Class assignment
Keep in mind this dictionary definition.
sentimental
adjective
dealing with feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia in an exaggerated and self-indulgent way : a sentimental ballad.
A and B are having a friendly argument.
A: Of course Our Town is sentimental. It says life is wonderful. We just don’t realize it. What nonsense.
B: Our Town is not sentimental. It says most of us can’t see what’s special about life. That’s pretty tough-minded.
A: No, it’s sentimental. Do you think if we could slow down time, like Emily wants to do, that life would be wonderful? It would be a prolonged crisis. Or at least most of it would be accompanied by a low-level hum of anxiety.
B: But Our Town also says that life doesn’t count for much in the vastness of time and space. That’s not sentimental.
A: But telling us that life is fragile and precious because it’s lost in the vastness of time and space is very sentimental.
B: No, because it’s true.
A: I guess we have to agree to disagree.
B: Why don’t we ask the students whether they think Our Town is sentimental?
A: Right here in this blog.
B: And ask them to respond to each other’s comments in a well-mannered running argument.
A: And remind them to sign their comments.
B: And every so often to plunge back in to respond to their responders.
A: And to consider the production as well as the script.
B: Consider them asked.
November 11th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I think this production was sentimental. The main message I received from it was that people are not taking advantage of what their short lives have to offer. Coinciding with the definition of sentimental provided to us, the scene where Emily revisits her past and is consumed by feelings of frustration and melancholy supports the ideas of ‘nostalgia’ and ‘self-indulgence’.
Melody Levian
November 11th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I thought “Our Town” was sentimental in many aspects of the first and second acts. I felt a great deal of emotion through the characters, especially the mothers. Of course, in our lives, such events do not seem sentimental at all but I believe in that time frame and setting, the play was sentimental and telling of emotion. You could see the care in the parent’s characters and the sadness of the mother’s when their children were about to go off and get married. They all possessed a longing for saving the moment.
However, I believe the last act of the scene was just the opposite. I thought it was cynical in it’s delivery of it’s message. The fact that nobody in the world understands how to appreciate life is simply untrue. Yes, of course there are many people who take things for granted and do not know what they have until they lose it, but not everybody. Not everybody goes through each day blindly and not recognizing the significance of life. Also, the fact that Mrs. Gibbs showed absolutely no emotion while viewing her husband and son in utter agony demonstrated the lack of sentiment in that act. What would of been sentimental in the first and second act held no sentiment in the third.
November 11th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Two things stuck out in my mind from “Our Town” after having read the question, and in my opinion, make the play both sentimental and tough-minded, but why can’t it be?
1) At the beginning, the stage manager/narrator explains that the town is leaving a time capsule in the cornerstone of the new bank building. He mentions that all we know of the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, are the major historical events and just minor glimpses of life from plays and poems that somehow survived. Besides the major historical evidence they’d be adding to the time capsule (a copy of the New York Times, Shakespeare’s works, and the bible) the narrator mentions that a copy of the local paper is going in and says he’ll be putting in a copy of the play. This concern with how they lived in Grover’s Corners and the references of how it used to be better in the narrators speeches throughout the play seem very sentimental, at least according to the nostalgia part of that definition.
2) The final scene were both Emily and the narrator practically berate the living for not taking the time to appreciate life, for not stopping to really look at one another. It really dismisses the idea of sentimentality and takes a very critical approach, which is almost crushing after the first two acts worked to establish a sense of sentimentality. As Alyssa mentioned, Mrs. Gibbs’ complete indifference to both her husband’s and her son’s shows just how far it seems to be pushing anti-sentimentality. However, the dead characters really aren’t held as an example, and without any sentimental attitudes, they’re reduced to a purgatory of chitchat on the weather, blank expressions, and cold discussions of the newer members.
So yes, it seems like the two ideas are at odds, but are they? I think Wildes used the last scene to show that sentimentality is important during life, that you should stop and enjoy today more that rushing through to tomorrow. What really pained Emily after she died was not hat she could experience those moments again, but that she passed them up the first time, as did the rest of her family.
~Jesse
November 11th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Yes, I do believe that the play “Our Town” is sentimental. The main point of this play was to convey the idea that time does not stop for any person. Instead of being depressed or thinking about the dead, this play suggests that you should celebrate life to the fullest. Mrs. Gibbs tells Mrs. Webb that she always wanted to go to Paris but she never pushed the idea because she always thought that she would get the chance to go with the family. Later Mrs. Gibbs could not go to Paris because she dies.
