Our Town

It is a story focusing on George Gibbs, a doctor's son, and Emily Webb, the daughter of a newspaper editor in a small New Hampshire town. George and Emily meet in school and marry. The last-minute apprehension Emily and George feel about their marriage represents a universal theme of young people wanting to grow up quickly while still craving childhood's relative certainty and security. Later, Emily dies of childbirth and there is a dramatic graveyard scene at the funeral where the dead observe the living. Emily goes back one last time into the past and questions why no one ever takes the time to enjoy life.