Our Town 1147an artful performance, Sybil descends into staged
artificiality, and as a consequence, Dorian despises
her. The natural despair she experiences when her
engagement is broken off leads her to take her own
life.
After he hears the news of Sybil’s suicide, Lord
Henry tells Dorian that “the real tragedies of life
occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us
with their crude violence, their absolute incoherence,
their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of
style. . . . They give us an impression of sheer, brute
force, and we revolt against that.” It is this “brute
force” of nature that the aesthete rebels against
throughout Wilde’s story: Art must always maintain
control of its relationship with the natural. Dorian
admits that Sybil’s suicide “seems to me to be simply
a wonderful ending to a wonderful play.” He consid-
ers such a conclusion to his engagement to be an
ending suitable to that of Greek tragedy.
In the same garden setting that opens Wilde’s
story, Lord Henry explains to Dorian that one day,
in the natural course of life, the young man’s beauty
will disappear along with his youth; Dorian immedi-
ately afterward expresses his willingness to give even
his own soul to remain untouched by the passage of
time. Lord Henry’s explanation opposes the power-
ful effects of nature to his aesthetic appreciation for
the beauty of the young: “The common hill-flowers
wither, but they blossom again. The laburnum will be
as yellow next June as it is now. In a month there will
be purple stars on the clematis, and year after year the
green night of its leaves will hold its purple stars. But
we never get back our youth.” With Dorian’s wish
that he might always remain resembling his newly
finished portrait, it will be his portrait that displays
the effects that nature would have had on him: Now,
“when winter came upon it, he would still be stand-
ing where spring trembles on the verge of summer.”
It is this specific wish to live unaffected by age or
nature that marks Dorian as an aesthete.
Paul Fox
wiLDEr, THorNToN Our Town
(1938)
Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) wrote Our Town in
1938 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in the
same year. Wilder’s play is a deceptively simple yet
powerful work of dramatic literature. The set con-
sists of only two tables, three chairs at each, and two
trellises. The characters and language are equally
understated and direct. However, the uncomplicated
surface of Our Town thinly veils Wilder’s thematic
indictment of how a materialistic society neglects
human relationships, memories, and responsibil-
ity—the qualities of life.
Our Town consists of three acts, the first two of
which are entitled “Daily Life” and “Marriage.” Set
in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, the play is full
of small-town characters who reveal life in the early
20th century in New England. The character of the
Stage Manager narrates, comments, and empha-
sizes important points in the play (like an ancient
Greek chorus), and portrays several minor characters
throughout the play. The events of the Gibbs and
Webb families move the plot forward. In act 1, the
Stage Manager, speaking directly to the audience,
introduces the play and the characters. Three years
pass, and George Gibbs and Emily Webb marry in
act 2; nine years pass before the beginning of act 3,
which takes place in the town’s cemetery, as Emily
has died. The other characters emphasize the tradi-
tional values of small-town America: Dr. Gibbs and
Mr. Webb, professionals with stay-at-home wives; a
milkman; a paperboy; and the town gossips in the
church choir.
Wilder’s language in the play is easy and straight-
forward, yet the relationships of the characters, their
focus on work and family, and the Stage Manager’s
commentary remind modern audiences that the
smallest, often overlooked details, such as beautiful
sunrises and the warm smell of coffee, are the most
important aspects of life.
John Pricememor y Our Town
Thornton Wilder uses the theme of memory, pri-
marily in act 3, to remind his audience of all that
is overlooked in the tasks of daily life. Through
this theme, he implores us to recognize the quali-
ties of life before they become too distant and
unrecognizable.
Wilder foreshadows the importance of memory
in act 2. While explaining to the audience that in