Flashcards for Our Town

Dr. Frank Gibbs

Dr. Frank Gibbs is a well-regarded small-town doctor and family man in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, serving as a central figure representing everyday American life in the play.

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Emily Webb

Emily Webb is the female protagonist in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, acting as the audience's closest guide through the play's exploration of life, time, and loss.

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George Gibbs

George Gibbs is one of the two main characters in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, embodying the quintessential American small-town boy whose life reflects the play's journey from youthful simplicity to marriage and loss.

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Howie Newsome

Howie Newsome is the milkman of Grover's Corners, a small but thoughtfully placed character whose daily deliveries align with Thornton Wilder's thematic design in Our Town.

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Joe Crowell

Joe Crowell is a minor yet thematically significant character in Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

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Mr. Charles Webb

Mr. Charles Webb is the editor and publisher of the Grover's Corners Sentinel, husband to Myrtle, and father of Emily and Wally.

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Mrs. Julia Gibbs

Mrs. Julia Gibbs is a key domestic character in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, representing the simple rhythms of small-town life in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, at the turn of the twentieth century.

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Mrs. Louella Soames

Mrs. Louella Soames is a minor but memorable character in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, serving as a humorous representation of small-town gossip and sentimental excess.

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Mrs. Myrtle Webb

Mrs. Myrtle Webb is the warm and practical mother of Emily and Wally Webb in Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

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Rebecca Gibbs

Rebecca Gibbs is George's younger sister and a minor yet striking character in Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

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Simon Stimson

Simon Stimson is the church organist and choir director in Grover's Corners, a character who distinctly contrasts with the town's overall happiness, embodying a quiet, corrosive despair.

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The Stage Manager

The Stage Manager acts as the all-knowing narrator and master of ceremonies in Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

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Wally Webb

Wally Webb is a minor yet symbolically significant character in Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

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“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.”

This line is delivered by Emily Webb in Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938), towards the end of Act III.

Emily Webb · Act III

“My name is George Gibbs. I'm sixteen years old. I live in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, just across the Massachusetts line.”

This line is delivered by George Gibbs in Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938), right at the beginning of Act One.

George Gibbs · Act One

“Now there are some things we all know, but we don't take'm out and look at'm very often.”

This line is delivered by the Stage Manager, who serves as the all-knowing narrator in Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938), during Act III.

The Stage Manager · Act III

“Wherever you come near the human race, there's layers and layers of nonsense.”

This line is delivered by the Stage Manager, who serves as the all-knowing narrator in Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938).

The Stage Manager · Act I

“People are meant to go through life two by two. 'Tain't natural to be lonesome.”

This line is spoken by the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938), who acts as the play's all-knowing narrator, guiding the audience through the three acts of life in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire.

Stage Manager · Act II

“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 about you.”

This poignant line is delivered by Emily Webb in Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938), specifically during Act III, which is the most philosophically intense part of the play.

Emily Webb · Act III

“The cottage, the go-cart, the Sunday-afternoon drives in the Ford, the first rheumatism, the grandchildren, the second rheumatism, the deathbed, the reading of the will.”

This line is delivered by the Stage Manager, the all-knowing narrator in Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938), during Act II ("Love and Marriage").

The Stage Manager · Act II (Love and Marriage)

“I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another.”

This line is spoken by Emily Webb in Act III of Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938), during the haunting "return" scene.

Emily Webb · Act III

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it — every, every minute?”

This haunting question comes from Emily Webb in Thornton Wilder's Our Town (1938), during Act III — the play's most emotionally powerful scene.

Emily Webb · Act III

Cemetery Hill

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Cemetery Hill symbolizes the eternal and timeless aspect of human life that exists just beyond the hectic, often overlooked routine of daily life in Grover's Corners.

Grover's Corners

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Grover's Corners symbolizes universal human experience—the notion that any ordinary place, with its routines, relationships, and losses, embodies the entirety of life.

The Bare Stage

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the bare stage represents the universality of human experience and strips away material illusions.

The Morning Routine

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the morning routine highlights the beauty and significance of everyday life—a central theme the play encourages its audience to appreciate before it slips away.

The Wedding Ceremony

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the wedding ceremony of George Gibbs and Emily Webb reflects the bittersweet and fleeting nature of human connection and the passage of time.

