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Concept of Time and Space in Thronton Wilder’s Our Town
I. Introduction
Wilder’s idea of the perfect theater materialized in his essay “Some Thoughts
on Playwriting”. He constructed four principal arguments which set out the essence
of the theater. Especially the arguments of time and space will enter into this analysis
of Our Town. What happens on the theater stage is, according to Wilder, all pretense
and this pretense is supported by the props. As soon as the play is equipped with
props it is inevitably fixed to space and time. This, however, is in stark contrast to
Wilder’s time concept of an eternal present that knows no fixing point.1 Wilder
releases the play that was once “shut […] up in […] a museum showcase”2 and offers
not only the depiction of life, but also a general truth. When a play is staged the way
it is intended to, that is, with a more or less bare stage, the action becomes more
general and transferable to different places, people and times. There is some
universal reality that is inevitably lost, when the world is reproduced meticulously3
and thus the author “wish[ed] to record a village's life on stage, with realism and with
generality.”4
Wilder also distinguishes the time in the novel and the time in the play and
achieves to lift the theater above the novel.5 The reader has to be aware that he is
either confronted with a retelling of the past or an everlasting present. However, this
everlasting present of the play, is broken by the presence of the narrator who includes
flashbacks and forecasts into the narration. The narrative function is usually found in
prose writing and less in dramatic texts. Yet, Wilder manages to incorporate a
narrator in his drama that goes beyond epilogue, prologue and chorus.
1 Cf. Nimax, Manfred. „Jederzeit und Allerorts“. Universalität im Werk von Thornton Wilder. Frankfurt/Main: Haag und Herchen, 1983, 22.
2 Wilder, Thornton. “Preface”. Our Town and Other Plays. London: Penguin, 2000, 7-13:10.3 Cf. Nimax, 22.4Wilder, Thornton. “Preface to Our Town”. Collected Plays and Writings on Theater. Ed.
J.D. McClatchy. New York: The Library of America, 2007, 657-59: 658.5 Cf. Nimax, 21.
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On the following pages I will analyze how the characters manipulate time and
space in Our Town and to what consequences it leads.
II. Our Town- Manipulating Temporal and Spatial Limits?
2. Definition
Before the actual analysis some general definitions have to be introduced.
The usual perception of manipulation is quite negative although the Concise English
Oxford Dictionary gives various definitions. It defines to manipulate as “1. [to]
handle or control with dexterity 2. [to] examine or treat (a part of the body) by
feeling or moving it with the hand 3. [to] control or influence cleverly or
unscrupulously [or] 4. [to] alter or present (data) so as to mislead”.6 It is important to
see how the figures make use of these definitions to change time and space. We have
to be aware that language is the main constituent to create space7 and that it is also a
way to change it, maybe also change to misuse it. But Wilder’s figures can also
change the space and time they interact in, merely by their way of how they act and
behave in their little world. The following chapters will offer a more in depth
analysis of what manipulation in Our Town looks like.
2.1. Flashbacks and Forecasts – Manipulation of Time and Space
The very first account the reader gets of Grover’s Corners in the exposition of
the play, is a rather precise one, quite contrary to the description of how a perfect
play should be according to Wilder. Readers, and the audience, immediately know
the exact location of the town, namely: “New Hampshire – just across the
6 "manipulate v." The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Twelfth edition . Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 7 July 2011.<http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t23.e34075>
7 Cf. Hönnighausen, Lothar. „Where Are We? Some Methodological Reflections on Space, Place, and Postmodern Reality.” Space in America. Theory History Culture. Eds. Klaus Benesch and Kerstin Schmidt. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005, 41.
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Massachusetts line: latitude 42 degrees 40 minutes; longitude 70 degrees 37
minutes.”8 The stage manager, who opens the play, invites the reader into a
seemingly real American town that is according to its inhabitants “[l]ittle better
behaved than most [towns]. Probably a lot duller. ” (34) He accurately describes
Grover’s Corners and thus creates an imaginary map with his words that opens up
even more as the play progresses.9 As a homodiegetic-extradiegetic narrator, the
stage manager is clearly involved in the action and interaction of the figures and
functions like a human time machine throughout the play. The time lapses he creates
are glimpses into the lives of the other characters. Some parts of the characters’ lives
would have been hidden, if the stage manager did not jump back and forth in time
causing a disruption in the chronology of Our Town. The audience would have been
uninformed that “Joe was awful bright – graduated from high school here, head of
his class” (25) and that “Editor Webb’s boy, Wallace, […] appendix burst while he
was on a Boy Scout trip to Crawford Notch” (76). Later on, it will be clearer that
time operates in many ways in the play and is subjected to a constant change
culminating in the transgression of death in Act III10 and a walk between two spaces.
