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 this

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.