How we cite our quotes: (Act, Scene, Line)
Quote #1
(BANNISTER, PLATT and other townspeople gather excitedly. They are colorful small-town citizens, but not caricatured rubes.) (I, I, 204-06)
This stage direction takes great efforts to portray the people from Hillsboro as somewhat ignorant, but not totally stupid. Since the playwrights are so hard on ideologically intolerant people in this play, they have to be careful not to look like hypocrites; of course, city folk can be intolerant, too.
Quote #2
MRS. KREBS (Unctuously, to HORNBECK) You're a stranger, aren't you, mister? Want a nice clean place to stay?
HORNBECK. I had a nice clean place to stay, madame,
And I left it to come here.
Hornbeck's comments are a perfect example of big-city snobbery. In these lines, we get the stereotype that rural areas do not have the comforts of the city; they are dirty little hovels. Of course, then, Hornbeck is also living out the stereotype that people from the city don't have manners. Nice.
Quote #3
HORNBECK. The unplumbed and plumbing-less depths!
Ahhhh, Hillsboro—Heavenly Hillsboro.
The buckle on the Bible Belt. (I, I, 276-78)
Comparing the town of Hillsboro to the buckle on the Bible belt is a humorous way to let us know a lot about not only how important religion is in the small town, but also how the big city outsiders perceive it. It's so tiny and insignificant that it can't even be the belt; it has to be the buckle on the belt.