lhwiki2

=**Our Town**=

Your text offers suggestion on two basic approaches to acting, i.e. the internal and the external. Chose either one and take the scene between Emily and George as your reference point and develop a fragment of "inner monologue" OR tactic concerning interpretation underlying a short section from the scene. I suggest the men choose to deal with George and the women choose to deal with Emily, although if you wish you may choose to develop an "inner monologue" or "external tactic" for either character. You may use up to 500 words for this module, given the complexity of the requirement. Be sure you let me know exactly which section of dialogue you plan to use for developing your answer.

It is obvious from Emily's statement, "Well, up to a year ago, I used to like you a lot. And I used to watch you while you did everything because we'd been friends so long," that she and George have been friends for quite a while and that they have probably liked each other as more than friends at one point or another, but have never stated so outright. The statement, "because we'd been friends so long," is very telling because it seems that by specifying that they are friends, she is avoiding saying that she likes him as more than a friend.

In the soda shop, George specifies again that they are friends when he says, "I've got a friend who tells me all the things that ought to be told me." While they both say "friend" it becomes obvious that they mean more than that.

They take a big step towards admitting their true feelings for each other when George asks, "Emily, if I go away to State Agriculture College next year, will you write me a letter once in a while?" She is obviously thrilled by this request as it is often something that a girlfriend would do and enthusiastically says, "I certainly will." Then she thinks once more about his going away and speaks her thoughts aloud, saying, "It certainly seems like being away three years you'd get out of touch with things. Maybe letters from Grover's Corners wouldn't be so interesting after a while. Grover's Corners isn't a very important place when you think of--all New Hampshire; but I think it's a very nice town." The subtext here is that she is really worried that when he goes off to college he will forget about her or begin to see her as plain or boring in comparison to all the other people that he will meet. Her hesitation before "all New Hampshire" makes this abundantly clear as it seems that she really means all of the other girls in New Hampshire. George's reply that "the day wouldn't come when [he] wouldn't want to know everything about [their] town" is obviously his way of saying that he could never become bored with her and that he wants to know everything about her. He is absolutely smitten. Emily's further response, "well I'll try to make the letters interesting," is unnecessary because she shows that she still feels inadequate, but George has already told her that he does not think so of her.

This small sample of the text shows their true feelings for one another. They obviously care about each other deeply, but are too shy or bound by convention to say it outright. Their ability to read between the lines, however, has enabled them to repair their friendship and reach a new level of commitment to one another; the discussion of “the town's” importance to George seems to cement their new level of "friendship" and move their relationship forward.