Characters
- Stage Manager – a narrator, commentator, and guide through Grover's Corners. He joins in the action of the play periodically, as the reverend at the wedding, the soda shop owner, a local townswoman, etc., and speaks directly to Emily after her death.
- Emily Webb – arguably the main character; we follow her from a precocious young girl through her wedding to George Gibbs and her early death.
- George Gibbs – arguably the main character; the boy next door, a kind but irresponsible teenager who matures over time and becomes a responsible husband, father and farmer.
- Frank Gibbs – George's father, the town doctor
- Julia (Hersey) Gibbs – George's mother. She dreams of going to Paris, but doesn't get there. Dies later while visiting her daughter in Ohio. She saved $350 for the trip from the sale of an antique furniture piece, but ultimately willed it to George and Emily.
- Charles Webb – Emily's father, editor of the Grover's Corners Sentinel
- Myrtle Webb – Emily's mother
Secondary characters
- Joe and Si Crowell – local paperboys. Joe's intelligence earns him a full scholarship to MIT where he graduates at the top of his class. His promise will be cut short on the fields of France during World War I, according to the Stage Manager. Both he and his brother Si hold marriage in high disdain.
- Simon Stimson – the choir director and church organist. We never learn the root cause of his alcoholism and later suicide. He is still bitter and cynical beyond the grave.
- Howie Newsome – the milkman, a fixture of Grover's Corners.
- Rebecca Gibbs – George's younger sister. Later elopes with a traveling salesman and settles in Ohio.
- Wally Webb – Emily's younger brother. Dies of a burst appendix on a Boy Scout camping trip.
- Professor Willard – a rather long-winded lecturer
- Woman in Auditorium – concerned with temperance
- Man in Auditorium – concerned with social justice
- Another Woman in Auditorium – concerned with culture and beauty
- Mrs. Louella Soames – a gossipy townswoman and member of the choir
- Constable Bill Warren – the policeman
- Three Baseball Players – who mock George at the wedding
- Joe Stoddard – the undertaker
- Sam Craig – a nephew of Mrs Gibbs who left town to seek his fortune.
- Dead Man
- Dead Woman
- Mr. Carter
- Farmer McCarty
- Bessie – Howie Newsome's horse (visible to the characters, but not the audience)
Read more about this topic: Our Town
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that’s basically a conservative view of life.”
—Jane Smiley (b. 1949)
“We are like travellers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs. Whilst we see that it always stands ready to clothe what we would say, we cannot avoid the question whether the characters are not significant of themselves.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.”
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936)