During the wedding in Act II of Our Town by Thornton Wilder, the choir sings “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds.” Discuss the impact of the song...

 The beautiful hymn “Bless Be the Tithe That Binds”
purveys Thornton Wilder’s theme iOur Town. Men are gregarious and
require human relationships to flourish. The song permeates the play during important
aspects of human connections.

The three verses of the song
juxtapose the phases of a man and woman relationship and the acts in the
play. 

• Act I=Daily
  life


• Act II=Love and
  Marrriage


• Act
   III=Death 

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'The fellowship of kindred minds/ is
like to that
above.'

Act
I

The audience is introduced to the
characters in the play: the Webb family, the Gibbs, the Stage Manager,  and other minor
characters.  The important word in the  first verse of the song is
kindred which means people who have a common
belief.

The other important phrase is Christian love.  That
is the connection that Wilder asserts throughout the play. Although the song is a
Christian hymn, Wilder does not stress the Christian aspect, but rather the significance
of love between human beings. 

The first act shows several
kinds of relationships: parent-child; man-woman, husband-wife, neighbor-neighbor,
doctor-patient and more. Without these interactions, life would not be as God planned
it. 

Man needs to connect in some way with other human
beings. When George and Emily establish their first real association in their windows at
night, the lesson within the song connects for the audience illustrates that these two
young people are kindred spirits who hearts intensify through Christian love.
 

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'…our fears, our hopes, our aims are
one/ Ourcomforts and our
cares.'

Act
II

Marriage

“Mrs.
Gibbs tells her husband in the beginning of this act: “Yes,…people are meant to go
through life two by two. Tain’t natural to be lonesome.” As the song tells the audience,
there is a person for everyone who goals are the same as the other one.  These partners
will give and receive comfort and care.  Wilder expected this relationship to last
forever.

George tells Emily that he needs her. She asks him
to love her forever.  In the newness of the relationship with their overwhelming love,
George and Emily mean exactly what they are saying.  Mrs. Soames repeats over and again
that is lovely wedding of two beautiful young people as the choir sings the line “We
pour our ardent prayers…” during the wedding.

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'And often for each other flows/The sympathizing
tear'.

Act
III

The play becomes melancholy.  Man does
not understand death and fears it. One of Wilder’s themes in the drama concerns how
death impacts the lives of human beings.

Emily dies in
childbirth.  One of the most creative scenes in American theater portrays the funeral
with the actual grave side rites in the background and the dead seated in chairs
representing the graves. At the grave side service, the mourners sing “Bless Be the
Tie.”

The audience learns that the newly dead person feels
more alive than dead in the beginning when she comes to her grave: however, she
eventually loses interest in the living.  

The living who
attend the funeral share George’s and her parents’ grief for  losing someone so young. 
The tie that bindsbecomes the sharing of each others sorrows and happiness.  Without
that sympathetic ear, the misery that one feels when someone loses a person that he
loves is compounded.

The final message for the audience
stems from Emily’s trip back to real life. It is so elemental but so often forgotten.
Enjoy life while a person has it and appreciate the people that you love
now.