Our Town Lesson Plan

How did the revelation of the passengers' thoughts change the way you understood the play?

Instead of simply a play about chaos, the revelation of the thoughts makes Pullman Car Hiawatha a play about the number of things that are happening at any given moment, internal, external, and, eventually, meteorological and theological. In some cases, the stillness of the thoughts contrasts with the disorder of the dialogue; in other cases, the thoughts seem equally scattered, equally uncertain. But the movement into the thoughts allows the audience to focus on how much can be happening in a single moment.

In the brief duration of the play, what do you learn about Harriet and her...