Theme Of Companionship In Our Town

In the play Our Town, Thorton Wilder conveys a theme of the importance of companionship. Wilder conveys this theme using elements of the story in its progression. One element Wilder utilizes to develop the importance of companionship is the relationship between two of the characters of the play, Emily Webb and George Gibbs.
In Our Town, Wilder frequently develops the importance of companionship using the relationship of the characters Emily Webb and George Gibbs, particularly in the first and second acts of the play. One instance of this relationship's utilization is found when Emily is helping George with his math homework, and while she does George asks, "Emily, did you get the third problem?" To which she replies, "Why, yes, George-that's the easiest of them all," (35). Although this may appear as a normal case of one child helping another with their math homework, Wilder actually uses this conversation to develop the importance of companionship in making up our lack of ability to perform various tasks in day to day life with our companion's ability to do mentioned tasks. Specifically, George struggles to complete his math homework, but since Emily is skilled in mathematics, she is …show more content…
After telling George that the cause of her odd behavior towards him is his recent prioritization of baseball over his family and friends, Emily states that, "I always expect a man to be perfect and I think he should be," (66). Emily's opinion of George is designed by Wilder to convey that companionship is important in regard to improving as a person since other people in life will motivate you to do so, which is even further emphasized by George when he says, "I'm going to change so quick-you bet I'm going to change," (69) out of his desire to improve as a person due to encouragement from