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The Everyday and the Ordinary
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Our Town, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The town of Grover’s Corners is built on the smaller community of the family. The family unit is the building block of the town, where the same family names can be found on tombstones in the town cemetery going back many years. The first act of Our Town focuses mostly on two homes, those of the Gibbs and the Webbs, where the central family structure can be seen, with husband, wife, and children. Marriage is the essential union of two people that creates this family unit.
The second act of the play is centered around the creation of a new family through the marriage of George and Emily. Mr. Webb stresses to George that he is a firm believer in the importance of marriage, and Mrs. Gibbs insists that “people are meant to go through life two by two.” However, characters in the play also regard the institution of marriage more negatively at times. Both Emily and George panic as their wedding draws near, and Emily tells her father that she does not want to get married. This is partly because marriage means growing up and leaving the comfortable family structure she is used to. While George and Emily come around to marrying each other, some doubts about marriage linger in the play. Mrs. Webb says at one point that “there’s something downright cruel about sending our girls into marriage this way,” and Mrs. Gibbs calls wedding ceremonies “perfectly awful things,” and “farces.”
Moreover, marriages in Our Town tend to place wives in somewhat submissive roles. While Dr. Gibbs and Mr. Webb are loving husbands, they tend to exert some kind of control over their wives or at least have the final word in their marriages. We see this especially when Dr. Gibbs continually squashes any discussion his wife wants to have about traveling outside of Grover’s Corners or his taking a vacation from work. Nonetheless, as the ultimately happy union between George and Emily suggests, Wilder presents marriage as a beneficial institution, the fundamental building block of both the family and the town community, even if there are tragic or imperfect undertones in the play’s marriages.
Related Themes from Other Texts
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Marriage and the Family ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Marriage and the Family appears in each act of Our Town. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Marriage and the Family Quotes in Our Town
Below you will find the important quotes in Our Town related to the theme of Marriage and the Family.
Act 2 Quotes
Almost everybody in the world gets married,—you know what I mean? In our town there aren’t hardly any exceptions. Most everybody in the world climbs into their graves married.
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The importance of marriage features strongly in Grover's Corners. Just as "almost everybody" in the broader world gets married, almost everybody n Grover's Corners does too. Marriage is the rule to which there are "hardly any exceptions."Conformity to marriage is one of the many examples of the significance of tradition within the community, On the one hand, the image of climbing into graves in married pairs may seem like sheep-like and negative in its conformity, but in fact, it also represents the genuine desire for companionship present in us all. No one wants to go through life alone, and the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut
The First Act was called the Daily Life. This act is called Love and Marriage. There’s another act coming after this: I reckon you can guess what that’s about.
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At the top of the Act II, the Stage Manager once again dissolves the fourth wall in a moment of bleak transparency with the audience: his outline of the play—from Daily Life, to Love and Marriage, to his dark, rhetorical hint that Death is slated to follow—effectively gives away the plot of the play and, arguably, peels back some of the narrative suspense. Though the direct communication between the Stage Manager and audience highlights the fact that the play is fiction, his summary of the acts also intimates at reality. After all, our own lives might easily be summarized along Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostr
And how do you think I felt!—Frank, weddings are perfectly awful things. Farces,—that’s what they are!
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As George prepares to marry Emily, Mrs. Gibbs' angry and emotional denouncement of weddings, which she expresses outright to her own husband, is a poignant moment of rebellion against the very tradition she herself is apart of—marriage.Mrs. Gibbs' message is mixed: though she encourages George to go through with his marriage in spite of his doubts, though she says people are meant to go through life together in pairs as a means of avoiding loneliness, she also declares here that weddings are "perfectly awful" and "farces."In particular, Mrs. Gibbs' statement that marriage is a farce calls into question which of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit
Yes... people are meant to go through life two by two. ’Tain’t natural to be lonesome.
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On the morning of her son's wedding to Emily, Mrs. Gibbs, in one of her numerous and rather conflicting views on marriage, endorses the institution here as a critical, even sanctified part of life. Besides being a tradition, marriage is a means of protection against loneliness. According to Mrs. Gibbs, going through life alone verges on the unnatural.Nevertheless, the truth of Mrs. Gibbs' statement is questionable when considering the dissatisfaction she expresses over marriage and weddings within the very same act. Coming from someone who has been married as long as she has, we are led to wonder whether marriage Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut
Don’t you misunderstand me, my boy. Marriage is a wonderful thing,—wonderful thing. And don’t you forget that, George.
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At the surface, Mr. Webb's endorsement of the institution of marriage to his future son-in-law follows suit with the traditional values and teachings of Grover's Corners.Yet, beneath the surface of the endorsement, the words seem more like an act of persuasion than they are purely reassuring to George. After explaining the bleaker truths of what marriage includes, Mr. Webb wants George not to misunderstand the fact that it is nonetheless wonderful.Whether this is in earnest, or whether Mr. Webb is trying to reassure himself of marriage's wonders after so many years of being married, is unclear, but also unimportant in Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligend
George, I was thinking the other night of some advice my father gave me when I got married. Charles, he said, Charles, start out early showing who’s boss, he said. Best thing to do is give an order, even if it don’t make sense; just so she’ll learn to obey. [...]
Well, Mr. Webb... I don’t think I could...
So I took the opposite of my father’s advice and I’ve been happy ever since.
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After they get over the initial superstition of a groom not seeing his father-in-law before the wedding, Mr. Webb is giving George not only uplifting advice about marriage, but also advice about the occasional benefits of breaking from tradition.When Mr. Webb introduces his initial advice with the tag "some advice my father gave me," we get the sense that what is going to be said next is an important legacy and tradition, as it is now being passed on to the third generation.However, when we come to hear this traditional advice, which promotes gender inequality and female subjugation in marriage, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debiti
Oh, I’ve got to say it: you know, there’s something downright cruel about sending our girls out into marriage this way.
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Emily's doubts over her impending marriage to George Gibbs—the sadness of leaving her childhood behind, her abrupt departure from the Webb home and all its familiar comforts—crack Mrs. Webb's composed exterior and she expresses regret over the town's marital traditions.The institution of marriage is a cornerstone in Grover's Corners' traditional community, and the wife's role as mother and caretaker is integral to this system. However, this moment reveals tradition's costs, as well. Although Mrs. Webb has in her life conformed to the town's standards for wifehood and womanhood, always taking a backseat to Mr. Webb, the bitter sentiment she betrays Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut.
And George over there, looking so ...! I hate him. I wish I were dead. Papa! Papa!
Emily! Emily! Now don’t get upset...
But, Papa,—I don’t want to get married....
Sh—sh—Emily. Everything’s all right.
Why can’t I stay for a while just as I am?
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This conversation between Emily and her father about her doubts about marrying George is a saddening example of the stubbornness of tradition in Grover's Corners.Although doubts are arguably part of the marriage process, Emily's strong reluctance feels ostensibly deeper than nervousness. However, because marriage is the traditional way of Grover's Corners, Mr. Webb hushes his daughter's sentiments and reassures her that "Everything's all right." In this instance, maintaining order and tradition almost feels more critical than what Emily's true feelings are.In addition to the stubbornness of tradition, Emily's question to her father, "Why can't I stay for a while just Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostr
