CCEA GCSE English Literature
CCEA GCSE English Literature Our Town Exam Questions
Free CCEA GCSE English Literature practice questions for Our Town. Covers thornton Wilder's Our town: everyday life, love, marriage, death, time, community, the stage Manager, Emily Webb and George Gibbs.
Our Town practice questions
1 pack of exam-style practice questions for Our Town. Plan and write as many answers as you can under timed conditions, then compare them with the guidance on this page and your notes.
About CCEA GCSE English Literature Our Town
Our Town is a set play for CCEA GCSE English Literature Unit 2: The Study of Drama and Poetry, Section A, answered from a choice of two questions with an unannotated copy of the play. Wilder's three-act play shows ordinary life in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, in the early twentieth century, guided by the Stage Manager. The acts focus on daily life, love and marriage, and death. CCEA rewards analysis of Wilder's unusual methods, such as the bare stage, mime and direct address, and how they encourage the audience to value ordinary life.
Key themes, characters and context
- The Stage Manager The Stage Manager narrates, plays minor roles and speaks directly to the audience. He controls time, jumping forward and back.
- Emily Webb Emily is bright and hopeful. After dying in childbirth, she relives her twelfth birthday and realises how little people notice life while living it.
- George Gibbs George is a likeable young man who falls in love with Emily and chooses to stay in Grover's Corners to farm.
- Act structure Act 1 shows daily life, Act 2 love and marriage, and Act 3 death, set in the cemetery. The structure moves from ordinary to profound.
- Minimal staging The play uses few props, with characters miming actions. This focuses attention on human experience rather than setting.
- Context First performed in 1938, the play looks back to a small-town America of 1901 to 1913, before the upheavals of war and depression.
Common mistakes in Our Town
- Calling the play boring because little happens. Explain how Wilder uses ordinary events to make a point about life.
- Ignoring the Stage Manager. He is central to Wilder's methods and meaning.
- Missing the significance of Act 3. Emily's return to the past is the play's emotional climax.
- Forgetting Simon Stimson. His unhappy life and death add a darker side to the town.
- Not commenting on staging. Mime and the bare stage are key methods.
Try three Our Town practice questions
1. How does Wilder use the Stage Manager in Our Town? (extended response)
Show what a strong answer includes
A strong answer would discuss his narration, direct address, control of time, his roles within scenes and his comments in Act 3, explaining how he shapes the audience's response.
2. How does Wilder present Emily in Act 3 of Our Town? (extended response)
Show what a strong answer includes
A strong answer would analyse her death, her choice to relive her birthday, her painful realisation about the living and her return to the dead, linking to Wilder's message about appreciating life.
3. How does Wilder present the relationship between George and Emily? (extended response)
Show what a strong answer includes
A strong answer would discuss their conversations through the windows, the drugstore scene, their wedding nerves and George's grief, showing how ordinary love is given significance.
Our Town FAQs
What does CCEA GCSE English Literature Our Town cover?
It covers the whole play, including the Stage Manager, Emily, George, the Gibbs and Webb families and Simon Stimson, and themes of everyday life, love, death and time.
Which unit is Our Town examined in?
It is examined in Unit 2: The Study of Drama and Poetry, Section A (drama), where you answer one question from a choice of two on your set play and may bring an unannotated copy of the play.
Which moments in Our Town should I know well?
Know the Stage Manager's openings to each act, the drugstore scene, the wedding, and Emily's return to her twelfth birthday in Act 3.
