Ah, Wilderness! Play Analysis

Ah, Wilderness! takes place in a small Connecticut town on the Fourth of July 1906. The script specifically states that the action takes place on July 4th, as the family intends to attend a celebratory picnic and the youngest son Tommy sets off firecrackers in the front yard. The specificity of the year requires the costumes to adhere fairly strictly to the style of the period.

The family is part of the American middle-class of Connecticut. Nat Miller, the owner of the local newspaper and husband to Essie Miller, tries to keep his family from arguing all the time. Essie is very motherly and very good at nagging her children about propriety. Her eldest son Arthur returns from Yale for the holiday and starts dating Elsie Rand. Richard, the second son, reads radical books and poetry and experiences first love with Muriel McComber, a girl with a very strict father. Richard loves reading and quoting literature, and tries very hard to seem older and more learned than he really is. Muriel is very young and innocent. She seems to be in awe of Richard, especially since he acts so worldly and experienced. Her father David, who advertises in Nat’s newspaper, disapproves of Richard and Muriel’s relationship and tries to sabotage their relationship. He threatens to remove his ad from Nat’s paper if Nat doesn’t stop the two young people from seeing each other. The youngest Miller children, Mildred and Tommy, tease their elder brothers mercilessly, especially Mildred. Sid Davis, Essie’s younger brother, and Lily Miller, Nat’s younger sister, love each other, but Lily refuses to marry Sid unless he quits gambling and his biggest vice, drinking. Sid can’t hold a steady job and has a large drinking problem, while Lily is very uptight and unforgiving about Sid’s problems. Later in the play, Richard and Muriel quibble, and to spite her, Richard goes out drinking and meets the charming prostitute Belle. Belle is young but seems resigned to her fate as a loose woman.

Nat Miller makes enough money with his newspaper to allow his family access to the upper middle-class society of the small town. The family adheres to a conservative point of view, and believes in the innocence of the age. Muriel waits a very long time before she even allows Richard to kiss her. Proper behavior rules at the turn of the century and the Millers believe whole-heartedly that impropriety amounts to the worst of sins.

Before the play begins, the family has sat down to breakfast. Richard, the protagonist, struggles against the dual antagonists of Muriel’s father and society’s extreme properness. He reads all these revolutionary books and rebels against the structure and monotony of society. Essie and Nat support Richard as his caring parents. Essie scolds Richard for reading improper material but only wants what is best for him. Nat understands Richard a little more and tends to allow Richard to read his favorite books, even reading one of Richard’s books himself. Sid Davis and Lily Miller provide a subplot and support for Richard and Muriel’s story line.

The dialogue could be described as naturalistic, as the characters’ speech could be spoken during the time period of the play. Ah, Wilderness! explores the innocence and naïveté of high-class society in turn-of-the-century America. Instead of dealing with the problems of drunkenness, change, and gambling, the family chooses to ignore their problems and believe in the best in everybody.