At the end of Anna Christie we believe that Anna and Mat Burke will make the attempt to find happiness with one another. Despite Anna’s past, the couple will be wed. The future is not so bright. Mat Burke is set to sail to South Africa to earn his living. This means that he will be immediately separated from his wife, who he just found out was a prostitute. Time has not passed for the couple to mend their relationship that has been severely damaged by the discovery of Anne’s past. Mat will be a newlywed, on a ship, separated from his wife, and he’s not supposed to have doubts about her fidelity? It is only natural that he would doubt, and therefore suffer because of those doubts.

Mat Burke fell deeply in love with Anna Christ

Anna Christie’s love for Mat is an opportunity for her to be reborn, to leave the pain of rape behind. In the fog, on the barge, she has the opportunity to become a virgin again. Many used her body but she surrenders her heart to Mat alone. To become a virgin again, she must shed her pain, and the lie. Anna Christie confesses her past to Mat, to be rebuked, shunned, and scorned. This is a natural response by a man who believes that prostitutes are “fallen women” as Ann M. Lucas correctly identifies in her article, “Race, Class, Gender and Deviancy: The Criminalization of Prostitution” (2). If a woman who “crossed the great divide between chastity and unchastity had no way back,” (Lucas, 2) then Mat had every right to believe that his wife was permanently damaged. If he cannot forget the truth, he will be tormented by this fact while he is at sea, secretly resenting, and perhaps eventually hating, his wife. It is not to difficult to imagine that Mat would suspect his wife of returning to prostitution or engaging in some other kind of illegal activity since prostitution was linked to “ every form of corruption, crime, and vice,” (Lucas, 2).

Perhaps equally terrifying are the problems that Anne and Mat would face if they had a child. Given the fact that Mat would be away, it is very likely that Anne would like to have a child to keep her company. Given Mat’s likely insecurities, it is quite possible that Mat would always doubt that he was the father of any child Anna Christie gave birth to. Instead of being the cement that brings the family together, a child would likely ruin the lives of Mat and Anna.

ie, so much in love that he is willing to overlook that she was a prostitute. He is uncomfortable with ladies and behaves inappropriately with her despite his best intentions (O’Neill 28-9). Being a sailor, his interactions with women tend to be with prostitutes; he is uncomfortable in his own skin. Strong and coarse, Mat Burke is concerned with his own libido, his own sense of pride. He wants Anna Christie to dull the angst in his pants and to make him a man in a way that no prostitute can: he wants her to quell his loneliness (O’Neill, 26). Being lonely, however, does not mean that he is suddenly supposed to forget the truth.

Even if Anna Christie remains loyal to Mat, the play does not suggest that Mat has an obligation to rem

Some topics in this essay:
Anna Christie, Mat Burke, Anne Christie, Criminalization Prostitution”, Anna Christie’s, South Africa, Anna Anne, Eugene O’Neill’s, Chris Mat, Chris Christophson, anna christie, mat burke, lucas 2, past mat, separated wife, love mat, anna christie’s, purchase sex, 2 woman, forget truth,