Maxwell Anderson: A Changing Attitude Toward Love

MAXWELL ANDERSON: A CHANGING ATTITUDE TOWARD LOVE MAXWELL ANDERSON'S 1928 PLAY God of the L.ightning was the first of his two plays growing out of the Sacco-Vanzetti case. Its inspiration in an actual trial and especially its aim of directly protesting an actual injustice called for realistic treatment. The incidents of the plot are of the world of the twenties, taken, it seems, from the daily newspapers . And the feelings and language of the characters are those of believable human beings. A good example of this truth to human actuality comes in the second act trial scene. Macready, the play's central character, tried on trumped-up charges, is asked during crossexamination if he isn't in love with a certain girl. In defiance of the district attorney and the corrupt legal and social system behind him, Macready replies: "It won't make any difference whether I'm in love with a girl or not-not to them. And at that it's nobody's business but the girl's." In the context of the play there is nothing exceptional about this reply; it is realistic, showing a sensible appraisal of the situation Macready is in. But in a larger context, the totality of Anderson 's work, the realism itself is worthy of remark, because on the subject of love Anderson was sometimes sentimental. With Macready's published reply in mind, it is amusing and more than a little revealing to see what that reply was in the original manuscript draft of the play. In the manuscript Macready, in this instance among others, is not at all the sensible fellow we have just seen. To the lawyer's question, is he in love with the girl, Rosalie, Macready replies quite unrealistically. He gets off a few hot remarks about vested interests in society and how they seem determined to wipe from the face of the earth all good, upstanding individuals like himself . And he says that for a time he lost heart and thought they would succeed, but not any more. "I thought sure they were going to put the skids under us. And now I don't believe it. Because if Rosalie's with me-and she's waiting for me-I just couldn't die, that's all. It couldn't be that way."l I just couldn't die, it couldn't be that way. And why? Because Rosalie is with me. In other words, he feels that love inspires and empowers him to defy the world. The wishful sensi1 The manuscript of Gods Of the Lightning and the other manuscripts referred to later in the paper are in the Library of the University of Texas. For permission to quote from these manuscripts, I wish to thank the University manuscript committee and Mrs. Maxwell Anderson. 241 242 MODERN DRAMA December bility revealed in this remark is the antithesis of the tough-minded attitude revealed in Macready's published reply. In the manuscript Macready is not dear-sighted about the situation he is in; he is doomed before the trial even starts, regardless of whether his girl friend loves him or not; he and the author and the audience all know that. Nevertheless, he closes his eyes to actuality and sails off high above the mundane world of corrupt politicians, into some wishedfor realm where love is queen and all other forces bend a knee to her throne. Anderson, in short, originally made Macready voice an artificial feeling, a feeling which violates our sense of the real; he manufactured a sentimental pose. Fortunately for Gods of the Lightning~ of course, Anderson crossed out the sentimental response and presented the realistic-perhaps at the suggestion of his collaborator, Harold Hickerson, though from studying the manuscript it seems that he made the correction while writing the scene, and therefore probably on his own accord. The significant thing about these two examples, however, is their order of occurrence. This order typifies the way Anderson's mind worked, not only in this play, but throughout a large part of his career. Until very near the end of his life the sentimental was the spontaneous response . The realistic response, if...