question

Banker Cartwright

answer

Who is the richest citizen?

question

The Sentinel

answer

What is the town newspaper?

question

Howie

answer

Who delivers the milk?

question

The Cartwrights

answer

Who owns the factory?

question

Mrs. Webb

answer

As for me, I'd rather have my children healthy than bright. 15

question

Civil War battlefields

answer

Where does Doc Gibbs like to visit?

question

Professor Willard

answer

Who informs about the State University, Pleistocene granite in the Appalachian, and the population of 2,642? (20-23)

question

Mr. Webb

answer

Very ordinary town, if you ask me. Little better behaved than most. Probably a lot duller. But our young people here seem to like it well enough. Ninety percent of 'em graduating from high school settle down right here to live even when they've been away to college.Also says there's a few drunks and not much culture

question

Emily

answer

Who reckons people are just born bright? 29

question

Mr. Webb

answer

They're all getting citified, that's the trouble with them. They haven't got nothing fit to burgle and everybody knows it

question

Emily to her mom

answer

You never tell the truth about anything

question

Mr. Webb

answer

There's a lot of common sense in some superstitions, George (57)

question

Mr. Webb

answer

A man looks pretty small at a wedding, George (59)

question

Mr. Webb

answer

Are you going to raise chickens on your farm? (61)

question

Mr. Webb

answer

And let that be a lesson to you, George, never to ask advice on personal matters (60)

question

Mrs. Webb

answer

You don't want to be the first to fly in the face of custom

question

Stage Manager

answer

I've married over 200 couples in my day. Do I believe in it? IDK M..... marries N..... millions of them The cottage, the go-cart, the Sunday-afternoon drives in the Ford, the first rheumatism, the grandchildren, and the second rheumatism, the deathbed, the reading of the will, Once in a thousand times it's interesting

question

Emily

answer

But, Papa- I don't want to get married (79)

question

Emily

answer

I never felt so alone in my whole life

question

George

answer

I'm celebrating because I've got a friend who tells me all the things that ought to be told to me (69)

question

Stage Manager

answer

Every child born into the world is nature's attempt to make a perfect human being

question

Mrs. Soames

answer

The important thing is to be happy (82)

question

Stage Manager

answer

"Almost everybody in the world gets married - you know what I mean?...Most everybody in the world climbs into their graves married."

question

Emily

answer

"It's not easy for a girl to be perfect as a man, because...girls are more nervous"

question

Frank Gibbs

answer

"They'll have a lot of troubles, I suppose, but that's none of our business. Everybody has a right to their own troubles."

question

Mrs. Gibbs

answer

"People are meant to live two by two in the world."

question

Stage Manager - Mr. Morgan

answer

"Why, I can remember when a dog could go to sleep all day in the middle of Main Street and nothing come along to disturb him."

question

Stage Manager

answer

"You've got to love life to have life, and you've got to have life to love life."

question

George Gibbs

answer

"I think that once you've found a person that you're fond of...a person who's fond of you, too, and likes you enough to be interested in your character..., that's just as important as college is, and even more so."

question

Stage Manager

answer

"The real hero of this scene isn't on the stage at all, and you know who that is."

question

Mr. Webb

answer

"Since the caveman, no bridegroom should see his father-in-law on the day of the wedding, or near it."

question

George Gibbs

answer

"Now, Ma, you save Thursday nights, Emily and I are coming over to dinner every Thursday night."

question

Emily Webb

answer

"Don't you remember that you used to say all the time that I was your little girl?"

question

Mrs. Webb

answer

"Just open your eyes, dear, that's all...If it were a snake it would bite you."

question

Stage Manager

answer

"You know as well as I do that the dead don't stay interested in us living people for very long."

question

Stage Manager

answer

"Naturally, out in the country- all around - there've been lights on for some time, what with milkin's and so on. But town people sleep late."

question

Rebecca Gibbs

answer

"Every day I go to school dressed like a sick turkey."

question

Professor Willard

answer

"Grover's Corners lies on the old Pleistocene granite of the Appalachain range"

question

Mrs. Soames

answer

"To have the organist of a church drink and drunk year after year. You know he was drunk tonight"

question

Sam Craig

answer

"There aren't many of those Hersey sisters left now."

question

Stage Master

answer

The narrator, who also plays the roles of master of ceremonies, Mrs. Forrest, Mr. Morgan, and a minister. He guides Emily in her return to the living world.

question

Dr. Frank Gibbs

answer

The town's doctor, who is returning from delivering the Goruslawski twins during the first act. He is the father of George and Rebecca Gibbs.