Mrs. Gibbs also shows pity towards her husband, for he is alive but cries at her tombstone constantly, not enjoying life. She wonders why he doesn’t understand that life and death are separate and he should be enjoying the time he has alive. Even when Emily dies she is “nostalgic” and wants to go back to her previous life to enjoy spending time with her family. This play is sentimental because it makes you think of how “precious” life is.
November 11th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
I think the play was sentimental. It was designed to wake us up and make us realize that we have to stop every once in a while to appreciate and enjoy our lives. Through Emily’s death, we see how delicate our lives are. She was a young mother who died unexpectedly from childbirth. It sounds cliche, but we don’t know what is going to happen to us or when, so we need to live our lives to the fullest. Things happen so fast that we sometimes don’t even notice them. We get so caught up, that we fail to enjoy things while they happen. And then those moments are gone and all we have left are memories.
I think the play does an excellent job of portraying that life is delicate and short and that we need to enjoy every day. Because the play sends us this message, I think it is sentimental.
Agnes Michalik
November 11th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I will be the one odd out, be special, and say that “Our Town” was not sentimental. What particular feelings did this play appeal to? I personally was indifferent to both acts of the play. I did not experience any joy when George Gibbs and Emily Webb married and I did not feel any sadness when Emily Webb died. The play seemed to be a recollection of just ordinary lives in a simple town.
Throughout the first act, I did not know how to react to the situation. The stage manager seemed to just narrate an ordinary and common event. There was no particular conflict in the first act that evoked any type of sympathy for the characters. In the second act, we see more of the same thing; however, this time, there is a lesson to be learned at the end of the play when Emily revisits her past after being nostalgic. I think Thornton Wilder did this to force us to realize that we, as human beings, naturally don’t appreciate life until our death. The audience is put in the position of Emily essentially throughout the whole play. We do not see anything special in the first act or most of the second act until the end of the play. Emily, similarly, did not find anything special that she could appreciate until she died. Would this be called sentimental? No, it wouldn’t because at the end when Emily revisits her past, we still don’t have any particular emotion for the characters. We are, instead, forced to contemplate about our own lives and are taught to appreciate ourselves more.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I think “Our Town” was definitely sentimental in every aspect of the word, even in the third act. Emily was extremely sad and torn at first about not being able to be reunited with the living and she displayed her feelings of nostalgia throughout that scene (which Melody also mentioned). Although much of the play was just regular people doing ordinary things (as Justin mentioned), this helped show how these simple daily events were taken for granted while the characters were living. Although they seemed like unimportant tasks at one time, Emily’s longing to re-live each moment in slow motion most definitely was sentimental.
-Sonam Sani
November 12th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I actually agree with Justin, in that I believe that “Our Town” was not sentimental at all. My reasons are different though. I believe that in the moments portrayed in the life of the local folk especially the progressing relationship between George and Emily, people were “trying” to be sentimental. In my opinion, it was like they had a mask on. They seem to try too hard to be sentimental when the feelings weren’t even there. Emily’s revelation at the end shows how the folk including herself didn’t really cherish the small moments as well as the important ones. That the mask of sentimentality, and the need to rush things mechanically, for example the wedding, obscured their thoughts and memories. Thus, this led to an unnecessary need to block out these images, and go on with their lives. Chances are given to them, as these little moments pass by, until it is too late to realize, and they can no longer go back to these moments, and relive them.
I believe in the last act, as the masks have fallen with the dead, they realize their mistakes, and must now live without the chance to go back. They have become their true selves, without sentiment, feelings, or motion. The ending is made so that we the audience realize that we are not taking the time to cherish what we have, what we go through, or where we are. He wanted us to realize that we need to do this, because in the end, we don’t know where our future lies ahead, and it may not be what we expect.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I definitely think that the play was sentimental. Justin said that it was just a recollection of ordinary lives, but that is sentimental. By looking at this town’s simple actions, from choir practice to a date at the soda shop to the wedding to the funeral, etc. we get a really good look at the characters’ “feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia,” and hose feelings our conveyed to us. When George and Mr. Gibbs cry over their respective wives’ graves, we feel their sadness. When Emily and George get married, and the lady keeps saying about how beautiful the wedding was, we feel the excitement. When the narrator said something about remembering your first love, and the beginning of a romance, or something along those lines in the second act before we revisited George and Emily’s past, the old woman sitting next to me chuckled because she did. Also, the ordinary lives and actions we saw in the play could be ours. Grover’s Corners was an example of one town, albeit a fictional one but still, it was probably based on a real town from the early twentieth century. So to take a peek at what life was like back then, because I’m sure that it greatly resembled what we saw in the play, I felt that invoked sentimental feelings in the audience.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Without a doubt I believe that this production was sentimental. I felt it was extremely self-indulgent, especially the final act when Emily was yelling at her mother to look at her. The entire production played the emotional card a bit far, even the romantic-comedy lover that I am had problems with the amount of sentimentality portrayed.