Yet, the manager is not merely a narrator, he is also an impersonator and at
some point the audience perceives him as some kind of magician. He is able to cause
a change of scenery and miraculously creates new spaces, which is only possible
through the use of the bare stage and his abilities to act as a pantomime.11 All of the
characters lack the props for acting so they pretend to do the things around the house.
The families’ kitchens turn into a counter, the counter turns into a wedding chapel
and the chapel turns into graves and headstones. For this almost magical
transformation to take place there is the need to enhance the stage and let the 8 Wilder, Thornton. “Our Town”. Town and Other Plays. London: Penguin, 2000, 21. All
parenthetical references follows this edition.9Cf. Porter, Tom. Myth and modern American drama. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State
University Press, 1969, 209.10Cf. Fletcher, Anne. “Thornton Wilder’s “Eternal Present”: Ghosting and the Grave Body in
Act III of Our Town”. Death in American Texts and Performances. Corpses, Ghosts, and the Reanimated Dead. Eds. Lisa K. Perdigao and Mark Pizzato. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010, 81.
11 Cf. Lifton, Paul. „Vast Encyclopedia“. The Theater of Thornton Wilder. Contributions in Drama and Theater Studies, 61. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press: 1995, 203.
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audience see what’s happening on stage. The enhancement happens through the
literal and figurative breaking of the “fourth wall” of the theater by communicating
with the people in the audience. However, it is not the unique ability of one character,
namely the manager (35), to break the limits. Editor Webb (34-36) and Professor
Willard (33) at some point also address the audience to convey their messages.12 The
reader and the audience have to be aware that the people in the audience are also
actors; the seating becomes part of the staging arrangement and the audience
becomes part of the town.
The stage manager not only constructs and manipulates space and time
through his actions, he also manipulates the structures through language. He almost
seems to stand above the temporal structure of the play when he addresses the
audience before George and Emily show their affection for each other:
George and Emily are going to show you now the conversation they had
when they first knew that…that…as the saying goes…they were meant for
each other. But before they do it I want you to try and remember what it was
like to have been very young. And particularly the days when you were first
in love […] You’re just a little bit crazy. Will you remember that, please? (60,
emphasis mine)
In the last two sentences the manager changes from the past tense to the present, and
encourages the reader and audience to activate their memory.13 At this point the love
confession of George and Emily is no longer some, still important, conversation held
in the past, it happens now or rather it is going to happen in a few moments in front
of witnesses.
In addition to the creation of time lapses, the stage manager can stop and
restart time at any point convenient for him; the power transferred to him by being a
“presenter”. He connects the time of the play with time of the audience when he for
example states that “Bryan once made a speech from these very steps here” and that
12 Cf. Lifton, 55-56. See also: Nimax, 39-40.13 Cf. Nimax, 55.
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the “[f]irst automobile’s going to come along in about five years – belonged to the
Banker Cartwright our richest citizen…lives in the big white house up on the hill”
(22, emphasis mine). Historical data is moved to a point in the present and the
audience sees the past, present and future woven together.14 The audience is taken on
a journey through time, where there is no need to leave the present situation. The
scrambled syntax also offers a look into Wilder's ideas of the stage of an eternal now.
The audience doesn’t need to worry whether there is something from the past of from
the future presented on the stage because it is all acted now and thus becomes a part
of the present.
Moving from the stage manager to the other characters the reader is
confronted with manipulation by language rather than action. George’s sister
Rebecca, for example, shows that the town they live in is within a greater system of
subordinated spaces where “the Mind of God” (49) is the limit. Rebecca cites the
address on Jane Crofurt’s letter as follows: “Jane Crofurt; The Crofurt Farm;
Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America. […]
Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the
Universe; the Mind of God […]” (48-49). The total subordination works in two
ways. On the one hand, it makes the space the characters interact in seem very small,
compared to what is around them. But on the other hand, Wilder offers a look
through a telescope15 or a microscope and the once so small space opens up for the
outside observer. It is possible to examine the details of everyday life in “our town”
meticulously in all its shades of grey. Yet, the space does not open up so far that
characters are freed in their way of thinking. Dr. Gibbs’s question whether there was
“[a]nything serious goin’ on in the world since Wednesday?” is answered by Joe
Crowell with the following statement: “Yessir. My schoolteacher, Miss Foster, ‘s
getting married to a fella over in Concord.” (25) The world is still restricted to the
borders of Grover’s Corners and the vastness of “the Mind of God” seems very small
again. The characters appear to be bound to the town and “[n]inety per cent of ‘em