Tone

In Our Town, Thornton Wilder creates a tone that blends tenderness with a sense of inevitability—it's warm and intimate, yet tinged with a shadowy awareness of what is to come.

Motif

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the theme of daily routine—the ordinary, repetitive actions of life—builds a quiet intensity throughout all three acts.

Foreshadowing

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the play's structure incorporates foreshadowing directly through the Stage Manager, who frequently reveals upcoming events to the audience.

Dramatic Irony

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, dramatic irony is embedded in the play's structure right from the beginning.

Frame Narrative

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the Stage Manager serves as the guiding voice of the frame narrative, stepping outside the story to engage directly with the audience before, during, and after the dramatic events.

Symbolism

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, everyday objects and spaces take on significant meaning that a realistic set could never convey.

Imagery

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, imagery doesn't rely on elaborate stage displays but instead unfolds through the Stage Manager's concise verbal pictures, inviting the audience's imagination to fill in what the scenery doesn't convey.

Apostrophe

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the use of apostrophe — a direct address to someone who is absent, deceased, or abstract — is intricately woven into some of the play's most heartbreaking moments.

Soliloquy

In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the Stage Manager acts as the main voice of the play, offering lengthy direct addresses to the audience that convey emotional and philosophical depth that a traditional scene could not match.

Stage Manager

In this play, the character who narrates the action, addresses the audience directly, and controls the flow of scenes — acting as a guide between the audience and the fictional world of the play.

noun · Chapter 1

pleasantries

Polite, light remarks exchanged in conversation that are friendly but not deeply meaningful, used here to show the routine social habits of small-town life.

noun · Chapter 1

dawdle

To move or act slowly, wasting time; to linger without purpose. Used here to describe children taking their time on the way to school.

verb · Chapter 1

cholera

A serious and often fatal infectious disease caused by contaminated water, historically a major cause of death; referenced here as part of the town's past hardships.

noun · Chapter 1

appendicitis

A medical condition in which the appendix becomes inflamed and must be surgically removed; mentioned here as a cause of death in the town's history.

noun · Chapter 1

trellis

A frame or structure of crossed wooden or metal strips used to support climbing plants, here serving as a prop or scenic detail in the staging of the play.

noun · Chapter 1

hitch

To fasten or tie something, or to move with a jerky motion; used here in the context of hitching horses, reflecting the early-twentieth-century rural setting.

verb · Chapter 1

constable

A local law-enforcement officer, similar to a town policeman; used here to refer to the figure responsible for keeping order in the small town.

noun · Chapter 1

temperance

The practice of abstaining from or strictly limiting alcohol consumption; referenced here in connection with social movements and the moral climate of the town.

noun · Chapter 1

elocution

The skill of speaking clearly and expressively, especially in public; mentioned here as a subject of lessons or local aspiration in the town.

noun · Chapter 1

banns

A public announcement, traditionally made in church on three successive Sundays, that two people intend to marry — giving the community a chance to raise any objections.

noun · Chapter 2

courting

The process of pursuing a romantic relationship with the intention of marriage; used here to describe the developing relationship between the young couple.

verb · Chapter 2

nervous prostration

An old-fashioned term for a state of extreme mental and physical exhaustion or breakdown, often brought on by anxiety or emotional stress.

phrase · Chapter 2

organist

A person who plays the organ, typically in a church; used here to refer to a character whose drinking habit is a recurring subject of town gossip.

noun · Chapter 2

embezzlement

The crime of secretly stealing money that has been entrusted to one's care, typically from an employer; referenced here as part of a character's backstory.

noun · Chapter 2

eternal

Lasting or existing forever, without beginning or end; used here in the context of the dead souls' perspective on time and human life.

adjective · Chapter 3

deceased

Dead; no longer living. Used here to describe the characters who have died and now occupy the graveyard, observing the living world with detachment.

adjective · Chapter 3

indifference

A state of not caring or having no strong feeling about something; used here to describe the calm, detached attitude the dead have developed toward earthly concerns.

noun · Chapter 3

mortal

Subject to death; belonging to the world of the living. Used here to contrast the temporary human experience with the timeless state of the dead.

adjective · Chapter 3

realization

The moment of truly understanding or becoming fully aware of something important; used here as a central theme — the idea that the living rarely appreciate life while they have it.

noun · Chapter 3