Anna Christie

Anna Christie Summary | Act 1 Summary

Anna Christie opens in a bar in New York City called "Johnny-the-Priest's." The year is not established but it is the autumn season. Johnny-the-Priest, who owns the saloon, gets his name from his choirboy looks. Larry, who is the late shift bartender, arrives for work just as the postman delivers a letter for a man named Chris Christopherson, a sailor using the bar as a mailing address. Johnny accepts the letter and agrees to hold it for Chris.

It just so happens that Chris, who is the captain of a coal barge, has docked in New York and arrives at the bar with a woman named Marthy who lives with him on the barge. Chris is overjoyed to receive the letter, which is from his daughter, Anna, whom he has not seen in fifteen years, when the girl was five years old. Chris didn't see his family much because he worked at sea. Anna and her mother moved to Minnesota when Anna was a small girl. When Anna's mother died, Chris chose to leave his daughter in Minnesota with cousins on a farm.

At Larry's suggestion, Chris leaves to get some dinner because the old sailor has been drinking heavily. Marthy stays behind and gets the first look at Anna, who Marthy assumes is a prostitute at first glance. As the only other woman in the bar, Anna invites Marthy for a drink with her. Soon Marthy reveals her own relationship with Chris and Anna would like more information about her father.

Anna has come to New York for what she hopes will be a restful vacation at the home of her father. Anna is a prostitute in Minneapolis and has just been released from a month's stay in the hospital. World weary and tired, Anna hopes to stay with her father to recover her strength. Anna is not sure of the reception she will get from the father she doesn't really know. Anna is negative about most men who, she believes, just use women, and is a little bit afraid that her own father will fall into this category. Anna shares with Marthy the life she led on the farm where she was worked hard and physically abused. A life in prostitution seemed the only way out and Anna took it. Marthy tells Anna that Chris is a good man who is anticipating a visit with his only child.

At last Chris returns and Marthy wishes Anna well and leaves so father and daughter may get acquainted. Each of them is a little surprised by the other. Anna sees that her father is a crusty old sailor and Chris can see that his daughter is a little haggard from a rougher life than he thought she was living. Essentially though, the pair is glad to be reunited and Chris tells Anna that some time at sea will be therapeutic for whatever ails her.