14 Cf. Porter, 211-212.15 Cf. Lifton, 59.
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graduating from high school settle down right here (Grover’s Corners) to live – even
when they’ve been away to college” (34-35).16 They are actually right not to leave
their “assigned space”, as there is potential danger outside (Rebecca’s mother dies on
a visit, Joe Crowell dies in war). As his father Dr. Gibbs, George is bound to
Grover’s Corners and can’t even manage to go away to attend a school for higher
education to expand his knowledge because he thinks the town might not be
interesting anymore.17 Having seen what ways the characters use to change time and
space, I am now going to analyze the effect the temporal and spatial alteration has on
the audience as well as on the characters themselves.
2.2. “Why should that be painful?”- The Effect of Manipulation
The surrounding of the town, with its extensive past creates a “temporal
frame of references and places Grover’s Corners in a context of vast dimensions of
time and space […].”18 The dimensions are not only represented by the living
inhabitants of the town but also by the dead in general and the dead man in particular
who states that “it [takes] millions of years for that speck o’ light to git to the earth.”
(90) Especially the “vast dimensions” of time evoke a sense of eternity. The audience
has the feeling that Grover’s Corners has a long history that mankind can’t fathom.
This extensive historical background is supported by Professor Willard’s speech on
the geographical situation and thus giving the town some million years of history; the
inscriptions on the tombstones also made a positive contribution to the historical
background of Grover’s Corners. The characters walk “on the old Pleistocene granite
of the Appalachian range. […] [S]ome of the oldest land in the world. […] A shelf of
Devonian basalt crosses it with vestiges of Mesozoic shale, and some sandstone
outcroppings; but that’s all more recent: two hundred, three hundred million years
16 Cf. Lifton, 44.17 Cf. Bunge, Nancy. “The Social Realism of Our Town: A Study in Misunderstanding.”
Thornton Wilder: New Essays. Ed. Martin Blank, Dalma Hunyadi Brunauer and David Garrett Izzo. Locust Hill Literary Studies, 26. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press, 1999, 360-361.
18 Lifton, 54-55.
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old.” (33) Prehistoric references, but also more references to more recent events like
the Civil War (32), the Versaille Treaty (41) and in general the description of the
genealogical roots of the Grover’s Corners families (33) show a compressed
depiction of time where the past becomes integrated into the present. The integration
turns “all time [into] one time and space [becomes] universal; the action occurs in an
immutable “now” and a universal “everywhere”.”19
The play itself, furthermore, functions as a metahistorical work.20 The stage
manager is “going to have a copy of this play put in the cornerstone and the people a
thousand years from now’ll know a few simple facts about [them]-more than the
Treaty of Versaille and the Lindbergh flight.” (41) Future generations should be able
to know more about “our town” than just the names of rich or important inhabitants.
The play becomes valid anthropological data within the time continuum of ancient
Greece and Babylon.21 The text of the play is also something immortal, in contrast to
the people who will inevitably die and whose memories might be lost forever if it
were not for the dramatic text. The integration of the past moves forward at a steady
pace and the audience has the impression that there is an unusually mobile time
structure22 that can be used to almost jump between the years. The arrangement of the
time structure seems deliberate but consistent as well, and Wilder shows that the play
does not follow a historical and therefore more or less chronological time line, yet
the characters have to “submit to the tyranny of that historical time.”23 However, it
seems that is not always easy to keep track of the time in the play; even the stage
manager is confused about the accurate time (36).
The timeframe of the play is itself something special. It compasses an entire
lifespan and simultaneously the audience gets the impression that only a day has
passed and Wilder presents a slice of life.24 In the stage directions at the beginning of
19 Porter, 208.20 Cf. Nimax, 43-44.21 Fletcher, 84-85.22 Cf. Nimax, 54.23 Haberman, Donald, The Plays of Thornton Wilder. A Critical Study. Middletown, CT:
Wesleyan University Press, 1967, 58.24 Cf. Porter, 201.
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the play the rooster crows (21) in the morning and in the end the stage manager
wishes the audience a “Good night” (91). It almost seems as if the three acts are
individual miniature slices of life looked at through a microscope or telescope.
