“Simon Stimson.” Photograph. PBS.org. WGBH, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.
Simon Stimson takes the role of local deviant in Grover’s Corners. A troubled alcoholic, Stimson’s uncouth behavior and habits alarm Mrs. Gibbs and the other locals, who criticize Stimson. Stimson works as the choir director, and he shows up to the choir practice in the first act in an extremely inebriated state; the members of the choir lady criticize him in private (Wilder 39-41). Thus, Stimson’s behavior and people’s reactions to it showcase the almost predatory way in which residents of a small town go after the local who does not fit in, who disrupts the peace. Interestingly, Wilder designated a religious man as the deviant; in this, he explores the way that people, even members of the same faith, eagerly attack one another. Troubled Stimson eventually commits suicide (Wilder 91). After his death, Stimson, biting but insightful, says “That’s what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those . . . of those around you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years” (Wilder 109). These words best sum up Stimson and his struggles, as after death he remembers well the pains of human life, especially of his own. Simon Stimson lived a dark existence in Our Town, but his recollection of the pain and blindness of life drive home an important point in the play, as he points out the ignorance and cruelty that many humans live with everyday.