Abstract
This study examines Maxwell Anderson’s play High Tor that is an aesthetic engagement with nature and dramatizes Anderson’s environmental sensibilities. The play is a satirical fantasy in verse loaded with allusions, symbolism and philosophical meditation, dramatizing the end of America’s pioneering tradition. High Tor refers to a mountain overlooking the Hudson River, only a few miles away from Anderson’s home in New City in the district of New York. The name derives from Celtic lore and means a sacred and holy place where people commune with the gods. The area where High Tor stands is steeped in history, legend and the supernatural. There are many accounts of ghosts haunting this historical mountain and the surrounding areas. In this play, Anderson makes use of the aura of mystery surrounding this region to dramatize the story of the protagonist, Van Dorn, and his struggle against the advancing forces of industrialism and materialism that threaten his independence and the pioneering values, pastoral tradition and the Arcadian beauty of the American wilderness. Keywords: American drama, the Great Depression, environment, American pastoral tradition, individualism
Highlights
High Tor (1937) is an American Depression-era environmental play written by Maxwell Anderson
High Tor is a nature-oriented satirical fantasy in verse loaded with allusions, symbolism and philosophical meditation, dramatizing the end of America’s pastoral and pioneering tradition
Anderson’s High Tor is one such artistic effort in the realm of drama that tries to engage with nature and contemporary environmental issues and succeeds in raising awareness about an ecological disaster that was in the making
Summary
High Tor (1937) is an American Depression-era environmental play written by Maxwell Anderson. High Tor won Maxwell Anderson his second New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Anderson’s High Tor is one such artistic effort in the realm of drama that tries to engage with nature and contemporary environmental issues and succeeds in raising awareness about an ecological disaster that was in the making. The play is, to use Giannachi and Stewart’s words, performed not just “as visual landscape but as a haptic and audile world in which we are ethically involved.”. Anderson makes use of the mysterious ambience surrounding this region to dramatize the story of Van Dorn’s struggle against the forces of commercialism, industrialism and materialism that threaten to destroy both his independence and the pioneering values associated with the historically significant mountain of High Tor
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