Act I: A Day in the Life
Introduction: The first part of "Our Town," and the longest part, follows the
inhabitants through a day, from sun-up to sun-down.
Read pages 7-62 and answer the following numbered questions. In class, we will
watch the play, and then answer the indented questions.
Questions: Answer the following questions fully. Use another sheet of paper.
1) Who is the narrator or host of this play?
i) What, normally, is a Stage Manager's job?
ii) Who does the Stage Manager introduce?
iii) What is the effect of all that?
iv) What accent does he speak in? Example?
2) What time is the Stage Manager in?
i) What time will the players be in?
3) What props are on stage?
i) In most plays, what do the props try to get the audience to do?
ii) What do these props aim to get the audience to do?
iii) What would be the most complicated part of this production?
4) Describe the town in your own words.
5) What does he say about the tombstones?
6) What does the narrator tell you about the Gibb's family and Joe Crowell?
i) What is the effect of that knowledge?
ii) Would you rather he told you this, or not?
7) What does Doc Gibbs ask everyone?
i) What does that tell you about the town?
8) Complete the quote "I'd rather have my kids _____________________"
i) What does that tell you about the town?
ii) Have you ever heard something like that said on Nantucket?
9) The Stage Manager disappears on page 25. Why might the director want him
off the stage?
10) What was offered Mrs. Gibbs?
i) With what you know now, is that a good deal?
ii) Why won't Doc Gibbs go traveling?
iii) Does that make sense?
iv) Have you heard someone say something similar about Nantucket?
11) What information does the Professor give?
i) What time frame is all the information?
ii) What point is the playwright making?
iii) What information does the editor give?
12) What three questions does the editor field?
i) What do those questions show about the audience?
ii) In 1994, what questions might the editor have to field?
13) How can you tell that George is attracted to Emily?
i) How does he act in a conventional way? How does she?
14) What are Emily's dreams?
i) How will they change?
ii) Does the playwrite think that is a bad thing?
iii) With this in mind, what is the double meaning behind the phrase "the
moonlight is so terrible tonight"?
15) Why does the Stage Manager want to preserve a copy of this play for eternity?
i) Is he saying that Babylon was a lot different from Grover's Corners or
that they are similar?
16) Where are George and Emily in relation to the choir?
i) Why wouldn't the playwrite leave them separate?
ii) How does the playwrite feel about youth, considering how they are placed
on stage?
17) In your own words, what does Doc Gibbs say to his son?
i) How is it effective?
ii) How is it more effective than yelling at him?
18) What is Simon Stimson's problem?
i) What advice does Mrs. Gibbs give?
ii) Is that good advice or bad?
iii) Why is he drunk?
iv) Are some people "just not island people"? Explain.
v) Have you ever heard that advice before?
vi) What happened later?
19) The moon gets mentioned several times. What do you think it is symbolic of?
20) What song does Mr. Webb whistle?
i) Why does he whistle it?
ii) Why does the author use it?
21) What is the address on the envelope Rebecca mentions?
i) What do you suppose that address signifies?
Act II: Love and Marriage
Introduction: Having introduced the town and given an overview to life, Wilder now
undertakes the main point of his play; the relationship of George and Emily.
Read 63 to 107 and answer the following questions. As we did with the first act, we
will watch the play before we answer the indented questions.
Questions: Answer the following questions fully. Use another sheet of paper.
1) When do most of the young people get married?
i) Why do they get married so old?
ii) Why do we wait so long?
iii) Do you think it is better to get married right out of high school or in your
twenties?
2) How does this act begin?
i) Why would the author want to begin it this way?
3) What is happening at Mrs. Gibbs house?
i) Why do they talk about the weather?
4) What does Mrs. Gibbs worry about?
i) How was their wedding worse?
ii) Complete the quote " Everybody has a right to _________________"
iii) Explain it.
iv) How does that apply to another character in the story?
5) What does George want to do?
6) How do George and Mr. Webb get along?
i) Why is Mr. Webb so silent?
7) Why can't George see Emily
i) Why does he follow the tradition?
ii) Can Editor Webb explain the tradition?
iii) What advice does he give George?
iv) What is the true advice he gives George?
8) Where did they first meet?
i) What is the tone of their first conversation?
ii) When she says that George is conceited, stuck up and doesn't talk to his
friends, what does she really mean?
iii) Why does Emily expect a man to be perfect?
9) What is their first date?
i) Why is that a good idea for a first date?
ii) Why is Emily crying?
iii) Why is Mr. Morgan talking a mile a minute?
10) Where does George want to go?
i) Will he go there?
ii) Does Emily have prospects? What will happen to them?
iii) Explain.
11) What don't George and Emily say to each other?
i) Why do you suppose their romance was so easy?
ii) Is it that way on Nantucket?
iii) Is that a good thing?
12) Complete the quote "People were made to live________"
i) What does this quote mean?
ii) Is it a romantic quote? Explain.
13) Who is the real hero of this scene?
i) Who else is witnessing this scene?
14) Why is Mrs. Webb upset?
i) What does she hope some of her girlfriends have told her?
ii) Why is the "whole world wrong"?
iii) What's the baseball message for George?
iv) Does that part of his life end now?
v) Where else have we seen that thought?
vi) Does George give in to this?
15) Is Emily scared?
i) Quote a line to support your answer.
ii) What convinces Emily?
