In this section, Wilder demonstrates the difference between the living and the dead. Obviously, the presence of the living makes the spirits uncomfortable. They purposely try to forget the living and prepare themselves for something that is to occur in the future.
In the first two acts, Wilder employs several techniques to familiarize the audience with background material, most frequently by having the Stage Manager supply data. By Act III, however, Wilder expresses larger, more significant ideas through the Stage Manager and saves exposition for minor actors. He uses a traditional device: He has a citizen of the town talk to a man who has been away for twelve years. As the returnee asks questions and catches up with his family and the town, the audience learns pertinent facts.
By having Emily appear as one of the newly dead, Wilder can express her newly formed thoughts about metamorphosis from farm wife and mother to spirit. Without a new arrival as a stimulus, the older spirits would not have reason to discuss their thoughts on being dead. Another reason for Emily’s importance is that she has been a key player in the drama all along. Therefore, to place her among the dead gives the drama a tighter structure by holding the focus on her.
Because Emily wears a white dress and a youthful hairstyle, she evokes her joyous departure from Act II as George’s bride. Thus, Wilder blends the two acts, thereby emphasizing the innocence and femininity of his main character.
Mrs. Soames, a minor character, again performs an important function. She is the spirit who best remembers Emily’s wedding, thereby connecting or relating the two acts even more firmly to each other. With her outspoken romanticism, Mrs. Soames also sums up life—both its wonderful and awful qualities. In contrast to Mrs. Soames’ idealism is the negative view of Simon Stimson, who committed suicide because of his alcoholism. Apparently, Wilder chooses to abstain from moralizing on the type of life which Mr. Stimson lived or the reasons that he takes issue with Mrs. Soames’ blatant rhapsodizing.
Wilder emphasizes that the dead form a unique family, free from the toil, struggle, and conflict that plagues life. Ironically, it is the living rather than those in coffins who are “sort of shut up in little boxes ” Even though the dead sit quietly without moving, they exude a sense of freedom through their voices and their serenity. In contrast to their peace, the living constantly combat troubles. Wilder indicates that most people are so weighted down with life’s troubles that they are unable to appreciate the simple fact that they are alive. Emily has yet to make this discovery. Because the spirits plead with Emily not to relive her past, the audience is prepared for her terrible disappointment in the next scene. Since Emily is able to live in the present and see the future, she will understand the futility and misunderstanding which clouds human life.
