Our Town 1149munity emphasize the value of responsibility in
early 20th-century America.
In Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, at the
beginning of the 20th century, work means service
to the community. Wilder’s characters do not choose
careers for personal gain; they work for the good
of the community. The fictitious town of Grover’s
Corners emphasizes the factual reality of a small
town’s dependence on its citizens. Early in act 1,
the Stage Manager explains the town’s work ethic,
saying, “That’s Doc Gibbs. Got that call at half
past one this morning [to deliver a Polish mother’s
twins] . . . Joe Junior’s getting up so as to deliver the
paper. . . . Here comes Howie Newsome, deliverin’
the milk.” The responsibilities of the small-town
doctor to care for the community, the paper boy to
distribute the news, and the morning milk man to
deliver nourishment to the town serve to illustrate
Wilder’s emphasis of the benefits of communal
responsibility. The middle of act 1 finds Mr. Webb
explaining the responsibility theme to an audience
member. “I guess we’re all hunting like everybody
else for a way the diligent and sensible can rise to
the top and the lazy and quarrelsome can sink to the
bottom.” Webb’s “diligent and sensible” reiterates the
playwright’s focus on responsibility as a key to per-
sonal happiness, for the characters and the reading
or viewing audience.
Analyzing the theme of responsibility from
the broader good of the community to more spe-
cific examples, like a funnel that starts wide and
becomes narrower, reveals how Wilder also illus-
trates the theme through the characters’ dedication
to their respective families. As with the previous
examples of responsibility to the community, act 1
of Our Town establishes the importance of family
and an individual’s responsibility for the care of the
family’s well-being. Later in act 1, after the specific
examples of Mrs. Webb’s and Mrs. Gibb’s diligently
prepared morning breakfasts, the Stage Manager
tells the audience, “It’s early afternoon. All 2,642
have had their dinners [lunches] and all the dishes
have been washed.” The meals and dishes may
seem like minor points in the progression of the
play’s story; however, these simple acts reveal a
community-wide tradition of family together-
ness and individual members’ role recognition.
Wilder shares the growth of the two main char-
acters, George and Emily, through their individual
responsibilities to their respective families. In act
1, the audience meets the immature, impetuous
George and his painful lesson of responsibility to
his family. Dr. Gibbs points out to his son, “There
you see your mother—getting up early; cooking
meals all day long; washing and ironing;—and still
she has to go out in the back yard and chop wood.
I suppose she just got tired of asking you.” Through
Dr. Gibb’s chastising of George, Wilder reminds
his audience of a cornerstone of family life, that of
responsibility.
The narrow end of the funnel is the most specific
point through which any material, like liquid, can be
controlled. Wilder’s theme of responsibility in Our
Town additionally, and perhaps most significantly,
includes the most specific stage, that of personal
responsibility. Emily’s character remains consistent
with her commitment to school and her homework.
She balances family and school responsibilities
throughout the play and even finds time to help
George with his homework in act 1. George also
reaps the benefits of realizing personal responsibil-
ity in his maturation from an impetuous boy to a
dependable young man. Ironically, the most irre-
sponsible character in the play sheds the most light
on the importance of this theme. Although Simon
Stimson directs the church choir, his alcoholism
is a constant source of gossip and concern for the
town. His eventual suicide places him among the
characters in the cemetery in act 3. After Emily’s
disillusion-filled journey back to her 12th birthday,
Simon remarks: “That’s what it was to be alive. . . .
To spend and waste time as though you had a mil-
lion years. To be always at the mercy of one self-
centered passion or another.” Simon’s remorseful
admission of “waste[d] time” and “self-centered pas-
sion” serves to highlight the more responsible actions
of other characters.
In much the same way that Mr. Webb’s sum-
mation of “diligent and sensible” represents a goal
for his community, Simon condemns the lack of
responsibility of himself and others, emphasizing
the need for audiences to recognize the personal
and communal benefits garnered from responsibility.
John Price