Animal Farm

The Stage Manager delivers this passage during his long monologue at the beginning of Act III. This quotation prefaces the opinions of the dead, who believe that human beings "don't understand" the true significance of existence. While living, they say, human beings tend to get so caught up in day-to-day details and responsibilities, feeling so obligated to the mundane chores of daily life that they often miss the meaningful nature of human existence. The Stage Manager echoes this sentiment here, implying that human beings possess the gut knowledge that something is eternal but lack an understanding of what constitutes the eternal. Like the dead in Act III, the Stage Manager insists that the "eternal" exists within each and every human being, and that people can share this eternal nature through their daily interactions with one another.

The Stage Manager's words thus highlight Wilder's interest in finding the eternal among the details of daily life. Humans possess individual eternal souls that may live on after physical death, but their interactions with one another while still on Earth may exceed even the unfathomable beauty of the afterlife. The Stage Manager considers what the souls in the play are "waitin' for," but he can only pose his thoughts in the form of a question: "Aren't they waitin' for the eternal part in them to come out clear?" Wilder depicts the dead souls in Act III primarily in order to acknowledge the transience of human life on Earth. This transience gives life its beauty and its eternal, divine value, regardless of whatever unknown events may lie ahead. Our Town, though ending with the afterlife, insists that the eternal exists on Earth during each and every moment of human interaction.

...