A “Long Days Journey Into” a Downward Spiral of Addictions
Eugene O’Neill is a playwright that stands out in a crowd during his time period and after his duration. His plays are dark, pessimistic stories in which the characters all end up suffering in the end. The fact that all of his characters end up suffering in the end is not too far-fetched from his own life. O’Neill’s prime example of this is in his play “Long Days Journey Into Night,” which is as biographical as you can get. The play centers on the dysfunctional Tyrone family. They suffer from addictions, haunted pasts, and dead end futures. Each one hurts the other more then they help, but help themselves only by divulging in alcohol, morphine, and loose women. The map work of this play follows the same map work of O’Neill’s family. Eugene and his brother Jamie both lived their lives around bars and women, being numbed for only an occasion. The O’Neill’s and the Tyrone’s take pleasure in forgetting their pain and tearing each other down, both families only know that kind of life. There is no hope, no tomorrow, only drugs and alcohol to take the pain away. Towards the end of Eugene O’Neill’s life, his plays became darker and darker. They were becoming much more autobiographical, going into O
Destruction is what the Tyrone family is all about. Instead of James being happy that Edmund is reading and divulging himself into literature, he criticizes him. Well, of course there is a reason, as always. It is because Edmund is not reading Shakespeare and other authors of James’s Irish, Catholic background. Instead he is reading “morbid” works from such authors as the Frenchmen Baudelaire. Only God’s work and Shakespeare will keep you living a non-twisted and morbid life. How can one argue that Edmund will live a morbid life (which he is), but that his father is not? Throughout the play there is a constant battle going on at all times. The Tyrone’s do not discuss things, they would rather fight it out. The reason for this is probably that half, or most of the time they are not in the right state of mind. Everyone of them has something to say to one another, and yet they cannot. Instead the men fight over the mother. The problem is that they all accuse each other of making Mary the way she is. It is everyone else’s fault that she is back on morphine, or at least they suspect. While suspicions are running wild, they will make a direct comment at her and Mary will turn it around. No one ever confronts her directly to talk about her problem, so that maybe they can help her. It is better off, left to go into morphine, hallucinogenic world where she does not have to deal with the family issues. Mary can just runaway, as the men in her life watch her do this while throwing drinks back into their throat. This is a play that focuses on the stages of the Tyrone family members. You can “Long Days Journey Into Night,” is one day in the life of the Tyrone’s. By the end of the play you feel as though this day will be no different from any other day. The mother, Mary is the central addictive figure with in the family. The men in the family blame their alcohol problems on Mary, and Mary blames them for her relapse. As we enter the play, Mary has just returned from a sanitarium for her morphine addiction. While she was there she was clean, but returning home would be hard. Her home environment, however, is clearly established as one that is highly conclusive to relapse (160). The majority of the dillusional life is because of Mary. Each member of the family is afraid to upset her, afraid to be the cause of her relapse into a morphine filled world. “She is not just a victim,” Arthur Gelb said, “She is a very manipulative woman. In a particularly vicious note, O’Neill even wrote that ‘when under the influence of morphine, she could change from a vain, happy chattering girlishness to a hard, cynical, sneering, bitterness of biting cruelty, with a crass vulgarity in it.”
Some topics in this essay:
Arthur Gelb,
Eugene O’Neill,
Tyrone Edmund,
Edmund Jamie,
Night” Edmund,
Journey Night”,
Mary O’Neill,
Requiem Dream,
Unfortunately Edmund,
Mary Mary,
tyrone family,
journey night”,
“long days,
days journey night”,
“long days journey,
days journey,
father james,
morbid life,
morphine addiction,
eugene o’neill,
eating comes drinking,
live denial,
tomorrow yesterday,
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Approximate Word count = 2767
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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