Our Town Essay, Research Paper
Semester Essay: Our Town
The poet Virgil once wrote that “Love conquers all . . .”
This can be used to describe several relationships in the play Our
Town written by Thornton Wilder. This quote means that if you
love someone all other differences, views, and shortcomings can
be either agreed upon or discarded as unimportant. If everyone
were to view each other with love, according to this quote,
anyone could conquer anything that he or she wants. For the
most part this is true. When this quote is applied to marriages it
shows that even though a person may not agree with their mate
on something they can solve the complication with some kind of
agreement. In the play Our Town this quote is proven to be true
when it is compared to the relationships that will be discussed in
the paragraphs following this.
Dr. Gibbs and Mrs. Gibbs have a relationship in which love
is shown between the two. The difference is is that Mrs. Gibbs is
more verbal with her feelings of worry and want than Dr. Gibbs
is. In the beginning of the play Dr. Gibbs is getting home in the
morning just as everyone else is getting up from a night of
revitalizing sleep. he had just delivered twins on the other side
of town and will have to be back out at eleven to go see another
person. Mrs. Gibbs tells him “. . . I don’t know what is going to
become of you. I wish that I could get you to go away someplace
. . .” This is showing the reader that she is always trying to
persuade Dr. Gibbs to go on a vacation so that he can have a
period of rest and relaxation away from his hectic life. This
reveals that their relationship is based on love and caring . This
is shown by their wanting the best for each other. Mrs. Gibbs
wants her husband to take this needed break so that he will stay
in good health. Dr. Gibbs is always working though so that he
can provide the best for his wife and children.
The relationship between George and his father, Dr. Gibbs
is based on love and experience. Dr. Gibbs shares with George
his experiences and knowledge in the second act of the play so
that he will be prepared for some of the feelings that he will have
on his wedding day. In a portion of the play Dr. Gibbs is telling
about how he was so scared when he saw his wife-to-be coming
down the aisle. He said that “. . . I thought I’d make a mistake
for sure.” then going on further to say that he didn’t. He tells
George this so that when he is walking down the aisle to marry
Emily he will not be totally alien to the feelings that he will feel.
This reveals the love that he feels for his son that men usually
have a hard time discussing with others. He overcame
barrier and told his son about some things that he thought it
would be helpful to know.
The relationship between George and Emily is definitely one
of developing love. At first they complimented each other which
caused their friendship to progress. Then they began sharing
feelings and future plans. Finally they began to incorporate each
other into those plans and making them work out so that their
relationship could continue to grow. George and Emily are
probably the best example of love conquering all. When Emily
tells George that he has been ignoring her along with others
instead of becoming defensive he realized that she was just
trying to help him. He replies to her
“. . .I’m glad you said it. I never would have thought such a
thing could happen to me.” He took her advice because he cared
about what her feelings were for him and applied it to his life. In
another section of the play George decides not to go to a
university so that he can be with Emily. He gave up going onto a
further education so that he could marry Emily while he had the
chance. This shows that they have love for one another because
they overcome impediments that get in the way of their
relationship. They have true love because they are honest with
each other and sacrifice important things to allow their
relationship to proceed.
In Our Town the quote “Love conquers all” applies to many
relationships throughout the play. These relationships that were
discussed in the previous paragraphs are all very life-like in
comparison to the relationships that people are going through
over ninety years later. The way husbands and wives want the
best for one another is seen very often. Many people will work
very hard so that they can buy nice things for their partners. At
times they will sell things of great family or material value so
that they can obtain the satisfaction they get by giving their
partner a gift. Fathers, although they don’t often show their
feelings to other men, want to protect, prepare, and guide their
sons. They will tell their sons that they were scared or other
things that men don’t usually talk about out of love for their son’s
well-being. Then their are cases in which a man and a woman
are meant for each other. They try to make the relationship they
have work through self-sacrifice. These many different types of
love relationships in Our Town are crucial to the success of the
play because any person that watches or reads this plat will be
able to see at least one of the types of relationships in his or her
own life. When the audience is able to do this the play becomes
much more interesting and entertaining to them.