ABSTRACT
The object of this study is Our Town play by Thornton Wilder. This play is one of the literature that depict a social life with variety of human characters. This play also tells about a dynamic character of George and Emily. Both characters are described through characteristics development from childhood to early adulthood. This play consists of three parts, “daily life”, “marriage”, and “death”.
There are two problems formulated in this study. First is to find out characteristics of George and Emily. Second is to find out the personality development process of George and Emily based on Erikson’s Personality Development Theory. The method applied in this study is library research. The main source of this study is Our Town play by Thornton Wilder. The secondary sources are books and academic journal articles in literature and psychology that are relevant to this topic.
By analyzing the play, the writer founds that George is described as an archetypal all-American boy , who really likes baseball, and also impulsive. He often ignores his responsibilities because of his hobby. Nevertheless, he is also described as a person who is open-minded and motivated to improve himself. Meanwhile, Emily is described as an individual whois responsible, discipline, has strong academic achievement motivation and needs to be recognized by others.
Each character of George and Emily influences in how they face their crisis in every stage of their personality development. George’s impulsive behavior makes him more inconsistent in finding his identity. In contrast, Emily’s characteristic that is well organized and consistent to make her easier in facing the crisis in every personality developmental stage. Our Town play tells the story about George and Emily’s life in their childhood through early adulthood periods. Therefore, the writer only found two stages of psychosocial development of George and Emily, namely “Identity” and “Intimacy” stages.
