Mat Burke

Chris Christopherson, Anna's father, rescues Mat at sea. Mat is employed as a stoker (a person who tends a ship's furnace and supplies it with fuel) aboard ocean liners. Thirty-year-old Mat is "a powerful, broad-chested six-footer, his face handsome in a hard, rough, bold, deflant way . . . [and is] in the full power of his heavy-muscled, immense strength." He has very traditional attitudes about women and their place in society, but he loves Anna enough to accept her past. Unlike Chris, Mat believes that his destiny is shaped by his own strength and courage, coupled with the will of God.

Anna Christie

See Anna Christopherson.

Anna Christopherson

When Anna Christopherson (also called Anna Christie) first arrives at Johnny-The-Priest's Saloon, she plainly shows "all the outward evidences of belonging to the world's oldest profession. Her youthful face is already hard and cynical." Her hard exterior shields her need for...