SOURCE: Mason, Jeffrey D. “Maxwell Anderson's Dramatic Theory and Key Largo.” North Dakota Quarterly 48, no. 3 (summer 1980): 38-52.

In the following essay, Mason discusses the ways in which Anderson broke from his own dramatic theories in Key Largo.

Much of the scholarship written on Maxwell Anderson's plays has concentrated on the fact that many of them were written in verse. This tendency is not surprising; Anderson produced the largest body of American verse drama in the twentieth century. It is surprising, however, that the scholars who write about Anderson's dramatic theory have veered away from the verse issue in favor of the structure and purpose of drama.

Arthur M. Sampley makes a short reference to “The Essence of Tragedy” and goes on to distill Anderson's theory from his plays, rather than from his essays. Randall J. Buchanan writes a clear explanation of Anderson's system, breaking it down into twenty-five...