aawiki2

__Acting Module: //Our Town//__

George. (//Front//) And like you say, being gone all that time—in other places and meeting other people—Gosh, if anything like that can happen I don’t want to go away—I guess new people probably aren't any better than old ones. I’ll bet they almost never are. Emily—I feel that you’re as good as a friend as I've got. I don’t need to go and meet the people in other towns. Emily. (//To him, arguing nobly against her inclinations//) **But George, maybe it’s very important for you to go and learn all that, —about cattle-judging and soils and those things.** (//Adding feebly//) **Of** **course, I don’t know.**

__Inner Monologue of Emily:__ I would hate to be the only reason he doesn't go to college and then he begins to resent me. How would he feel years down the line when he’s an old man? He won’t have this same optimism. Oh gosh. We are right on the cusp of it all, aren't we? I just can’t imagine being the reason for someone’s life. I don’t want to be his burden, so I have to say this. I have to make it known that he can go away to college, that he can have new experiences. I have to just hope that he is thinking the same thing, and deep down doesn't really want to go. Even saying that it is important for him to leave is taking all I've got. I have no idea whether he should stay, I mean I want him to, and it would make me so happy, but I’d always have some nagging feeling about being a thorn in his side if I don’t get this out now.

Oh gosh, I would just about die if he turns this all around and decides to leave Grover’s Corners. But I have to do this. Just get it out there. Otherwise I’ll feel so selfish.

What if he does agree to go? Oh gosh. That would just be terrible. Trying to keep up with his new, bigger life, I don’t know that I could. I am content to stay put. I don’t want him to go. He’ll meet new girls who are more interesting than me, and then quickly see that I am not some city girl that’s seen everything. He’ll see that I am actually quite simple. I don’t know if I could bear that, but I must at least give him the choice. Please George, please see that Grover’s Corners is where you belong. With me. You always have I suppose. I hope that I am not letting you go right now. Oh this is starting to wear on me. Why must we always act polite? I just really want George to be happy with a life here, with me. I want this place and myself to be enough. If it wasn't, well, I don’t know what I’d do.

__Analysis:__ Emily wants George to stay and she wants him to want to stay in Grover’s Corners on his own volition. She does not want to feel responsible for George’s weighty life decision. Of course Emily dearly wants to be all George needs, and for him to find this life as enough, but she still has to let him have the option and decision. She also does not want to explicitly say that she wants him to stay, or that she wants to be enough for him, but she cannot because during this time period women did not directly express themselves and because of her young age she is still not assured of herself yet.