Task 8: Response to a critical piece

The reason why I chose a review by Oscar E Moore from Talk Entertainment is that I enjoy that Mr. Moore finds the beauty of Our Town in the very true philosophic ideas. Even though what he reviews is not only the original play, but mainly a theatre performance, he concentrates on the best passages of the work that should be appreciated.

The first thing I enjoyed was the phrase “Thornton Wilder must be chatting up a storm with his cemetery friends about this [performance]“, which refers to the Third Act of Our Town that partly takes place in cemetery and the dead characters are having a conversation.

The author of the review masters in summarizing the plot and gently foreshadows the main theme as “in order to love life we have to have life and to have life we have to love life and we should not be blind to what is important. To really look at each other to really listen to one another and to love one another before it is no longer possible to do that.” This might not be very understandable for the first reading but when understood, it carries a great intellectual value.

Only great writers can comment on the universality of this play as following “A thousand years from now this play will still resonate with its real and heartfelt sentiments. This is the way they were, living and dying. This is what is really important. Being happy with your loved ones. How life should be valued. It all passes too quickly.” Using such cogent phrases, he perfectly describes and reveals the power and beauty of this drama.

I identify with Mr. Moore’s opinion on Our Town in spite of my previous comments on the dullness of the book.

The review and the source of my quotes can be displayed by opening this link:  http://talkentertainment.com/c-9346-Thornton-Wilder%E2%80%99s-Our-Town-%E2%80%93-Timeless-Classic-Off-B%E2%80%99way.aspx

Protagonist and Antagonist

The next task should be about protagonist and antagonist. Well, there really are no good or bad guys in Our Town. The only division of people is in the third Act where there are two camps; the dead and alive. Still, they don't fight. 

Nevertheless, the main idea of the play is that LIFE holds us down and we cannot appreciate living our lives. Thus, we can say that LIFE limits our chances to be happy and fulfilled by every single moment. LIFE is the enemy of all people wishing to enjoy every day.

Does it make sense? I might have over-complicated it :D

The Author

Thornton Wilder, the author of Our Town, was born in 1897 and comes from a well-educated family. His father was a US Consul General in Hong Kong and Shanghai. 'Wilder's mother was a cultured, educated woman who instilled a love of literature, drama, and languages in her children" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/ei_wilder.html).
Thornton studied Greek and Roman classics, then archeology, and French literature. He became a professor of French and taught poetry at Harvard.
While living in Chicago, Thornton got inspired by a work of his friend Gertrude Stein called The Making of Americans. Grover's Corners is a fictional town. However, it is based on a town called Peterborough in New Hampshire where Thornton used to spend his summers. He was a great philosopher and that is why he decided to write Our Town, a story of ordinary life together with (what I think) great philosophical ideas on life.
And one more interesting fact: Thornton Wilder is the author of The Matchmaker, a play that was transformed into musical Hello, Dolly!

A really cool video

Dear readers, you might have become bored with my usual blog entries. So if you feel like it, you are welcome to watch this video and hear the answer for a quote I had to copy: "How did a seventy-year old drama about small town in New Hampshire filled with average people living unremarkable lives become America's most produced play ?"

As they say, "It is about the everlasting regret of all those moments of life that go unappreciated."
Cool, right?

Live your day as if it were your last one

If I were to say what the main theme of the story is, I would have to say it is life.
The First Act describes everyday life of people in Grover's Corners, the Second Act informs us how Emily and George got together and their marriage (also part of a human life). But the most compelling reason why I think the theme is Life is based on what I read in the Third Act. There are two groups of people--dead and alive. Emily dies and joins the dead. The author brings an interesting thought that we live our lives shallowly and we don't realize how we're wasting it until we're dead. When Emily returns to the day of her 12th birthday, she is disappointed and unhappy because she sees from distance that nobody appreciates the gift of life. She tries to tell her mother that she will be dead in 14 years and that she loves her but Mrs. Webb doesn't listen.
What do you think? Are we wasting our time and realize it when it's too late?

What's been happening?

Dear readers,
in this next task I would like to comment on what's happening in the Second Act. We moved 3 years forward, so we are in 1904. We are witnesses of the day when Emily and George realize they like each other. Stage Manager moves forward to the time when there are huge preparations for Emily's and George's wedding. It goes as usual; they both are young and just before the marriage they both doubt if they should do it or not. Finally, the Stage Manager plays the role of a clergyman (a man who marries them) and the couple actually gets married. The audience cannot hear much of what the Clergyman is saying because there is Mrs Soames (a lady) who loudly comments how lovely it is...

Since I already finished the book, I know that the Third Act, just as the Second Act does not directly connect the story. Act Three moves the plot forward by 9 more years...
Let's wait for my next entry to learn more about how this story ends! Surprisingly, the ending is pretty exciting  and contains interesting philosophical ideas :)

Our Town Today?

Well, I mean sure, why not.

As the regular readers know, the "plot" of Our Town is pretty simple. It describes lives of citizens of this small town and I believe that anyone could easily decide to write a story about citizens of "Horní Bělá" (I don't know why I chose this name, but it sounds to me like a name of an ordinary town). Sure, the lifestyle has probably changed quite lot during the past century but the stories are universal. Let me give you an example from Our Town... Emily and George spent their whole lives living next door and finally, they got together when they were almost adults and got married. Does it really sound like something that could have happened only in 1900s?

That's all you will hear from me in this entry. Perhaps next time some MAJOR events happen in this little town :)