Mrs. Gibbs

Character Analysis

Mrs. Gibbs, descended from a long family line in Grover’s Corners, is described as a "plump, pleasant woman in the middle thirties" in Act I. By the third act, twelve years later, Mrs. Gibbs has died of pneumonia. We learn indirectly that Mrs. Gibbs never achieved her dream of visiting Paris, which gives her life an added dimension of tragedy. Out of all the Grover’s Corners residents we meet, she alone expressed dreams of leaving her town. Her early death reinforces the idea that death sometimes comes quickly and unexpectedly, and before the fulfillment of dreams.

Mrs. Gibbs Timeline