Name: ______

Hour: ______

Thornton Wilder’s

Our Town

Our Town Themes

  • Life Is Precious and Should Be Cherished
  • Death Gives Meaning to Life
  • Nature Is the Force that Controls the Destiny of Humanity
  • Immortality Is Gained Through Union with That Which Is Eternal in Every Individual

Literary Elements and Techniques

1

  • Anti-realism
  • Dramatic irony
  • Pantomime
  • Staging
  • Style
  • Symbol

1

Act I – Our Town

Vocabulary – define and use in a sentence

  • basalt
  • diligent
  • heliotrope
  • highboy
  • legacy
  • Pleistocene
  • shale
  • trellis

Study Questions for Act I:

Write a brief answer to each study question as you read the novel in class. Your responses should be detailed enough to indicate that you did read the play.

  1. When the play opens, what is the setting (place, year, time of day)? How do you know?
  1. Provide three words or phrases that describe the town of Grover’s Corners.
  1. Who describes the town and its residents for us?
  1. How can you tell that the residents of Grover’s Corners are “church-going” people?
  1. The Stage Manager sometimes lets us know what is going to happen in the future. Provide three examples.
  1. Name four residents of Grover’s Corners who are up at dawn and tell what their jobs are.
  1. What do Dr. Gibbs and Joe Crowell talk about?
  1. How is Howie Newsome’s conversation with the doctor like Joe Crowell’s conversation with the Doc?
  1. How is Howie’s horse “mixed up”?
  1. Why does Mrs. Gibbs want her husband to speak to their son?
  1. What sort of student is Emily?
  1. What opportunity does Mrs. Gibbs have to make some money?
  1. What is Mrs. Gibbs’ dream trip?
  1. Where does Dr. Gibbs’ hobby take him on his time off?
  1. Why does the Stage Manager have Professor Willard speak?
  1. What is Mr. Webb’s job?
  1. According to Mr. Webb, is there any culture in Grover’s Corners?
  1. What arrangement does Emily make with George for helping him with his homework?
  1. Why does the Stage Manager plan to put a copy of this play in the cornerstone of the bank?
  1. What does Dr. Gibbs do in order to get George to do his chores?
  1. What scandal does Mrs. Soames discuss with the other women after choir practice?
  1. Why does Mr. Webb talk to the constable about Wally?
  1. Why does Mr. Webb ask Emily if she has any trouble on her mind?
  1. Why is Rebecca impressed by the letter that Jane Crofut got?
  1. How does the Stage Manager address the audience directly at the end of Act One?
  1. Why do you think so many young people return to Grover’s Corners to live? What would you like about living there?
  1. The constable says that he doesn’t know how things will end with Simon Stimson. What do you think?

Act II – Our Town

Vocabulary – define and use in a sentence

1

  • contriving
  • cynicism
  • sacrament
  • unobtrusively

1

Study Questions for Act II:

Write a brief answer to each study question as you read the novel in class. Your responses should be detailed enough to indicate that you did read the play.

  1. How much time has passed between Act I and Act II?
  1. According to the Stage Manager, what are Acts I and II called?
  1. How is the beginning of Act II similar to the beginning of Act I? How is the weather different?
  1. At the beginning of the play, Si Crowell’s brother was complaining about his teacher’s impending marriage. What does Si complain about now?
  1. What do Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs both say to Howie?
  1. What is Mrs. Gibbs’ opinion of her son’s getting married?
  1. Dr. Gibbs reminisces about his own wedding and says, “…the only trouble was that I’d never seen you before.” What does he mean?
  1. Why is Rebecca crying?
  1. Why doesn’t Mrs. Webb invite George in to visit with Emily?
  1. What advice does Mr. Webb give George about married life?
  1. What book does Mr. Webb want George to read? Why?
  1. Why does the Stage Manager take us back in time (page 62)?
  1. To what positions have Emily and George been elected?
  1. According to Emily, how has George changed for the worse during his junior year?
  1. How do Emily and George celebrate their election?
  1. Why does George decide not to go to AgricultureSchool?
  1. Why does George try to give the Stage Manager his watch?
  1. How does Mrs. Webb feel about her daughter’s getting married?
  1. How can you tell that George has “cold feet” the day of his wedding?
  1. How does Emily feel in the moments before her marriage?
  1. Whose voice drowns out most of the clergyman’s words?
  1. What is Mrs. Soames’ opinion of the wedding ceremony?
  1. What does the Stage Manager seem to think of the marriage? Do you think Emily and George are a good match? What do you think Thornton Wilder is saying about love and marriage, in this act?
  1. The Stage Manager has said, “There’s another act coming after this: I reckon you n guess what that’s about.” (page 48) What is your guess?

Act III – Our Town

Vocabulary – define and use in a sentence

  • bereaved
  • livery
  • lugubriousness

Study Questions for Act III:

Write a brief answer to each study question as you read the novel in class. Your responses should be detailed enough to indicate that you did read the play.

  1. How much time has passed since the wedding?
  1. How does the weather at the beginning of this act compare with that in the beginning of Act II?
  1. Name some of the residents of Grover’s Corners who have died.
  1. What two living characters appear at the beginning of Act III along with the dead ones?
  1. How did Wally die?
  1. Joe Stoddard is supervising a new-made grave. Whose?
  1. How did Simon Stimson die?
  1. How did Emily die?
  1. Does Emily wish she weren’t dead?
  1. Why doesn’t Mrs. Gibbs remember the money she left George and Emily?
  1. What did George and Emily do with their legacy from Mrs. Gibbs?
  1. Who tries to discourage Emily form going back to relive her past? What two reasons do they give?
  1. What day does Emily choose to relive?
  1. What has Emily lost? How does her mother help her find it?
  1. Where has Mr. Webb been?
  1. What has George Gibbs gotten for Emily’s birthday?
  1. What do you know about Emily’s mother’s gift?
  1. Why does Emily break down sobbing and return to her grave, instead of reliving the whole day?
  1. Who describes living as being “always at the mercy of one self-centered passion or another”?
  1. Why does one of the dead women say, “That ain’t no way to behave” when George returns to Emily’s grave?
  1. What do you think Emily and Mrs. Gibbs mean when they say of the living, “They don’t understand, do they?”

1