NAME:____________________________Our Town Act 3 Study Questions

1. How much time has passed since act 2?

2. Who is Sam Craig? Why has he come back to Grover’s Corners?

3. How did Simon Stimson die? Why do you think he chose to use notes of music instead of words, as his epitaph?

4. According to Emily, how did she and George afford the new barn and drinking fountain on their farm? How did Mrs. Gibbs originally intend to use that money?

5. Which day of her life does Emily decide to relive? Why does Mrs. Gibbs advise Emily to choose an unimportant day?

6. What do you think is the source of Emily’s disappointment as she relives her past?

7. In Emily’s final farewell to the world, what do you notice about what she says good-by to? Why do you think she says good-by to these things?

8. The Stage Manager states that some of the saints and poets may realize life while live it. What does he mean by that?

9. At the end of the play, Simon Stimson describes being alive as “to move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those… of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another. Now you know—that’s the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindness” (109). What is Simon Stimson saying about living people? What are your thoughts about what he says?

Act III Assignment: Goodbye Letter to the World

“Oh, Mama, look at me one minute as though you really saw me. Mama, fourteen years have gone by. I'm dead. You're a grandmother, Mama! Wally's dead, too. His appendix burst on a camping trip to North Conway. We felt just terrible about it - don't you remember? But, just for a moment now we're all together. Mama, just for a moment we're happy. Let's really look at one another!...I can't. I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back -- up the hill -- to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-bye, Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover's Corners....Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking....and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths....and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you.” –Emily’s Goodbye monologue

Directions: Before Emily goes back to the hill, to her grave, she stops to say one last goodbye to the world. Imagine you had one final opportunity to say farewell and express what you would miss most in this world. What would it be? Following the pattern of Emily’s goodbye monologue, begin your response “Goodbye, goodbye, world…” and finish with “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you.” As you fill in everything between with what you would miss, keep in mind that Emily bids farewell to the simple pleasures in her life and consider why she does so. You may brainstorm in the space beneath and/or write a draft, but the final product of this should be typed in letter form.