rows of chairs. Wilder may have intended the "dead people" to be strangely a reflection of us watching or reading the work. Wilder probably drew this connection between the dead characters and the reader to really make his point about "not knowing what you've got until it's gone." Here too the change of perspective comes into play. Another aspect of the thesis further strengthened in Act III concerns the two perspectives. All along, we have been in the perspective of the living, interacting with and thinking about other living people. However, now that Emily is dead, an invaluable new perspective has become available. Emily now sees people for who they are and sees through metaphorical masks. He describes living people as “sort of stuck in little boxes” (96). With everything that's happened throughout the story, she's absolutely right, and Wilder puts it at the end of the play for a specific reason. Wilder ensured a sad irony in that Emily only discovers the truth about life when it's too late to change anything. This serves as a reminder to make the most of what we have and not take life for granted, because you never know when it will all end and you don't want to have any regrets. The passage of time, mentioned heavily in this monologue, reinforces the idea that people rush through their lives, having fallen into the same old boring routine. The monologue consolidates this idea by confirming, “Yet you will be surprised: on the whole, things don't change much around here” (86). Along with the statement, the stage manager also specifically talks about how the events in the city have only led to more farmers moving to the city and, as always, more people dying. All of this is done by Wilder in an attempt to show us how, unless we do something, our livesthey won't be much different. After this monologue, Wilder uses a conversation between Sam Craig and Joe Stoddard to highlight the difference between life and life. the dead and shows how the living only really miss and long for the dead once they are gone. Throughout this conversation, the two speak very formally with each other and share almost no real emotions. For example, when Joe states, “Very sad, our journey today, Samuel,” Sam simply replies, “Yes” (89). The lack of genuineness and emotion is abundantly clear in this scene. Wilder shows us how the "living" don't share their feelings with each other and always seem to be in a hurry to get it over with, like this situation here. This conversation not only shows the above ideas, but also describes how people deal with the pain of attachment only after the dead are gone, and inevitably forget them as life goes on. When Sam arrives at Mrs. Gibbs' grave, he confesses, "Why, this is my Aunt Julia...I forgot that she...of course, of course" (90). This realization shows that Sam's life cycle has moved on, but his attachment to his Aunt Julia remains. A sad warning to us readers that people need to pay attention and love each other while we are still together, not suffer afterwards. As the two are finishing their conversation, Emily is taken to the world of the dead, and Wilder uses this significant event to introduce the deceased characters and make their differences and wisdom clear. Even before Emily arrives, Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Soames talk about how Emily died. When Mrs. Gibbs mentions childbirth as the cause of death, Mrs. Soames responds, “I give birth – Almost with laughter” (93). Here the irony of Emily's death while giving life is explored. Wilder intentionally places this in the story to sadly remind us that life can sometimes be out of our control and that things can happen that are impossible to predict or prepare for. Especially in Emily's case, when one life was given, another was taken. This is another reminder we get from Wilder that we need to make the best of the time we have. Then, when Emily is initially brought into the alternate reality of the dead, she immediately feels out of place among them. His attitude in no way corresponds to that of the rest of the people present and his enthusiasm meets opposite and boring responses. His eagerness to return to the world of the living. At first Emily doesn't understand why everyone advises against the return trip. Then, the stage manager, in his wisdom, says to Emily, “You don't just live it; but watch yourself live it. [...] And as you look at it, you see the thing that they - over there - never know. See the future. See what will happen” (99). The reason, the stage manager explains, why this is always so painful, is because Emily will be full of regret when she sees how her past self is ignoring all the little important moments in life. Knowing the end makes it even more painful to see "the good old days" wasted. Later in Act III, Wilder uses a “revisitation,” or return to the world of the living, to show us that we need to be more critical of the world of the living. quality of our life, otherwise we might think again and regret the decisions we made. Emily, in her naive desire to revisit the world of the living, unaware of the pain it will cause, refuses to listen to anyone's advice. He doesn't know that knowing the future, knowing what will happen next and seeing how impersonal people are with each other, he doesn't know how much it will hurt. As readers, this sad truth comes long before he returns to the world of the living. An important detail here is that everyone else urges Emily to choose the dayless important, telling her that it will be “important enough” (100). Emily still doesn't fully understand the idea that all things have value, but she recognizes the way people lead their lives: in boxes. Wilder incorporated this little detail to remind readers that small, seemingly insignificant things can mean everything once they're gone, so appreciate them while they're still here. After “entering,” she is overcome with amazement and excitement. Unfortunately, this doesn't last long before the grief takes over... Emily realizes that people didn't even look at each other back then. He remembered an illusion, not reality. The way he remembered it was the best it could be, and going back and seeing it again had shattered it into a million pieces. He ignored all the warnings and painfully discovered why it is best not to return to the world of the living. The most powerful message of the play is conveyed to the reader here in this scene, when Emily comes to the great realization. We must appreciate life, every minute of it. After the retelling and in tears, Emily goes out and asks the stage manager to take her back; Wilder uses this event to specifically highlight the little things in life. Before leaving, Emily says she would like to say goodbye to all the things she will miss in the afterlife. He returns one last time and says, “Goodbye, goodbye, world. Goodbye, Grover's Corners. . . Mom and Dad. Goodbye to the ticking clock. . . and mother's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And freshly ironed clothes and hot baths. . . and sleep and wake up. Oh, earth, you are too wonderful for anyone to realize you” (108). This is the moment when Emily realizes the importance of the 'little things', as evidenced by the fact that she lists things with increasing specificity. It starts with the big picture, saying goodbye to the world and ends on a very personal note, coffee, hot baths and waking up. At the end of Act III and the end of the retelling, Wilder uses explicit evidence to give us more warnings to learn from Emily's mistakes. Immediately after Emily returns from her trip to the world of the dead, she is absolutely shocked at how it went. When asked whether or not she was happy, Emily replied: “No, I should have listened to you. This is what humans are all about! Only blind” (109). Emily, coming to the conclusion that humans act almost blind when in the real world, warns and teaches the reader to be critical of the moments in their lives where this might have been accurate. At some point in the reader's life, he or she may be guilty of “[moving] in a cloud of ignorance; [having gone] up and down trampling on the feelings of those…of those around [them]” (109). Then, in the end, Wilder uses this remorse on Emily's part to reach out to the reader and create a connection to the point where they were guilty of being cold or impersonal to someone who cared about them and, in turn, help them get better their situation. quality of their life in general. Finally, at the end of Act III, Wilder uses a closing reference to space and time, hinting at the cyclical nature that life tends to follow to give us perspective on our own existence. The stage manager begins to describe the scene one last time: “Most everyone is sleeping in Grover's Corners. […] Yes, it's getting lighter. There are the stars making their ancient criss-cross journeys in the sky” (103). With this last reference to the stars, Wilder tries to make the reader reflect with a broader vision of his own life, since the universal vision on things certainly opens a person's field of vision. Stars were also mentioned earlier in the work as symbols of..