question

Mrs. Julia Hersey Gibbs

answer

Dr. Gibbs' wife, who represents a typical housewife in the first two acts; in the final act, she is seen as a spirit.

question

George Gibbs

answer

Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs' sixteen-year-old son, who discovers his love for Emily, marries her in the second act, and grieves for her loss in the third act.

question

Rebecca Gibbs

answer

Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs' daughter, who is four years younger than George. She realizes that Grover's Corners is part of New Hampshire, part of America, part of the world, the universe. This expanding image is central to Wilder's theme.

question

Mr. Charles Webb

answer

The editor and publisher of the Sentinel, the town's newspaper, and one of its most important citizens. He lives across from the Gibbs family.

question

Mrs. Myrtle Webb

answer

Charles Webb's wife, who reveals her character through her conversation with Mrs. Gibbs; she represents the typical mother and housewife.

question

Emily Webb Gibbs

answer

The Webbs' intelligent daughter, who grows up during the play, joins the two major families when she marries George Gibbs, and dies later during childbirth.

question

Wallace "Wally" Webb

answer

Emily's younger brother and one of the spirits in the last act. In Act III, we discover that he died suddenly from a ruptured appendix while on a Boy Scout trip.

question

Simon Stimson

answer

The organist of the Congregational Church who is the subject of town gossip because of his alcoholism. As a suicide who hangs himself in the attic, Simon's memories of the past are negative.

question

Mrs. Louella Soames

answer

A local busybody who clucks over Simon's alcoholism and idealizes George and Emily's marriage. She is a spirit in the last act.

question

Howie Newsome

answer

The milkman who guides a seventeen-year-old horse named Bessie. He appears during Emily's return to the past in the last act.

question

Joe Crowell, Jr.

answer

The paper boy in the first act and also during the flashback, when Emily returns to life. A scholar at Massachusetts Tech, he is killed in France during World War I before he can use his education.

question

Si Crowell

answer

Joe's younger brother, who takes Joe's job as paper boy in Act II to indicate the passage of time.

question

Samuel "Sam" Craig

answer

The son of Julia Gibbs' sister Carey, he comes back from Buffalo after twelve years' absence. He provides exposition in the last act.

question

Joe Stoddard

answer

The town undertaker, who provides background information in the third act.

question

Constable Bill Warren

answer

The town law enforcement officer, whose duties require him to be sure that doors are locked and that drain pipes are adequate. On February 7, 1899, he saves a man from freezing to death.

question

Professor Willard

answer

A faculty member of State University who recites facts about Grover's Corners.

question

Stage Manager

answer

Nobody very remarkable ever come out of it, s'far as we know

question

Mrs. Gibbs

answer

Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to

question

Mr. Webb

answer

And let that be a lesson to you, George, never to ask advice on personal matters

question

Mrs. Soames

answer

I'd forgotten all about that. My, wasn't life awful - With a sigh. and wonderful

question

Emily Webb

answer

From morning till night, that's all they are - troubled

question

Simon

answer

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...Now you know - that's the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindness

question

Emily Webb

answer

But, Mother Gibbs, how can I ever forget that life? It's all I know. It's all I had.

question

Stage Manager

answer

So—people a thousand years from now—this is the way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the twentieth century.—This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying.

question

Stage manager

answer

We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being.

question

Emily Webb

answer

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

question

Stage Manager

answer

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 up 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.

question

Emily Gibbs

answer

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

question

Stage Manager

answer

Mrs. Gibbs died first - long time ago, in fact. She went out to visit her daughter, Rebecca, who married an insurance man in Canton, Ohio, and died there - pneumonia - but her body was brought back here. She's up in the cemetery there now - in with a whole mess of Gibbses and Herseys - she was Julia Hersey 'fore she married Doc Gibbs in the Congregational Chuch over there

question

Stage manager

answer

Want to tell you something about that boy Joe Crowell there. Joe was awful bright - graduated from high school here, head of his class. So he got a scholarship to Massachusetts Tech. Graduated head of his class there, too. It was all wrote up in the Boston paper at the time. Goin' to be a great engineer, Joe was. But the war broke out and he died in France. - All that education for nothing.

question

Emily Webb

answer

I never felt so alone in my whole life. And George over there, looking so...! I hate him. I wish I were dead. Papa! Papa!

question

Joe Crowell

answer

Well, of course, it's none of my business - but I think if a person starts out to be a teacher, she ought to stay one.

question

Dr. Gibbs

answer

I was the scaredest young fella in the State of New Hampshire. I thought I'd make a mistake for sure. And when I saw you comin' down that aisle I thought you were the prettiest girl I'd ever seen, but the only trouble was that I'd never seen you before. There I was in the Congregation Church marryin' a total stranger.

