Brigadoon is utopian as it falls in line with three utopian principles. The first principle, as Claeys from the Cambridge Reader explains, says, “the Utopian Narrative is defined as the detailed and systematic description of a society better than, and in opposition to, the writer’s own” (155). Brigadoon’s first production happened in 1947. Looking at current national and world events in the 1940s proves that Brigadoon truly depicted a society different and in opposition to that of the current day. At the beginning of the 1940s World War II, after a horrifying and deadly period, came to an end. Author William Graebner describes in his book “The Age of Doubt: American Thought and Culture in the 1940s” the horrors of the past and the discoveries
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Along with the wars and worldly fears, “the Great Depression that threatened to return any day... held Americans in a decade-long state of anxiety” (Graebner). Amid the chaos and fears swirling in the hearts, minds, and lives of people both globally and nationally, a place of safety, untouched by the outside world would have been stark contrast to the time. In Brigadoon, the village leader references this wanting when he tells tommy about the voices he sometimes hears during the night. He tells Tommy, “Ay, they say no words I can remember, But they’re voices filled with fearful longin’… I have a feelin’ I’m hearin’the outside world. There mus’be lots of folks out there who’d like a Brigadoon…” (Lerner 105). It is certainly easy to see how people in the 1940s may have dreamed for a safer place, not having to worry about outside influences like wars, bankruptcies, and corrupt governments. In his book, author Dolan mentions how “Perhaps the seeds of Utopia” are found only in times of catastrophe and world falls (Dolan
Along with the wars and worldly fears, “the Great Depression that threatened to return any day... held Americans in a decade-long state of anxiety” (Graebner). Amid the chaos and fears swirling in the hearts, minds, and lives of people both globally and nationally, a place of safety, untouched by the outside world would have been stark contrast to the time. In Brigadoon, the village leader references this wanting when he tells tommy about the voices he sometimes hears during the night. He tells Tommy, “Ay, they say no words I can remember, But they’re voices filled with fearful longin’… I have a feelin’ I’m hearin’the outside world. There mus’be lots of folks out there who’d like a Brigadoon…” (Lerner 105). It is certainly easy to see how people in the 1940s may have dreamed for a safer place, not having to worry about outside influences like wars, bankruptcies, and corrupt governments. In his book, author Dolan mentions how “Perhaps the seeds of Utopia” are found only in times of catastrophe and world falls (Dolan