The amount of emphasis placed on everyday actions followed in this mode. From the sodas at the drug store to the relationship between Emily and her father, by imbuing those simple acts with more gravity than they had, the production was overly sentimental.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Indeed sentimentality and melodrama may seem to constitute the larger and better part of the play “Our Town.” However, I do agree with Jesse in his assessment that, to a certain extent, Our Town is both romantic and “tough-minded.” The absence of props defies realism and yet prevents the play from truly adopting a nostalgic tone. The audience does not develop an attachment to the objects in the play. One might even say that the only elements of significance are the characters and the setting (time and place). Even so, there is a certain dualism to the play. The play revolves around the characters and yet their lives too are eventually rendered inconsequential in the great course of time.
Personally, while I did ooh and aah with Kim at all the right moments during the play, I found myself slightly disconcerted at the interrupted passage of time. I did not feel that there was character development. When asked to return to a moment in her life, Emily chooses to revisit the day of her twelfth birthday. Emily remained a young girl in the eyes of the audience. She never adopts her other persona that of wife and mother. I wonder if her conclusions then are equally as undeveloped. To me the concept of carpe diem is too clichéd. Savoring each and every moment may only prolong human suffering and perhaps it is better to live life in succession as days turn into months, months into years until finally the ultimate hour of judgment arrives…
And this constant struggle ceases.
- Anita Sonawane
[No, I’m not depressed.]
November 12th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
tenderness: The relationships between the children and their parents showed a good degree of care and compassion for one another. When George’s father scolded him for not appreciating what his mother does for him, he began to cry out of guilt and shame. Along the same lines, on the wedding day Emily pleaded to her father that she thought she was his girl and that she didn’t want to get married anymore.
sadnesss: George and Mr. Gibbs mourning at the feet of their wives’ graves, Emily’s parents mourning Emily’s death
nostalgia: Emily sobbing at the scene of her 12th birthday as she realizes her life has sped right past her and that she never even had a chance to really get a good look at her parents and at her world.
exaggerated: Many times, as Kim mentioned, the play was ‘overly sentimental.’ Examples include the way Emily goggled over the moonlight amd the girl at the backseat of the wedding who just couldn’t control her emotions of the marriage.
self-indulgent: Emily gets into a discussion with her mother about whether she is pretty or not and George becomes conceited after becoming President of his Class.
Therefore, Our Town captures every aspect of ’sentimental’ in some form.
It is troublesome to say it was not sentimental even if it happened to capture the essence of a very simple town.
Maha Akhtar
November 12th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
I too believe that the play, “Our Town”, was sentimental. Many scenes appealed to my emotions- I actually teared during the scene with the ghost of Emily pleading and finally saying goodbye to her parents on her 12th birthday (maybe im TOO sentimental i dunno..)
Even though some scenes didn’t really do anything for me (like the talkative lady at the wedding or as Maha says the exaggerated “goggling over the moonlight”), the play did try to appeal to our emotions. There were various examples of tender love and many relationships, varying from mother/father and daughter/son to husband/wife. Through the play’s portrayal of normal, boring life, it succeeds in giving the sentimental relations of real life.
The ending remarks of the stage manager at the end of the play was a bit cynical- a remark on how people who live life don’t really appreciate it. However, I think it still didn’t ruin the overall sentimentality of the play. Mrs. Soames says, “…wasn’t life awful–and wonderful.” In the end the play seems to say, even through all the tragedies of life, it is still worth living. If that’s not sentimental, I don’t know what is.
November 12th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
I would have to say the Our Town seemed very sentimental including the end of the play where the script became a little cynical as the
dead people warned Emily not to go back to her past, but rather try to forget all she ever had.
