Eugene O’ Neil’s Anna Christie
The sea interpreted by many characters in O’ Neil’s play Anna Christie as a luring entity. The results of the inviting sea often leads to neglecting those things that are important in the lives of sailors. Often times the sea clouds peoples judgments due to the promises of fantastic voyages or exciting adventures. The sea, like life, often presents unreal promises in front of people and they chase those promises because of greed or the prospect of a better life.
A result of this search of unreal promises is neglecting those things or people that are important. One of the real things the sea lures people away from in there life is their family. Chris Christopherson neglects his only daughter Anna because he feels that this is the best situation for his daughter, “Ay tank, after your mo’der die, ven Ay vas avay on voyage, it’s better for you you don’t never see me!” (p. 310). We later find out that the decision to leave his daughter and stay on the sea was a foolish mistake Chris made. Anna later resents the fact that he never visited her in fifteen years “But why didn’t you never come home them days? Why didn’t you never come out West to see me?” (p. 309).
Due to neglecting his daughter, Chris would later be haunted by the harsh affects afflicted on Anna by him leaving her. Anna saw the absence of her father neglect and uncaring, while Chris saw it as an act of love and caring. The sheer irony of the actions the Chris and other sailors in Anna Christie take are completely opposite of what they should have done in the first place. It is present in the play that had these sailors stayed with their families it would have benefited those they were trying to help in the first place.
The neglecting of family due to the promise of the sea did not stop with Anna’s predicament. Chris’s mother died alone ” Ve vas all avay on voyage when she die” while her husband and sons were on the sea (p. 315). The sea shows how people have warped priorities instead of realizing what is really important. Warped priorities are true in many cases in life. How many times do people insist on visiting more but are drawn away by a career?
How many times in life do people regret not being there for a friend or family member in a time of need? How many times in life are people angry with themselves because of a decision that hurt a family member or friend. The women in Christ Christopherson’s life, his wife and mother died alone because of a choice he made “Den my mo’der she’s left all ‘lone. She die pooty quick after dat- all ‘lone” (p. 315).
The sea and its luring ability to draw people away form those who are really important is a theme not only presented in Anna Christie. O’ Neil uses the sea in this way in Beyond the Horizon another of his early sea related plays. Again the sea lure people away from their families in times of need. This symbolizes that the very nature of life can distort values and priorities. Andrew Mayo in Beyond the Horizon exemplifies the distorted values a person can have. In his case he betrayed his sick brother by trying to make a profit in a far off land.
The way Andrew got into this situation was his desire to leave his family and travel the sea. While he was gone he lost his mother and then is brother to an illness that may have been stopped if only Andrew had been around. Andrew later appeases that “There isn’t a thing on God’s green earth I wouldn’t have done to keep trouble away from him” as he realizes the error in his leaving his brother (p.191). In the end his brother dies like many of the left behind family members of the Chris in Anna Christie.
The sea presents an escape to people. The sea like life is an uncharted frontier. There are not set rules, or order of the waves and a chance to loose oneself in the vastness of it. Anna Christie herself is an example of a person who sees the sea as an escape from her tormented life. Anna takes the sea in as a sort of rebirth from her awful unhappy life and for once finds something that she takes to easily “Beefing about the sea again? I’m getting so’s I love it, the little I’ve seen” (p. 314). This initial love of the sea may be due to her youth and lack of experience of it. A young stockhole worker shares Anna’s benevolent attitude about the sea.
The shared benevolence about the sea shared by Mat Burke, the young stockhole worker Anna meets, is indicative of the type of attitudes people have about life. Some people take life as a gamble some people win, some people loose “‘Twas a mad, fightin’ scramble in the last seconds with each man for himself” (p. 322). Burke recalls the last minutes of the shipwreck as a fight of every man for himself, which is very true of life. Instead of counting his blessings when he survived a shipwreck, Burke signs up for another ship later in the story. Burke is a symbol of the type of person who has what it takes to survive in the vastness of the sea. Burke is adamant about the wonders of the sea “Tis only on the sea he’s free, and him roving the face of the world, seeing things”, and believes that the sea is the only way a man can be free to make his own choices (p. 331). O’ Neil uses Burke as an example of the fact that even when people meet obstacles they can in fact overcome them.
The sea as an escape is also presented in Beyond the Horizon. The sea not only acts as an escape but the act of Andrew Mayo who flees an unpleasant personal situation. Andrew has the choice of staying at home where I would better serve the people around him, but instead he flees to avoid personal discomfort and awkwardness. Andrew uses the sea as a rebirth and is confident that ” Everything’ll turn out all right in the end” (p. 150).
Life if presented as a choice in the play Beyond the Horizon and Anna Christie, the characters can choose to face the realities that are put in front of them, or they can choose to run away. Andrew chooses the latter and runs. Anna is another example of a character that runs and does not face her life, the fact that she was once a prostitute and that eventually she will have to atone for that. The sea is just a metaphor for the life choices that people have and can make. There are an infinitive amount of choices in this world. Every day a person makes thousands of small and seemingly insignificant choices each day. Anna and Andrew’s choice is the sea and they suffer the consequences.
The sea is also presented by O’ Neil as a misleading. A result of believing the deceitful nature of the sea can result in disastrous adventure. Chris is wise to the fact that life can be what is does not appear to be. Adverse to the attitudes that are shared by Anna and Mat Burke, Anna father personifies the sea as the devil ” Dat ole davil sea make dem crazy fools with her dirty tricks. It’s so” (p.310). The misleading nature of the sea was symbolized in the play as fog as described by Chris as ” âÂ?¦vorst one of her dirty tricks” (p. 313). Chris is wise to the fact that the sea (life) can play tricks on you and the truth can be clouded. Anna however, is not wise to the fact of the sea ” I love this fog! Honest! It’s so- Funny and I still. I feel as if I was- out of things altogether” and believes in the deceiving nature of the tricky sea (p. 313). Chris feels that life is full of broken dreams, which results in unfairness and unhappiness. Later in her time on the sea, Anna will soon see the misleading nature of the sea.
Anna unfortunately falls victim to the deceitful nature of the sea. In the beginning of the play Anna enjoys the faÃ?§ade of the sea “Everything’s been so different from anything I ever come across before” (p.314). As the play progresses and Anna’s escape and hopes of promise are dashed when confronted with a marriage proposal from Mat Burke. At this time she faces her past and the illusions the sea has created for her.
Even though Anna must face the illusions that were created she still carries the enlightenment that she found on the sea. Anna feels as though she has changed but the old devil sea makes her confront her past ” And if I told you that yust getting out in this barge, and being on the sea had changed me and made me feel different about things,’s if all I’d been through wasn’t me and didn’t count and was yust like it never happened- you’d laugh, wouldn’t you?” (339). This again is the type of trick the sea has played on her.
The trick and of a misleading sea is also true with Andrew Mayo in Beyond the Horizon. He believed that the sea was going to reward him with all the riches he wanted. Andrew was going to use the sea to get to a Buenos Aires where riches would await him “In a couple of years down there I’ll make my pile, see if I don’t” and he believed he would be hugely successful (p. 170). The sea led him to believe he could get rich quick.
This was very much against they nature and values of Andrew but he believed it to be possible and bet his whole life on it. In the end though he ended up as poor as he had started. The fact that Andrew ended up where he started is a common “trick” of life. He worked hard his whole life to get ahead yet he ended up where he started. Before he left his small farm and encountered the sea Andrew would never have persuaded such a greedy life but the sea enlightened him to the deceitful and empty promises it provided.
