Our Town
Critique • Quotes • At the movies
First editionFirst performance
1938, Princeton, New Jersey
Literature form
Play
Genres
Tragedy, meta-theatre
Writing language
English
Author's country
United States
Length
Three acts, approx. 18,500 words
Notable lines
This play is called "Our Town." It was written by Thornton Wilder; produced and directed by.... (or: produced by A....; directed by B....;). In it you will see Miss C....; Miss D....; Miss E....
— First lines
That's what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those.. of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another. Now you know—that's the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindness.
Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by Grover's Corners...Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking...and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.
There are the stars—doing their old, old crisscross journeys in the sky. Scholars haven't settled the matter yet, but they seem to think there are no living beings out there. Just chalk...or fire. Only this one is straining away, straining away all the time to make something of itself. The strain's so bad that every sixteen hours everybody lies down and gets a rest.
Hm.... Eleven o'clock in Grover's Corners.—You get a good rest, too. Good night.
— Last lines
Critique • Quotes • At the movies