question

Mrs. Gibbs

answer

And how do you think I felt! - Frank, weddings are perfectly awful things. Farces, that's what they are!

question

George

answer

Good morning, everybody. Only five more hours to live.

question

George

answer

I wish a fellow could get married without all that marching up and down.

question

Mrs. Gibbs

answer

Well, if I could get the Doctor to take the money and go away someplace on a real trip, I'd sell it like that.—Y'know, Myrtle, it's been the dream of my life to see Paris, France.

question

Mrs. Gibbs

answer

Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to.

question

Mr. Webb

answer

Very ordinary town, if you ask me. Little better behaved than most. Probably a lot duller. But our young people here seem to like it well enough. Ninety per cent of 'em graduating from high school settle down right here to live—even when they've been away to college.

question

Mr. Gibbs

answer

I guess I know more about Simon Stimson's affairs than anybody in this town. Some people ain't made for small-town life.

question

Mr. Gibbs

answer

They're all getting citified, that's the trouble with them.

question

Mr. Webb

answer

Don't you misunderstand me, my boy. Marriage is a wonderful thing,—wonderful thing. And don't you forget that, George.

question

Mr. Webb

answer

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. [...] So I took the opposite of my father's advice and I've been happy ever since.

question

Emily

answer

It certainly seems like being away three years you'd get out of touch with things. Maybe letters from Grover's Corners wouldn't be so interesting after a while. Grover's Corners isn't a very important place when you think of all—New Hampshire; but I think it's a very nice town.

question

George

answer

The day wouldn't come when I wouldn't want to know everything that's happening here. I know that's true, Emily.

question

George

answer

And, like you say, being gone all that time... in other places and meeting other people... Gosh, if anything like that can happen I don't want to go away. I guess new people aren't any better than old ones. I'll bet they almost never are. Emily... I feel that you're as good a friend as I've got. I don't need to go and meet the people in other towns.

question

Mrs. Webb

answer

Oh, I've got to say it: you know, there's something downright cruel about sending our girls out into marriage this way.

question

George Gibbs

answer

Ma, I don't want to grow old. Why's everybody pushing me so?

question

Mrs. Gibbs

answer

No!—At least, choose an unimportant day. Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough.

question

Emily Webb

answer

I can't bear it. They're so young and beautiful. Why did they ever have to get old? Mama, I'm here. I'm grown up. I love you all, everything.—I can't look at everything hard enough.

question

Mrs. Gibbs

answer

Look at that moon. Potato weather for sure.

question

Stage Manager

answer

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

question

stage manager

answer

"And as you watch it, you see the thing that they-down there- never know. You see the future. You know whats going to happen afterwards.

question

simon stimson

answer

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. 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.

question

Speaker: Stage ManagerRealism, sadness for Joe Crowell when he dies in WW1

answer

"All that education for nothing"

question

Speaker: Stage manager, Theme

answer

"The people ware waiting for the eternal part of them to come out and it is eternal and important: better than what they experienced when they were alive"

question

Speaker: Stage manager,Theme

answer

" When people first die, they still feel attached to the earth, after awhile they get weened away and aren't interested anymore"

question

Speaker: Emily. She is sad and wishes she wasn't attached to the earth like she is now

answer

"I don't like being new here"

question

Speaker: Emily. They don't understand how ungrateful they are, how selfish, how they are overlooking the small things which are the most important*Instead of grieving for the dead, they believe, the living should be enjoying the time they still have on Earth.*

answer

"Live people don't understand"

question

Speaker: Emily Only paying attention to what is inside their "box"

answer

"They're sort of shut up in little boxes, aren't they?"

question

Speaker: Emily Says this when she sees Dr.Gibbs grieving and laying flowers down by the graves

answer

" I never realized before how troubled and in the dark live persons are"

question

Speaker: Emily She wants to remember every detail that she overlook and wasn't grateful for when she was alive

answer

"I can't look at everything hard enough"

question

Speaker: Emily

answer

"Mama, just look at me one minute as though you really saw me"

question

Speaker: Emily wishes her family could pause and just enjoy the moment and really enjoy each other's company

answer

"We're all together, just for a movement we're happy. Let's look at one another"

question

Speaker: Emily

answer

"It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another"

question

Speaker: Emily

answer

"Oh, Earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you"

question

Speaker: Emily

answer

" Do any human beings ever realize while they live it?