Wilder gives exact dates for the temporal placement of the play, which is 11 th
February 1899 (Emily’s twelfth Birthday) until the summer of 1913.25 Emily’s return
from the grave causes a nostalgic feeling, as well in the character as in the audience,
elevating the memory of this day to an ideal. As Emily says, she “won’t live over a
sad day. [She]’ll choose a happy one – [She]’ll choose the day [she] first knew that
[she] loved George. Why should that be painful?” (83). She is only reliving the past,
although it might be an ideal and beautiful past, that cannot last because a future is
ahead that is clearly visible for her. Although Emily tries to transcend death, there is
permanence and forgetting in it and it is impossible for her to turn back the time.26 It
becomes clearer that the value of memory is greater than the value of experience
when a simple word count is done: in Act III, “[f]or example the word “know” is
utilized by Wilder no fewer than twenty five times […] “remember” and “forget” (or
“forgotten”) a total of eight times”27. There is no need to learn or experience
something new, as long as there are memories. This is also seen in the refusal of most
inhabitants to venture outside of the town limits. It is possible, though, to look at the
past nostalgically (Emily herself becomes the audience of an ideal part of her life)
but there is no possibility to change anything, whereas in the future that is still ahead,
there waits “the anguish and inadequacy of life.”28 There is no way to escape this life
and only in death it becomes evident that “[t]hey’re sort of shut up in little boxes
[…]” (81) and that the fear of change cannot be overcome. Dr. Gibbs prefers to stay
in town because “it might make him disconnected with Grover’s Corners to go
traipsin’ about Europe […].” (31)29 although there are characters, like Mrs. Gibbs and
25 Cf. Nimax, 43.26 Cf. Porter, 219-220.27 Fletcher, 88.28 Haberman, 58., see also: Londraville, Richard. “Our Town: An American Noh of Ghosts”.
Thorton Wilder: New Essays. Ed. Martin Blank, Dalma Hunyadi Brunauer and David Garrett Izzo. Locust Hill Literary Studies, 26. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press, 1999, 372-373.
29 Cf. Bunge, 358.
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Mrs. Webb who would like to break out of the town limits and “see a country where
they don’t talk in English and don’t even want to.” (32)
The language of Wilder’s characters, moreover, reveals a repetitive pattern
within the play. There is a linear structure given by the birth until death theme that
affects the each individual and a cyclical structure that affects the Grover’s Corners
community as a whole. These elements complement each other and open up the
possibility to link the individual to the community and at the same time let the
individual figure stand out. In order for this to become clear conversations as well as
daily rituals are repeated for the audience.30 Everything repeats itself generation after
generation and is not fixed to one person at one certain point in time. The stage
manager describes the sunset and normal change of seasons and adds the fact that
“[s]ome babies that weren’t even born before have begun talking regular sentences
already; and a number of people who thought they were right young and spry have
noticed that they can’t bound up a flight of stairs like they used to, without their heart
fluttering a little.” (50) He shows that human existence is subjected to the natural
cycle and the historical time which becomes generalized through the words “almost
everybody.” (50) He includes the persons outside Grover’s Corners, that means, not
only the few who left the town but people in the audience and the readers.31 Emily is
at first opposed to her mother’s ideas of being rather “healthy than bright” (28), as
she likes to read at the table and the audience gets to know her as an intelligent girl,
helping her husband to be with his homework. Soon enough, however, she
compensates and at last even applies her mother’s ideas. Almost the same pattern is
visible in George’s development, who takes advice from Editor Webb on his wedding
day. The advice he gets was handed down from Editor Webb’s father. He also
inherited the fear to leave his space in town and the love for it. Taking this as a model
it is probable that Emily and George’s child will be part of the repetitive pattern.32
30 Cf. Porter, 214-215.31 Cf. Nimax, 51.32Cf. Nimax, 47.
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III. Conclusion
The manipulation of the stage manager is of a neutral kind and doesn’t have a
negative effect, like for example Iago’s manipulation of Othello.33 And he is no
magician in the traditional sense, casting a spell on people, may it be for the better or
worse. On the contrary, with his interference among the characters he tries to prevent
negative experiences, like Emily’s. It is interesting to notice that “[o]nly in Wilder’s
play […] [does] the figure […] (stage manager) serve as chorus, bit player, narrator,
and omniscient coordinator of the performance”34 whose attempts to (re)create a
town with a bare stage are successful. He is, furthermore, able to show the
insignificance of an individual existence against the vast universe. The figures alter
the data they are given, but not to mislead the audience in a malicious way. Wilder
rather tries to show that there is a repetitive pattern and that the experiences are not
singularly designed for Emily and George but designed as a collective experience.35
In the words of Lothar Hönnighausen, “the experience of space is not a matter of the
individual alone, but it is a social and socializing experience as well”36 linking
generations together and supporting the idea behind the repetitive pattern.
