Macroscopic Perspective In 'Love And Marriage'

At the start of Act II, “Love and Marriage”, Wilder yet again skips ahead in time and explains changes to the audience, offering us not only a microscopic perspective, but also a macroscopic perspective. The Stage Manager’s monologue begins with him saying, “Three years have gone by. Yes, the sun’s come up over a thousand times”(46). With the intent of emphasizing the amount of time that has passed, Wilder uses the Stage Manager to then change perspectives by converting years into days. He does this because he is conveying when changing the way you view time, your perspective often changes accordingly. In the following sentences, the Stage Manager points out the changes that have occurred in both nature and humans, “Summers and winters have …show more content…
Webb stresses the importance of weddings in Grover’s Corners and how the people view these seemingly big events in a macroscopic perspective. When George asks his mother to visit Emily, she responds, “George, you know’s well as I do: the groom can't see his bride on his wedding day, not until he sees her in church”(57). This response represents how important following specific orders and routines is to the people of Grover’s Corners in order to receive good luck on the big day. The people confine themselves to their own perspectives and routines in fear they won’t reach their destination. However, a part of reaching the destination is the journey which they are entirely missing. Wilder included this to portray how caught up we can get in the little insignificant aspects of life when in reality, everything does not matter much in the …show more content…
This overwhelming idea scares them and is what causes them to start to have cold feet. Mrs. Gibbs notices George’s agitated appearance and questions “What’s the matter”(77)? George’s replies, “Ma I don’t want to grow old. Why’s everybody pushing me so”(77)? Here, Wilder intends for the audience to understand how humans constantly worry about the future and are scared of changes that have an enormous impact on their future. By using George to portray this idea, Wilder is able to not only convey his message, but also use him as an example everyone in the audience can relate themselves to. Similarly, as Mrs. Webb is reminiscing about how she has cared for Emily all her life, she mentions how “there’s something downright cruel about sending [...] girls out into marriage this way”(76). This part in particular, Wilder emphasizes how many emotions there are over this one event. Consequently, this symbolizes the brevity of such seemingly important events which, as time passes, will become an insignificant blur. Soon after George’s hesitation, Emily begins to say, “I never felt so alone in my whole life”(79). The meaning behind this statement is that this change is so foreign to Emily, that she is overwhelmed over how to comprehend everything occurring at once. Wilder’s message behind