Pursuing Self-identity: A Feminist Reading Of Anna Christie

Anna Christie is written by America’s greatest playwright Eugene O’Neill(1888-1953) who was honored as “Father of Modern American Drama”. It is one ofthe famous plays in his early dramatic creation and won the Pulitzer Prize in1922.Anna Christie is the heroine of this play, with changing life experiences as the mainline of the story. At the beginning, helpless young Anna was adopted by her cousinson the farm, but mistreated physically and spiritually by them. After being raped byher cousin, Anna escaped from the farm to a city where she was forced to live as aprostitute unexpectedly. Later, the brothel was closed in a police raid, and she had nochoice but to turn to her sailor father for support. Staying with her father on the sea,she gained a strong sense of belonging and being reborn, and her sense of self andconsciousness of self-independence began to awaken. In order to pursueself-independence and true love, she started brave rebellion. From Anna’sexperiences, it can be seen that on one hand, women indeed suffer a lot in thepatriarchal society; on the other hand, women’s fighting against man’s manipulationand struggle for their independence represented by Anna reveal their strikingconsciousness of feminism.Now the researches on O’Neill and his works are abundant and fruitful, withmultiple perspectives ranging from character analysis, thematic study, artistictechniques to O’Neill’s sense of tragedy and so on. However, it is a pity that fewstudies have been done on Anna Christie at home and abroad, let alone theresearches on Anna, the girl with explicit consciousness of feminism. A writer’sliterary creation has to go through the process of maturity, even his representativeworks can be traced back to his early works. Thus the present study on this earlyplay helps a lot in comprehensive understanding of O’Neill’s tragic sense and hismiddle and late works, in particular the women characters in his works.Feminism maintains that the establishment of the women’s self-independence isthe mark of their emancipation. Under the guidance of feminism, the thesis probesinto Anna’s bitter sufferings and her struggles for self-identity from the angle of her searching for self-identity. The thesis further researches into Anna’s feministconsciousness and its manifestations in the play.This thesis is composed of six sections, including Introduction, four chaptersand Conclusion.The Introduction mainly discusses the research background including the briefintroduction to Anna Christie and the previous studies on this play, the researchsignificance, purpose and the organization of this thesis.Chapter One is the theoretical framework outlining the main ideas of feminism.Chapter Two, from the perspective of feminism, analyzes Anna’s sufferings onthe farm, her predicament after escaping from the farm, and her final fall, whichexposes the merciless fact that women have no independence and self-identity.Chapter Three focuses on the awakening of Anna’s self-independence throughthe analysis of the changes of Anna’s words and action on the sea. The thesis holdsthatAnna is not a girl submitting to fate, but one with sense of self-identity.Chapter Four lays stress on Anna’s struggling for freedom and true love; shehas won independence and found the lost self-identity through efforts.The Conclusion points out, because of the patriarchal restraints on women, it israther difficult for women to gain self-independence in the patriarchal society. Forthis reason, women have little chance to realize their self-fulfillment. However,Anna,motivated by the consciousness of feminism, pursues free from the domination ofmale authority and becomes an independent lady who dares to utter her voice from apowerless victim and gains her self-identity. Anna’s story sounds the alarm for menand women in the modern society: the two sexes should act to solve the genderproblems and build a harmonious society.