16) Who speaks through the whole service?
i) Why is she happy?
17) What does Mrs. Soames see in the couple that makes her so happy?
Act II: Death
Introduction: This Act is one of the most controversial and the well-written
dramatic acts in the history of the American stage. It is well crafted, thoughtful,
and not particularly cheery nor depressing.
The dramatic set-up has all the dead, sitting on chairs near their tombstones,
watching life without judgment. Imagine a cemetery on Nantucket, where the dead
are doing just that.
Pages 109-143.
Answer the following questions fully. Use another sheet of paper.
1) What familiar characters are among the dead?
i) How do they speak?
2) Complete the quote "It don't do_____________"
i) Why is that an odd thing to say?
ii) Would your parents say it to you, if you were laughing at the tombstones?
3) Is the Stage Manager very religious?
4) What are the dead doing?
i) What great thing is coming?
ii) Why doesn't he say it?
iii) Why does the Stage Manager address the audience?
5) Who is Sam Craig?
i) What contrast does the playwright make when he brings Sam back to the
town?
6) How did Simon Stimpson die?
i) Why did he commit suicide?
7) Complete the quote: "My wasn't life ________________________"
i) How does that apply to life in Our Town?
8) What is Emily's emotion, when she joins the dead?
i) Why does she feel that way?
ii) Where did Emily's legacy come from?
iii) What feeling does she want to go away?
9) What does Emily want to do?
i) Why shouldn't she?
ii) What else will Emily see, when she lives a day over?
10) What day does she choose?
i) Why?
11) How does her birthday start?
i) What point is the playwrite making?
12) Emily says "She can't bear it" What can't she bear?
13) Complete the quote "Mother, just for a moment, ________________"
i) Why does she want to "look at one another?"
ii) What does she think they missed?
iii) Why can't she go on?
iv) What should human beings realize?
14) Put Simon Stimson's tirade into your own words?
i) What is the rest of it?
ii) Why doesn't Mrs. Gibbs say it?
15) How does the play end?
Overall Questions
Introduction: Our Town with its ending, provokes many watchers to think more
about the opening to the play.
These questions are aimed at asking you to revisit at the story.
Questions: Answer the following questions fully. Use the group.
1. The themes of this play are birth, love, death, and time.
• How are each of these themes presented in each act? Examples.
• What does the author want you to think about each of these themes?
2. What might the moral of this story be?
3. Knowing what Emily does at the end of the play, how does the Stage Manager do
the same thing for the audience?
• In other words, how is the audience in their seats like Emily traveling back to her
birthday?
• What emotions should we feel?
4. This story gets remade, in different versions, about every five years. For
example, "It's a Wonderful Life" is another version of this story. What other
versions of this story do you know?
• How are they similar to Our Town?
• How are they different?
• What is the moral of those other versions?
5. In "Our Town," people often say what they really mean by saying the exact
opposite. Find two examples of this.
6. "Our Town" is meant to be nostalgia, tinged with gray. In other words, it paints
the stereotypical small town with touches of darkness. How?
7. What song do they play through the entire play? (Choir sings it, wedding plays it,
and mourners sing it) How is that song symbolic of life in Our Town?
Norman Rockwell
Introduction: When most Americans think about the turn of the century in
America, they think of Our Town and Norman Rockwell. Both are set in rural New
England.
Norman has a lot to say that is similar to Wilder, although he glosses over much of
the darkness. Rockwell never painted Simon Stimson.
Looking at Paintings: Every painting has a story that goes along with it, especially a
Rockwell.
When you look at a painting, ask yourself these questions.
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What are the important details?
What important details are left out?
What is centered in the painting?
Why?
What message is the painter trying to give me?
Exercise: In your groups, look at and analyze your paintings according to the
following procedure.
1. Move your desks into three person groups
2. Assign roles of Boss and Scribe.
 Boss is in charge of deadlines
 Scribe writes information down.
3. Examine the painting.
4. Everyone answers the above questions by themselves
5. Reform the group
6. Boss leads group in going over questions. Scribe writes down answers
7. Boss relates to rest of class.
Homework: Go home and go through magazines, looking for pictures that show a
modern Our Town, or Modern Norman Rockwell.
Eleanor Rigby
Introduction: Eleanor Rigby is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
(Beatles, remember them?). The song is full of metaphor, allusion, and offers a
different take on Our Town.
Questions: Read the accompanying song lyrics and answer the questions fully. Use
another sheet of paper.
1. What does Eleanor Rigby do in the church?
2. Why is that sad?
3. Complete the quote " Wearing the face________________________"
4. Explain.
5. Who is it for?
6. What is Father McKenzie doing?
7. Why will no one hear it?
8. Having read the rest of the song, what was his sermon for?
9. Where did Eleanor Rigby die?
10. How was she buried "along with her name"
11. Why was "no one saved?"
12. Who is similar to Eleanor Rigby in Our Town?
13. How is Emily different?
Eleanor Rigby (Lennon/McCartney)
Aah, look at all the lonely people
Aah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?
All the lonely people
where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
where do they all belong?
Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near.
Look at him working. Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
what does he care?
All the lonely people
where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
where do they all belong?
Aah, look at all the lonely people
Aah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
nobody came
Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved
all the lonely people
where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
where do they all belong?