Our Town - Style and Technique

[L Chan]

Our Town - Style and Technique

Interesting/Unique Features
- Stage manager as a device to inspire audience to reflect through
encouraging them to
participate in the drama by asking questions

Introductory Scene
- Stage manager as a narrator leads the imagination when describing
the setting on an
empty stage
- Arouses audiences attention
- Creates tension
- All above has generated the audiences own perspective of town

Theme
- The chorus of life and death (Daily Life, Love and Marriage and
Death, visualising
journey of life)
- Theme: Men's relation to time and space
- The significance of life and human interaction

Technique and Style / Interconnections
Technique: the stage manager mentions Mr.and Mrs. Gibbs's death which
ironise the play

Time: Through mirroring daily routines and typical events in life,
audiences are exposed to
their own failure and forced to realise the significance of life and
their lack of awareness
E.g. Milkman and newspaper boy: Not only the characters in the play
never realise their
significance of existence but even the audiences as well
E.g. Train: time of the train whistle (5:45) reveals the routine life
in our town

The insignificant things in life indicate their actual significance:
Situational irony: insignificant elements such as paperboy and milkman
can be significant
when people in our town discover what happens if they never exist. In
fact, no one in our
town including stage manager had ever ask themselves about this

Space: in act three, the appearance of ghosts serves as a device (eg
emily) to
communicate the theme of cherishing time (eg emily's sorrow is caused
by her regrets on
her ignorance but not the end of her life)

Simon Stimson as a device to display the failure of society and
individuals' lack of
compassion, people never seek to discover the reasons behind his
alcoholism and death.
- "Bless be the time that binds" shows repetitiveness of life

Key Quotes
- "Do any human beings ever realise life while they live it? Every,
every minute?" (Emily,
Act 3, as ghost)
- In act 3 the end of the play, clock is heard, sound imagery symbols
the passing of time,
followed by stage manager saying:
“The strain is so bad that every sixteen hours everybody lies down and
get a rest
Hm... Eleven o'clock in r grover's corners. You get a good rest, too.
Good night.”
- Ironic: the audience will become the characters in the play if they
fail to realise the
importance of wasting time in their life, die with regrets.

Possible Paper 2 Questions
- Discuss how dramatists in two plays you have studied presents
realisation of characters,
with reference to specific devices and techniques used in both plays.
- With reference to two plays you have studied, examine the
significance of introductory
scenes and how the two dramatists present it to the audiences.
- Discuss in what ways have trivial events taken on a larger
importance in at least two of
the works you have studied?
- How are regret and/or reminisce being presented in at least two of
the plays you have
studied and what is its significance?

[ingrid chung]

Interesting features:
In addition, in Act II, as Wilder depicts the marriage of George and
Emily before introducing their interrelationships, this can be
considered as the use of flashback. Back to the setting when George
and Emily engage into their mutual interest, which is strawberry ice-
cream soda, their childlike performances can utterly be reflected by
their responses in their marriage. Wilder intends to highlight the
innocence of George and Emily by portraying their unwillingness in
being responsible for their growth.