There were many sentimental scenes throughout the play, especially between Emily and George. The one that stands out in my mind is the scene where George pours his heart out to Emily and tells her that getting married, to him is more important than going to school. Another scene is just as Emily walks down the aisle she begins to cry to her father as she is overwhelmed with sadness, but her father immediately calms her.
The woman at the wedding who yells out saying that uniting two young people is such a beautiful thing does so in an exaggerated way, which fits the definition of sentimentality very nicely. Towards the end of the play, many people said that the play began to be a little cynical; however, I see the ending in another way. I think the scene with Emily trying to go back to he 12th birthday was included to tie up the sentimentality of the play as a whole. The message there was that humans should not be blind to their lives, but rather they should take advantage of everyday they have. They should not waste their lives or be ignorant.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Filza said: “In the end the play seems to say, even through all the tragedies of life, it is still worth living. If that’s not sentimental, I don’t know what is.”
I agree. Act one and act two highlighted very specific moments in the characters’ lives. The narrator even cut scenes short because he wanted to skip to “the good stuff.” Act three makes us sad that we did not stop and enjoy life more while it was happening. We as an audience were so eager for George and Emily to fall in love, to get married, and to start a family. And the play allowed us to see the major moments: their friendship as children, their first soda date, and their wedding.
But by the end we realized that is not what makes up life; it is the ordinary days that give it substance.
They play urges us not to rush life, but to appreciate it more as we live it.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
The play “Our Town” is sealed with sentimentality. I agree with Maha’s breakdown of the word sentimental and her descriptions of each. The fatherly tenderness seen in Mr. Webb as he comforts Emily at her wedding, the sad mourning at the funeral, the nostalgia created as Emily longs for the past to return at her death and as she wants to become a child again at her wedding, the exaggerated emotions of Mrs. Soames at the wedding, and the self-indulgence seen as Mrs. Gibbs talks about going to France with her $350 dollars are all arguments to show that the play is definitely sentimental.
Our Town Is also sentimental because another part of the word sentimental is an appeal to emotion and not reason. We all think how wonderful it would be to appreciate every moment of our lives, but this isn’t reasonable and just not possible. A person cannot literally stop and appreciate every little thing or life would be too burdensome or as Anita says, it would “prolong human suffering.” Our Town just hypes our emotions and not our logic.
I have to disagree with Anita’s claim that “absence of props defies realism and yet prevents the play from truly adopting a nostalgic tone.” The absence of props had their benefits. Instead of watching props put in front of me, I imagined my own and this helped me connect to the characters and play more. When George was drinking his soda, I imagined him to be taking sips of Sunkist, my favorite soda, which for some reason, made me connect with him when he was showing his feelings to Emily. Justin says that Our Town is just a recollection of ordinary lives but this is exactly where the sentimental part comes in. This recollection is what gives the play its nostalgia.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:02 am
I only found the ending as sentimental. In the last act we definitely see the feelings of sadness and nostalgia. Sadness was seen through everyone at the funeral and then later on when Mr. Gibbs and George go to the graves of their respective wives. When, Emily tries to relive the past (her 12th birthday) touches upon the feelings of nostalgia. The over all message, that we should cherish our life because we don’t know what tomorrow will be like is very sentimental. It might not be what we expect. However the first and second part of the play was not sentimental for me because of exaggerated emotion. This overstatement gave the first two acts a sense of falseness for me taking away its feeling of sentimentality.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:31 am
I have to disagree with Sara: I found the entire play to be sentimental. It was as if we were looking through a veil at the simple moments in life, moments that pass by hazy and unnoticed, but are significant nonetheless. Traits of tenderness were seen throughout the first and second acts, apparent in the relationships between parents and child, as well as husband and wife. As Maha mentioned, one example of this was on the wedding day, when the fear of change and of separation from her parents created doubt in Emily’s mind. Her love for her parents and desire to stay with them was superseded only by her parent’s love for her, and their desire to see her grow and live out her life.
The last act, though I understand why one could see it as cynical, was sentimental in the very definition of the word. The nostalgia Emily felt when she re-visited her past and her family emphasized the idea that life is taken for granted each day. She discovered how much a simple thing like a loving glance from a mother meant when she could not experience it anymore. The mourning of the townsfolk at the funeral, the longing Emily felt to return to her past, and the message to be aware of every minute as we live it all made “Our Town” a very sentimental play.
