Marriage, Commitment, & Oaths
The majority of the story of Brigadoon takes place on a single day, the day of the wedding of Jean MacLaren and Charlie Dalrymple. Woven throughout the narrative is the idea of commitment to one’s loved ones. Fiona speaks to Tommy about being committed to one’s romantic partner, “I believe you get married because you love someone so much you cannot bear the thought of ever bein’ apart” (I.2.31). The clan chiefs show up in Act 1, Scene 6 in an act of commitment and support to each other and the MacLaren and Dalrymple clans (I.6.63). The old minister of the kirk, Mr. Forsythe loved the parish so much that he committed his life to the cause of protecting Brigadoon from outside forces, in asking God for a miracle (I.5.59-60). Fiona makes an oath of commitment to Tommy in “From This Day On,” that she will love and remember him till her death. This topic dovetails with that of faith in the spiritual basis to many character’s will.
Faith (Reality vs. Illusion & Modern Cynicism)
The voice of reason in our American duo, Jeff advocates for belief in his perceived reality:
TOMMY. What do you believe in?
JEFF. Anything I can touch, hear, see, smell (I.1.5).
After running into Harry during the chase, Jeff shares his view, “It’s like for one split second I believed this town was real” (II.2.8). The arc of the narrative sees Tommy, the dreamer, shift aways from his friend’s realism, as he realizes that Fiona can unite the realism and dream into a realized utopia. The text of Brigadoon posits the question of whether one can believe what the experience sensorily to be real. Over the course of the narrative, one could understand the audience surrogate to change from being Tommy to Jeff. For the modern cynic, such a fantasy as Brigadoon might inspire feelings of disbelief, similar to Jeff’s perception of Brigadoon. As Fiona and Tommy fade into the mist with Brigadoon at the end of the musical, Jeff’s watching them parallels the audience’s voyeuristic relationship to the production of Brigadoon. Metatheatrically, the transformative, fantastical miracle is storytelling.
The Isolation and Safety of Community
In some ways, Brigadoon is depicted as a utopian community, a town that through a miracle protects the townsfolk from the “sufferin’ of the world” (I.5.59). The townsfolk are happy in the market, and the Scottish Highlanders come out with their clans to celebrate the wedding of two community members. The actions of Harry Beaton at the beginning of Act 2 threaten that utopia, prompt a question: Are communities ever utopian, or do the threats then come from inside them?
Dissatisfaction with Modern Society
Tommy expresses dissatisfaction with modern society after he comes back from serving in World War II. The text contrasts modernity and the past in contrasting Tommy’s two love interests. Jane, in New York City in 1946, purports a perspective of living for the future, while Fiona shares with Tommy a value of living for the present:
FIONA, My days are precious now. I do not waste them.
(TOMMY is once again miles away.)
JANE. Today? Today is simply the thing we endure for the promise of tomorrow (II.4.21).
The temporal setting of Brigadoon uses the past in its familiarity as a known quantity, romanticizing it and contrasting it with the meaninglessness of modernity, as Tommy explains to Jane, “We never talked. We made conversation” (II.4.23).