Our Town Summary
Thornton Wilder

Our Town - Thornton Wilder - 1938 Introduction Thornton Wilder won his second Pulitzer Prize for the 1938 drama Our Town, with its understated but resonant depiction of the fundamental goal of humanit... Read more

Biography EssayOn the strength of only three full-length plays and a bare handful of one-acts, Thornton Wilder ranks among the top half dozen playwrights in the history of American theater. The modest... Read more

A noted dramatist, novelist, and essayist, Thornton Wilder's name is known to most U.S. high school and college students because of the fame of his play, Our Town. First performed before American thea... Read more

On the strength of only three full-length plays and a bare handful of one-acts, Thornton Wilder ranks among the top half dozen playwrights in the history of American theatre. The modest volume of his ... Read more

Thornton Wilder was a student of the human condition; in his writing he aimed for and achieved the universal. His plays in particular were concerned with both the timely and the timeless, and he most ... Read more

In the following interview, originally published in the New York Times on 13 August 1939, Wilder discusses the initial reception of Our Town by rural audiences, as well as his own experiences performi... Read more

In the following essay, originally published in 1965, Goldstein asserts that the universal appeal of Our Town may be attributed in part to the common, everyday settings, characters, and events depicte... Read more

In the following essay, originally published in 1968, Austell examines Wilder's creation of ordinary, typical characters in Our Town as a means of expressing universal experiences and values an... Read more

In the following essay, originally published in 1971, the authors interpret Our Town as a sentimental comedy, loosely constructed, superficially philosophical, and deficient in its characterization. ... Read more

In the following essay, Cardullo asserts that, despite its outward display of experimental theatrical technique, Our Town fails to question or challenge traditional values regarding family, nation, an... Read more

In the following review of the A Noise Within production of Our Town at the Glendale Masonic Temple in Glendale, California, McCulloh praises it as an enduring American play that expresses timeless an... Read more

In the following review of the Fullerton College production of Our Town at the Bronwyn Dodson Theatre, McCulloh praises Wilder's script as insightful, powerful, affectionate, and poignant. T... Read more

In the following essay, originally published in 1956, Fergusson compares the use of allegory by Thornton Wilder, Bertolt Brecht, and T. S. Eliot, focusing especially on Wilder's Our Town and Th... Read more

In the following excerpt from a work originally published in German in 1961, Papajewski examines Our Town in the context of an American literary tradition focused on small-town life. Papajewski explor... Read more

Thornton Wilder's play, Our Town, gained popularity and recognition when it opened in Broadway in February 4, 1938, at the Henry Miller Theatre. Our Town is the play that blazed a trail in imaginative... Read more

Throughout the world there are many simple towns that relate to Grover's Corners. Over the time of this story Thornton Wilder states, "Gradual changes in Grover's Corners. Horses are getting rarer.... Read more

Thornton Wilder uses many types of symbolism to show the American Dream. Wilder uses Shakespeare as an allusion in this play. He uses one main metaphor, in the hymn "Blessed Be The Tie That Binds." ... Read more

There are many stereotypes about small towns. When dealing with small towns, the first thing that comes to mind is the south. Southern towns, in the early nineteen hundreds, where everyone speaks wi... Read more

Thornton Wilder, the author of our town, tries to get a very powerful message across during the course of his book. He says at the end of act III, "Do any human beings ever realize life when they l... Read more

The first act of "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder, titled A Day In The Life, is a rendition of the daily routines taken on by the residents of a small New Hampshire town. Set in the early 1900s in Grover... Read more