Angelie Thomas
November 13th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Personally, I found this play to be very sentimental. It touched on many of the simple and inevitable facets of life. First, everyday life, then love, and lastly death. In addition, the play had a clear and powerful meaning of appreciating everyday life and all of those around you. From Emily and George’s emotional confrontation, to their first date, to their wedding, and lastly to Emily’s funeral, I found the story to be very emotional.
However, I completely understand how one could find this play not to be sentimental. If we think all the way back to our definition of art, we spoke about how different people can become emotional from a piece of art, while other see absolutely nothing. I feel that this could be used to explain the sentimentality of this play. If you could relate to the drama and involve yourself deeply in the plot, you will feel sentimentality and place thought into the meaning of the play. If not, you would likely feel that the plot was very much over the top and inneffective in communicating its point.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
I have to agree with Angelie, it was really the whole play that had a sentimental theme, not just the last scene. I could constantly find myself relating to the characters, such as in the awkward scene when George and Emily go on their first date. Everything was presented as if looked back on, and the Stage Manager spoke of the Grover’s Corners of the past, remembering later events as part of his narration (i.e. the first car came about five years later).
Really, unlike what Sara said, the last scene is the only scene that does not follow that sentimental chord. It seems as if the dead, Emily, and the Stage manager all rip into sentimentality and make it seem stupid and a poor alternative to living in the moment.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I must disagree with Jesse on the last act. I personally thought that act was very emotion, and impacted me very strongly. Without the last act, I believe the play would have been a dull, over the top play in which characters, like I said before, try to be sentiment, and in the process, fail to do so. In my eye, they all seemed to hide their true feelings, by coming across as overly sentimental. Thus, I found the first two acts boring, unnecessary, and time-wised rushed. I loved the last act, in which the message was put across, and justified for the first acts, by portraying the message that we the audience need to reflect on our lives, cherish the little details, as well as the big one, and open our eyes to the world around us.
November 16th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I wasn’t saying that the last act wasn’t emotional, it certainly was, but it attacks the sentimentality that is established by the first two acts. Even at the point where it plays on the audiences heartstrings the most, when Mr. Gibbs or George go and cry at their respective wives graves, the two men are dismissed by their deceased spouses as ignorant of life.
This first to acts may have been a little rushed chronologically, but it did give a good sense of growing up with the characters. If they tried to slow it down, the play would have been insufferably long and kill any sentimental feelings with boredom.
I think though, that the message isn’t to reflect (a sentimental message) it’s that we should enjoy the moment we’re in. How often do we just go through the motions of life or fall into a pattern and miss the chance to truly enjoy it? Emily is distraught during her return to her 12th birthday because her mother doesn’t really look at her, she’s just going through the daily motions and not enjoying the day for what it is and for the people she’s with.
November 16th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I agree with Jesse. The last act is emotional but it does negate the sentiment of the other two acts. In the first two acts, the families are happy. Both sets of parents are happy watching their children grow up, they enjoy spending time with their family and they both want to give their children the best lives they possible can. The part of the last act that annoyed me the most was how Mrs. Gibbs showed no emotion for her husband. Ok, I get the message that the afterlife could be better than real life, but how can one spread the message that our tangible and real life serves no beneficial or inspiring purpose. The stage manager even says that “nobody realizes life while they live it.” Well, what does it take to realize how good your life is? I did not view any feelings of disrespect, anger or hostility taking place between any of the characters in the first half. Each family showed love for one another and truly cared for each other. They all recognized external beauty and enjoyed watching the sun rise, a full moon or simply watching their gardens grow. I do not understand what else it takes for one to truly live their life and I think the last act of “Our Town” was contradictive of itself.
November 16th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
As Jesse stated ” …the play would have been insufferably long and kill any sentimental feelings with boredom.” Thats what the first two acts did for me, killed any sentimental feelings with boredom. They do show what we go through everyday but the actors just put more emotion than needed to seem real. It felt fake, until the last act, in which Emily puts so much emotion into it. In that act a lot of emotion is needed whereas in the other acts that much emotion was not needed.
November 17th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Alyssa, I really liked what you said about the last act.