The “omnispatial, omnitemporal “now” and “everywhere” of the eternal
mind”37 make Grover’s Corners the center of the universe, but it makes Grover’s
Corners at the same time a thing of the past that can only exists in the memory of the
people.38 Emily’s manipulation of the space finally turns into a painful experience for
her, as it is impossible to relive happy childhood memories.39 The future is already
known and Emily couldn’t live carefree anymore because of the experiences she
already made. She tried to transcend historical time but as it is stated above the
characters are subjected to it and cannot overcome its tyranny. Emily’s memories are
33 Londraville, 370.34 Lifton, 204.35 Cf. Nimax, 46.36 Hönnighausen, 42.37 Porter, 213.38 Porter, 221.39 Cf. Nimax, 61.
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real but for the audience to know them time lapses are necessary. So, memories are
only created through the time lapses and the rearrangement of time. The characters’
manipulation of space causes a shift between the world of the living and the dead and
only the stage manager can fully exist in both of them.40 However, there is still
something positive as “they [are] waitin’ for the eternal part in them to come out
clear” (76) and then there will be no more need for manipulation and facing painful
memories.
4. Bibliography
40 Fletcher, 91.13
Primary Works
Wilder, Thornton. “Our Town”. Town and Other Plays. London: Penguin, 2000, 15- 91.
Works Cited
Bunge, Nancy. “The Social Realism of Our Town: A Study in Misunderstanding.”Thornton Wilder: New Essays. Ed. Martin Blank, Dalma Hunyadi Brunauer and David Garrett Izzo. Locust Hill Literary Studies, 26. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press, 1999, 349-364.
Fletcher, Anne. “Thornton Wilder’s “Eternal Present”: Ghosting and the Grave Bodyin Act III of Our Town”. Death in American Texts and Performances. Corpses, Ghosts, and the Reanimated Dead. Eds. Lisa K. Perdigao and Mark Pizzato. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010, 79-97.
Haberman, Donald. The Plays of Thornton Wilder. A Critical Study. Middletown, CT:Wesleyan University Press, 1967.
Hönnighausen, Lothar. “Where Are We? Some Methodological Reflections on Space,Place, and Postmodern Reality.” Space in America. Theory History Culture. Eds. Klaus Benesch and Kerstin Schmidt. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005, 41-52.
Lifton, Paul. „Vast Encyclopedia“. The Theater of Thornton Wilder. Contributions inDrama and Theater Studies, 61. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press: 1995.
Londraville, Richard. “Our Town: An American Noh of Ghosts”. Thornton Wilder:New Essays. Ed. Martin Blank, Dalma Hunyadi Brunauer and David Garrett Izzo. Locust Hill Literary Studies, 26. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press, 1999, 365-378.
Nimax, Manfred. „Jederzeit und Allerorts.“ Universalität im Werk von Thornton Wilder. Frankfurt/Main: Haag und Herchen, 1983.
Porter, Tom. Myth and modern American drama. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne StateUniversity Press, 1969.
Soanes, Catherine and Angus Stevenson (Eds.). The Concise Oxford EnglishDictionary. Twelfth edition. Oxford University Press, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 7 July 2011.http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t23.e34075
Wilder, Thornton. “Preface”. Our Town and Other Plays. London: Penguin, 2000, 7-13.
---. “Preface to Our Town”. Collected Plays and Writings on Theater. Ed. J.D.
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McClatchy. New York: The Library of America, 2007, 657-59.---. “Some Thoughts on Playwriting”. Collected Plays and Writings on Theater. Ed.
J.D. McClatchy. New York: The Library of America, 2007, 694-703.
Further Literature
Craig, William Lane. The Tenseless Theory of Time: A Critical Examination. NewYork: Springer, 2000.
Goldstein, Malcolm. The Art of Thornton Wilder. Lincoln: University of NebraskaPress, 1965.
Guthrie, Tyrone. “The World of Thornton Wilder.” The Modern American Theater –A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Alvin B. Kernan. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall, 1967.
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