The Skin of Our Teeth: Difference between revisions

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Line 1: {{work}} '''''The Skin Ofof Our Teeth''''' is a 1942 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Thornton Wilder, better known for ''[[Our Town]]''. It follows the Antrobus family through thousands of years of existence, moving from an ice age to the biblical Flood to the aftermath of a war much like World War II but worse, mostly without leaving the fictional suburban town of Excelsior, New Jersey. The main characters--George and Maggie Antrobus, their children Henry and Gladys, and maid Sabina--are frequently utilized as allegories for biblical figures and archetypes, and are visited by historical figures and mythical or historical events. Needless to say, the whole play is swimming in an [[Anachronism Stew]]. ~~----~~ {{tropelist}} ~~This play provides examples of:~~ * [[Abusive Parents]] (George Antrobus has no qualms about hitting his son Henry, especially when he's in a temper.) * [[Anachronism Stew]] (Almost too many examples in the first two acts to list, but here's a good one from Act I: Despite the fact that George Antrobus just invented the alphabet recently, a poem by Longfellow is referenced. And then there's the fact that while the world is in the midst of one of the ice ages--Mammoths and all--the U.S. and all its cities exist in full, as do modern houses. And yet Moses and Homer and some Muses come to the Antrobus house seeking shelter from a glacier.) * [[Cain and Abel]] (Henry and his unnamed elder brother, respectively. After killing his brother, Cain had his named changed to Henry by their parents to protect him from a bad reputation. [[It Got Worse\|Not that it did that much good...]]) * [[~~Daddys~~Daddy's Girl]] (Because Henry is forever tainted in his father's eyes {{spoiler\|by the murder of his elder brother}}, most of Mr. Antrobus' affection is spent on his daughter Gladys.) * [[Delinquents]] (Henry, although this just scratches the surface of his character.) * [[Fortune Teller]] (One figures prominently in the second act, frequently visited by Sabina and also repeatedly trying to warn everyone that the great flood is coming.) Line 16: * [[Offing the Offspring]] (A huge part of Act III, {{spoiler\|when George and Henry have come home from war as leaders of opposing armies.}}) * [[Our Acts Are Different]] (Like ''[[Our Town]]'', the play is in three acts of roughly the same length, with [[Intermission]] taken between each.) * [[Parental Favoritism]] (See [[~~Daddys~~Daddy's Girl]] above.) * [[Show Within a Show]] (Directly connected to [[No Fourth Wall]], the show is framed as actors (who therefore are themselves fictional characters) in a performance of ''The Skin of Our Teeth''. It comes to the fore in the beginning of Act III, where several of the actors have come down with food poisoning and are replaced in a symbolic time-filling scene by members of the backstage crew.) * [[That's All Folks]] Line 24: {{reflist}} {{Pulitzer Prize for Drama}} ~~[[Category:Theatrical Productions]]~~ [[Category:~~The Skin Of Our Teeth~~{{PAGENAME}}]] [[Category:Theatre of the 1940s]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Skin of Our Teeth, The}}