I must say that given the opportunity to watch “Our Town” again, I would rather not. I find it too quaint for my tastes. “Our Town” absolutely pales in comparison to “The Glass Menagerie” and “The Death of A Salesman.” The characters are not exceptionally memorable. And their personal ambitions are made incomplete. Wilder introduces the aspirations of a character and then chooses not to throughly explore the topic…
In an attempt to emphasize the surreal quality of time, Wilder compromises his characters and I find that unforgivable. I wish Wilder had taken a few pages from his friend Willa Cather… And her account of a declining small town in A Lost Lady. I love how character-driven her novel is and this is simply a quality that Wilder’s play lacked.
November 17th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Sorry Anita, I think the ambiguity of Wilder’s characters makes it easier to relate to some extent. For example, Miller’s characters in “The Death of A Salesman” are very clearly defined. However, I found it difficult to find myself in any of them.
As I was watching “Our Town,” I realized that I was able to relate to nearly all of the main characters in one way or another. They were malleable, incomplete, and unsure, just like a real person. This connection made the play much more related to me, and thus, sentimental.
November 17th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
To be honest, I was surprised when we first read and saw “Our Town”. I expected it to be boring but for me it truly was not boring. I loved the idea of invisible props and most of the actors handled that well. In the beginning of the play, I actually could visualize the vegetables that Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb were breaking with their hands. When Mrs. Webb was pretending to carry a cartoon full of milk to the table, I could imagine that as well. The milkman annoyed me because it seemed like at certain times he forgot that he was supposed to be handling a cow.
Just to remind you guys, I’m with the majority. I think that the play was sentimental. In fact I think that the whole play was sentimental, especially the last part. I know that Mrs. Gibbs seemed cold when she was observing her husband grieving near her tombstone but that coldness can be interpreted in many ways. I interpreted it differently than Alyssa and Jesse. I think that the dead and the living can still have a connection with one another despite the fact that they do not exist in the same state. Mrs. Gibbs will always love her husband but in death she has realized that people need to live life to the fullest. I interpreted this scene as Mrs. Gibbs severing the connection between her and her husband, so that he can move on with his life. This scene literally screams out sentimental to me. What is more touching than a person trying to do what is best for his or her loved one?
- Joanne Broome
November 18th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
As Joanne stated, “I loved the idea of invisible props and most of the actors handled that well. In the beginning of the play, I actually could visualize the vegetables that Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb were breaking with their hands. When Mrs. Webb was pretending to carry a cartoon full of milk to the table, I could imagine that as well. The milkman annoyed me because it seemed like at certain times he forgot that he was supposed to be handling a cow.” I completely agree with her and i believe Bessie was a horse not a cow. The actors did a tremendous jobs in their acting with the invisible props and made it seem very believable. However, i still stick with my point of view that the too much emotion put into the first two acts made it unbelievable for me, because even though i can relate with what is going on, but not with that much emotion put into it. That was a very big turn off for the first two acts being sentimental because i was able to relate with the overall action happening but not what the characters were going through because it was too emotional, than i would have imagined it to be. I also agree with what Joanne stated about the last scene in which Mrs. Gibbs was trying to do what was best for Mr. Gibbs and there is never a bigger gift than that.
November 19th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I agree with Jesse in that I was able to relate to almost every single character as well (despite the obvious fact that I don’t live in New Hampshire). Each character was just an ordinary person, with ordinary feelings. I didn’t find that any of the characters’ emotions were strange and out of the ordinary, because everything they said, did and felt is similar to what I was feeling at the time. If I were in fact Emily, once I died I would probably want to visit the living also. I would want to re-live the happiest moments of my life just as she did.
November 20th, 2007 at 1:24 am
I have to disagree with Erica that the first two acts were boring and unnecessary. I feel as though, just as Jesse stated, that the first two acts gave “a good sense of growing up with the characters.” Because of this growing up, I was able to relate to the characters because I had seen them turn into, for example, married adults from young children. If the first two acts were truly unnecessary, then the third act alone could uphold the entire play, but of course, the third act alone would not make sense.
Sara said “…the first and second part of the play was not sentimental for me because of exaggerated emotion.” But this is precisely what makes up sentimentality: exaggerated emotion. The definition itself says that sentimental is having those feelings of emotion in an exaggerated way. Therefore, I feel as if the entire play is sentimental. The emotion was exaggerated but it certainly did not lead to falsity for me. Something exaggerated is not false. It is just simply exaggerated.
–Anam Ahmed