Notes on the Antecedents of Anna Christie

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Abstract
A letter from O'Neill to John Rogers, an actor in Tyler's production of “Chris,” refers to the play as “a frank experiment in dramatic construction.” Jordan Y. Miller alleges that elements of “The Ole Davil” were subsequently “combined with ‘Chris’ to become the final 'Anna Christie.' ” However, an examination of the manuscripts discloses that there was really nothing “experimental” in “Chris” and that “The Ole Davil” is virtually an alternate title for Anna Christie, with at least ninety-five percent of the text of “Davil” being identical with the published text of Anna. O'Neill complained of Tyler's cutting “Chris” during the productions in Atlantic City and Philadelphia, but this was apparently greatly exaggerated. When the playwright himself reworked “Chris” into “The Ole Davil” and finally Anna Christie, he deleted nine of the seventeen original characters and reduced his manuscript by ten thousand words. But Paul Anderson of “Chris” is a much closer antecedent of Mat Burke than most critics have indicated. There are many verbal parallels between the first Christopherson play and the last. A comparison of the manuscripts is an enlightening study of O'Neill's maturation.

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