question

Speaker: Emily

answer

"that's all human beings are! Just blind people"

question

Human lives are fleeting and no one gets a second chance to appreciate the little things that were worth so much to us. -The little things in life are really the big things

answer

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

question

at dawn

answer

Act I (Daily Life) opens

question

New Hampshire

answer

Grover's Corners is in

question

events that will happen in the future

answer

The stage manager knows

question

No - most actions are pantomimed

answer

Are there many props?

question

next door to each other

answer

The Gibbses and the Webbs live

question

baseball

answer

George Gibbs's main interest in life is

question

does (the professor)

answer

The stage manager (does/does not) interact with the actors

question

in the cornerstone of the new bank

answer

The Stage Manager plans to place a copy of Our Town

question

No - Simon Stimson doesn't

answer

Everyone in Grover's Corners loves small town life

question

a day in the town

answer

The first act encompasses

question

New Hampshire

answer

The setting of the play is

question

one day

answer

The events of the first act take place in

question

prediction that the first automobile will be along in five years

answer

The first indication that the Stage Manager knows more than other people is

question

a woman has had twins during the night

answer

Dr. Gibbs comes home late and tired because

question

baseball

answer

George Gibbs's principal interest in Act I is

question

she wants to go to France

answer

Mrs. Gibbs is tempted to sell a highboy because

question

Professor Willard

answer

The history of the town is sketched by

question

Mr. Webb (editor)

answer

Politics and social affairs are sketched by

question

the real life of Grover's Corners will be revealed to the people of the future

answer

A copy of the play is going to be put in the cornerstone of the new bank so that

question

she is pretty

answer

Emily is concerned about whether

question

should not be living in a small town

answer

Dr. Gibbs thinks that the trouble with Simon Stimson is that he

question

shifting backward and forward in time

answer

The playwright develops his plot by

question

Love and Marriage

answer

Act Two The second act of the play is called

question

three years

answer

The time interval between the first and second acts is

question

the day George and Emily are to be married

answer

The second act opens on the morning of

question

thought he was marrying a stranger

answer

When Dr. Gibbs recalls his marriage to Julia Hersey, he says that he

question

having become conceited

answer

In a flashback describing the scene in which George and Emily know they are "meant for each other," Emily first accuses George mainly of

question

skip college and become a farmer all at once

answer

During this scene George decides mainly to

question

love

answer

One important word that is never mentioned in this scene is

question

in a drugstore

answer

This scene takes place

question

minister

answer

During the wedding, the Stage Manager acts as

question

people are meant to live two by two

answer

All of the people involved in this act seem to agree with the saying that

question

the Stage Manager

answer

The latter part of Act II indicates that the person least involved in the emotional aspects of the wedding is

question

George and Emily decide they will marry

answer

"So I guess this is an important talk we've been having"

question

Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs give their approval for George's wedding and in doing so comment on their own

answer

"It's wonderful how one forgets one's troubles like that. Yes, Frank, go upstairs and tell him. It's worth it."

question

The Stage Manager gives the sermon at the wedding

answer

"Every child born into the world is nature's attempt to make a perfect human being."

question

George balks just before the wedding is about to begin

answer

"I don't want to grow old. Why's everybody pushing me so."

question

The Stage Manager comments after the wedding ceremony

answer

"Once in a thousand times it's interesting."

question

The stage manager sets the scene - in all senses - for Act II

answer

"You've got to love life to have life, and you've got to have life to love life... It's what they call a vicious circle."

question

the seventeenth century

answer

Act III The cemetery in Act III contains the graves of people who died as long ago as

question

suicide, appendicitis, childbirth

answer

Causes of death

question

something is eternal

answer

The Stage Manager in his speech opening Act III states that - in spite of what people say - everyone believes that

question

get weaned away from earth

answer

In his words, the Stage Manager notes that the dead

question

Emily's cousin

answer

Sam Craig is

question

rainy

answer

The weather at the time of Emily's funeral is

question

bride and child

answer

Emily's costume in Act III reminds the audience of her as a

question

Mrs. Gibbs sold her highboy

answer

Emily's narration of improvements which she and George had made on their farm implies that

question

a 4 year old son

answer

George Gibbs is left with

question

Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Soames,

answer

Emily is counseled against going back into living by

question

her twelfth birthday

answer

The day Emily chooses to live over again is

question

bitter cold

answer

The weather on this day of return to life was

question

people never realize life while they are living it

answer

During her visit Emily realizes mainly that

question

Simon Stimson

answer

"Now you know them as they are, in ingnorance and bliss" is spoken by

question

Simon Stimson

answer

"Now you know them as they are, in ingnorance and bliss" is spoken by

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