Early in
Act I of , playwright Thorton Wilders omniscient stage manager
notes the equally omniscient presence of the morning star, stating, The morning star always
gets wonderful bright the minute before it has to go, doesn't it? [He stares at it
-for a moment, then goes upstage.] Well, I'd better show you how our town
lies.
What follows, of course, is Wilders depiction of everyday life in his
fictional community, the good and not-so-good, the joys and the aggravations. Later, much later,
in Act III, the stage manager, having led us through the trials and tribulations of this
community, only now noting that nothing, including stars, are eternal, but that everybody
knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings.
Stars, however, continue, through the end of Wilders play, to symbolize the constancy, the one
reliable indicator of continuity, upon which the towns citizens can rely. In the heat of a
major conflict among the towns people, Mrs. Gibbs, valiantly trying to divert attentions away
from the source of anger interrupts the tensions by noting that the sky is clearing, and that
the stars are coming out, and responds to Simon Stimsons continued venting and decrying
peoples ignorance regarding the temporary nature of our existence by observing,
[Spiritedly.] Simon Stimson, that ain't the whole truth and you know it.
Emily, look at that star. I forget its name.
Finally, Wilders stage manager,
closing the proceedings, remarks on the towns settling down for the night:
Most everybody's asleep in Grover's Corners. There are a few
lights on: Shorty Hawkins, down at the depot, has just watched the Albany train go by. And at
the livery stable somebody's setting up late and talking. Yes, it's clearing up. There are the
stars doing their old, old crisscross journeys in the sky.
The stars represent both the permanency of existence and the fragility of existence.
Stars go through a life cycle. They dont live forever. New stars, however, begin to form in
their place. They will always be there, but individual stars wont. The people in
Our Town will all, eventually, die. The town, however, will still
be there.
No comments:
Post a Comment