Anna Christie -- by Eugene O'Neill (1922)

Description
Eugene O'Neill is the winningest playwright of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with 4 wins. Edward Albee would have tied the record, had the committee not retracted his win for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? -- a true slight, and entirely separate conversation.

O'Neill's Anna Christie was the second play of his to win the award and its feminist spirit may surprise you. At least, it surprised me. The titular character returns to her father, Chris Christopherson, in New York where he works on a barge. Although she is merely 20, she has lived a long life. Her father had abandoned her in Minneapolis where she slogged through the life of a farmhand. She left the farm and went to nursing school; she was a nanny and then became a prostitute. All of this is to be blamed on the unfairness of life she experienced caused mostly by men. When she reunites with her father, he sees her as an innocent child. He does not like that she falls for Mat Burke who demands to see her as a decent woman. Mat and Chris vie for an intimate relationship with Anna, but Anna doubts if she can have or should have one with either.

Here is Playbill.com's summary: "A weary former prostitute seeks out her estranged sea captain father, hoping to find forgiveness from him, while hiding her past from a stoker she loves in Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning play."

The play has been revived twice on Broadway. Liam Neeson played Mat in the 1992 revival. An even greater celebrity connection to the play is Greta Garbo. She played Anna in the movie version, and the movie was the star's first "talkie." Watch her iconic first line here.

Candid Reactions

• I love how vivid and particular his set descriptions are. 
• Johnny the Priest's inclusion helps flip perception. One of his purposes is to encourage the reader to ask: What is O'Neill trying to accomplish by having a religious figure engage in such controversial behavior? What is he preparing us for?
• His physical descriptions of the characters are so generous. 
• I wonder how many O'Neill plays use the fog symbolism?
• Gotta love dialect for supplying us with phrases like "pooty like hell" (78). 
• The parallelism with Chris drinking and Anna drinking is excellent. 
• Anna remarks, "Give you a kick when you're down, that's what all men do" (83). Ouch. 
• There is something ironic about Anna's detestation of living on a barge given that she accepted the life of a prostitute growing up. 
• Chris reallllllllllly believes that the sea is to blame for bringing harm into his life. 
• O'Neill knows how to incorporate fog masterfully -- like Dickens!
• Anna states, "I'd rather have one drop of ocean than all the farms in the world" (100). Here, O'Neill works on a metaphorical way of expressing Anna's psyche and philosophy. 
• They all mask their identities. 
• What are "tenterhooks"? Here ya go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenterhook 
• O'Neill can slide in such poetic lines: "You've swallowed the anchor" (132). 
• Anna's curse hits hard: "You can go to hell, both of you" (144). Anna makes it clear that neither male can impose their ideals upon her, for she is in control of her own life -- a life that had been packed with pain from decisions made by men when she was young. 
• Anna abhors the objectification of women, "Gawd, you'd think I was a piece of furniture!" (144-145). 
• THIS MONOLOGUE IS A MIC DROP MOMENT:
• You was going on 's if one of you had got to own me. But nobody owns me, see? -- 'cepting myself. I'll do what I please and no man, I don't give a hoot who he is, can tell me what to do. I ain't asking either of you for a living. I can make it myself -- one way or other. I'm my own boss. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. You and your orders. (145-146). 
• Anna questions who's to blame for her stint as a prostitute: is it her "fault" or the "fault" of her unsupported childhood that came without paternal guidance?
• A handful of transformations occur in this show, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 
• The reaction of Chris and Mat regarding her former life as a prostitute is perplexing. 
• The ending of this show is highly poetic and appropriate. 

Top Two Aspects/Reasons for Winning
1. Feminism
Anna's monologue at the end of Act Three is a war cry for feminism. The play was produced shortly after women's suffrage was permitted in the United States. Certainly, the text resonates with men and women who yearn for women's rights to be equal to men's rights. In the play, Anna represents not the elite, upper-class woman, but the abandoned, long-suffering woman. O'Neill encourages the reader to rally behind Anna and question the impositions of men. 

2. Dialect
The colloquialisms and dialect employed in the play reminds the reader of Their Eyes Were Watching God. The dialogue is written almost phonetically. Once the reader has "tuned in" to hearing their voices, the story proceeds with ease and enjoyment for their harsh and soft tones to intensify the dialogue.

Classroom Implications
I actually think I could see high school students enjoying this text with its feminist themes. The plot is simple enough that more focus can be put on symbolism, characterization, irony, hyperbole . . . a wide gamut of literary devices! It could be interesting to pair this text with Their Eyes Were Watching God or The Color Purple to discuss female strength in the face of masculine adversity.

Personal Takeaway
Eugene O'Neill truly is one of America's most masterful playwrights.

Ranking

	Dialogue	Characters	Plot/Conflict	Symbol/Literary Devices	Overall Enjoyment	TOTAL SCORE 9.0
0	Unfollowable; unrealistic; diction does not match character	Undeveloped; does not reflect humanity	Not engaging; predictable; reader can step away from text because it isn’t gripping	Devices are apparent for cleverness and do not enhance the story	Reader has no interest in re-reading play
1	Not consistently realistic	Well-developed; most depictions reflect humanity	Semi-engaging; some unnecessary plot-points (1.5)	Devices somewhat enhance story	Reader would re-read with pleasure and reminded of work
2	Realistic; connotative; diction matches characters (2)	Fully-developed; depictions reflect humanity (1.75)	Engaging; unique; reader finds it impossible to put down text because the conflict is so gripping!	Devices seamlessly enhance the story and provide rich interpretation (2)	Reader would re-read the play on own volition, enthusiastically (1.75)