Identity
In O’Neill’s acclaimed play, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Mary Tyrone declares, “None of us can help the things life has done to us. They’re done before you realize it, and... they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you’d like to be, and you’ve lost your true self forever.” Much like Long Day’s Journey into Night, the play Anna Christie delves into the search for personal identity. However, in contrast to the Tyrone family, Anna Christie discovers a revitalized sense of self through her bond with the sea and a meaningful romantic relationship.
Appearances and Reality
The theme of identity in the play is closely linked to the contrast between appearances and reality. Both Chris and Anna occasionally portray themselves as something they are not. For example, when Anna appears at Johnny-The-Priest’s, "plainly showing all the outward evidences of belonging to the world’s oldest profession," her father continues to see her as the innocent child he left behind in Sweden. At first, Mat mistakenly thinks she is Chris's woman and questions, “What would [a lady] be doing on this bloody hulk?” However, he quickly realizes he is unworthy “to be kissing the shoe-soles of a fine, decent girl” like Anna. When Anna discloses her past to Chris and Mat, Chris refuses to hear it, exclaiming, “Don’t talk dat vay, Anna! Ay go crazy! Ay von’t listen!” In contrast, Mat acknowledges her words but responds by rejecting her.
Chris struggles to face the truth about Anna's past because he loves her and cannot confront his role in her descent into prostitution. Although he admits he was not the perfect father, he avoids taking full responsibility for abandoning her. He attributes his absence to the "ole davil sea," which he claims forced him to leave Anna and her mother and kept her on the farm after her mother’s passing. Consequently, he tries to present himself to Anna as a man who intended to be a good father but was hindered by the relentless power of the sea. Mat’s rejection of Anna underscores his inability to accept a woman who does not fit the idealized image of a wife, highlighting society’s restrictive views on women.
Courage and Cowardice
Throughout much of the play, Chris is reluctant to face his role in Anna’s challenging life. On the other hand, Anna shows significantly more bravery than her father. She is prepared to part ways with the man she loves rather than mislead him. In the end, when Mat insists that she stay, she gathers the courage to reveal the unpleasant truths of her past to both her father and Mat.
Change and Transformation
After spending a period living with her father on the barge, Anna experiences a profound transformation. She later attempts to communicate to Mat that "just getting out on this barge and being on the sea changed me... and made me feel different about things, as if everything I’d been through wasn’t me and didn’t count and was just like it never happened." She reveals that the sea, combined with Mat’s affection, has cleansed her of her past. When Mat departs, she considers returning to her former life as a prostitute but realizes she cannot revert to that way of living.
Atonement and Forgiveness
All three characters are confronted with the choice of forgiving themselves and each other. Once Chris finally admits his faults, he seeks Anna's forgiveness. Anna quickly forgives him, trying to ease his mind by implying that fate, rather than personal choice, controls their lives....
(This entire section contains 145 words.)
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She reassures him, "It ain’t your fault, and it ain’t mine, and it ain’t his neither. We’re all poor nuts, and things happen, and we just get mixed in wrong, that’s all."
Mat's journey to forgiveness is more complicated. Given his rigid beliefs about women and their expected roles, he must be persuaded that Anna was forced into relationships with other men and felt no genuine connection with them. It is only after Anna swears that she loathed all the men she was involved with that Mat forgives her and considers her deserving of his love.