American Literature

A Long Days Journey into Night gives the readers the true nature of what to expect in the title of the story itself. In Eugene ONeills play, all characters are making their long journey into the darkness. What was once a happy and good life became a sad and depressing one. Each character has at least one personal problem that bothers them and all of these crisis are connected with the way things used to be. The story gives the audience a feeling of what goes on behind closed doors of a family that is bombarded with many issues. The most compelling situation is the fact that everything takes place within a single household. As the problems appear, the anger and frustration of the characters towards each other become more intense. In a literal sense, the day journeys into the night as the fog rolls in with the darkness of the sun set thereby creating tension. The past is the trigger that pushes all the characters to act the way they do. All the three male characters turn to alcohol as a way of escaping their past but little by little, they are forced to accept their fault and responsibility that led to their familys dysfunction. As the readers enter the world of the Tyrone family, it is not hard to notice that the issue of the past greatly affected them so much so that the past envelops their present as well as their future (ONeill).

The play begins one fateful day in August 1912 in the residence of the Tyrone family. In the first act, it is revealed that Mary is struggling with addiction from morphine while Edmund has begun to cough violently and later on in the play, it shall be revealed that he has tuberculosis. Little by little, the addiction of Mary, sickness of Edmund and the habitual alcoholism of the three Tyrone men occupy most of the plot. It can easily observed that the issues bombarding the main characters seem to form a repetitious cycle because all arguments seem to center on these issues. In a way, the repetitious plot leaves a message that this is not a remarkable day and in the Tyrone family, having this kind of experience is normal (ONeill).

The three men in the Tyrone family are James, the father and his two sons Jamie and Edmund. Two issues were partly revealed in the first Act, Marys illness and Edmunds tuberculosis. The Tyrone men continues to remind Mary to take care of herself and they always offer their congratulations as their way of telling her how proud they are that she is battling her addiction. They graze upon the surface of the issue but they quickly turn from it. The Tyrone family acknowledge the existence of a problem but after dealing with it on the surface, they jump away from it. They are good at bringing up the problem and them running away from it by formulating an obvious denial that they are all fine. The second issue that was partly unveiled is Edmunds tuberculosis. Both James and Jamie know that he will be positively diagnosed of such an illness but for Marys sake, they both agree that what Edmund has is nothing serious. Mary will be deeply devastated because her father died of tuberculosis and the whole family knows that even the slightest problem could cause Marys relapse (ONeill).

There are several scenes that conveys a message that the past dominates the characters in the present. In the first act, Jamie said that he cannot forget the past. He is talking about his mothers drug addiction but this comment is a lot more significant than this. Almost all of the interactions of the family members during their long days journey into the night is influenced by their past one way of another. Just like what Mary said in Act 2 scene 2, their past has become their present and their future as well. A big part of the play is alloted to dramatizing how the story came out to be like this. The miserliness of James is mostly responsible for it and this has become a recurring pattern. The addiction of Mary began because of his unwillingness to hire a competent physician and the life of Edmund was put in danger because he was sent to a public sanatorium in order to save money. The other recurring patterns are the fact that Mary keeps on trying to break her addiction but she fails every time. Jamie never got over the drinking habit that he inherited from his father and the same goes with Edmund whose alcohol consumption has become a repeated pattern (ONeill).

Communication breakdown is one of the themes of the play because time and time again, the viewers are forced to hear the same arguments of the characters yet nothing seems to be resolved.  An example of this situation can be seen in Act 2 scene 2 when Mary uses Edmunds tuberculosis as an excuse for her to go back to her addiction after which, she apologized and told him that she did not use him as an excuse and that was not her intention at all. Edmund asked Mary what she expects and she replied by saying nothing.

According to her, she did not blame Edmund but her dilemma lies in the fact that how can Edmund believe her when she cannot believe in her own self. She has become a liar but a long time ago, she could not bring herself to lie, not even once. Times have changed because today, she has to lie, even to herself. She admitted that it is indeed difficult for others to understand her when she cannot even understand herself. She has already lost the identity that she once believed she had and it seems that she just stopped living forward. She chooses to live in the past and wallow in her misery because her life them was much better than what it is now (ONeill). The family members quarrel with each other but they often hide their true feelings to one another and as such, the denial here is very apparent. Edmund denies that his mother uses morphine again and she on the other hand, denies the tuberculosis of Edmund. It can be learned that these characters feel that it is better to avoid the problems than deal with them.

When all the characters of of the story are sober, they refuse to accept their faults and acknowledge their mistakes. Together, they are good in blaming other members of the family to argue that they are but the victims of uncontrollable situations. In order to escape their delusions and arguments, they turn to liquor for comfort and in Marys case, morphine. The liquor and the morphine tend to ease the past hurts and at times when they are filled with false courage, they own up to their own faults and learn how to forgive. It is a sad fact that amidst the chaos no one took the initiative to overcome their addiction. Even though at times Jamie says that he may be persuaded to seek help if her mother becomes sober, he still lack the sincerity because he refuses to take responsibility for his own actions (ONeill).

Due to the fact that the present troubles are deeply connected with the past, there is little to work with in the future. The past continues to exert a tight grip so much so that the entire Tyrone family believe that they do not have any hope in changing their situation. The best that they can do is to passively accept their fate as evidenced by James statement in Act 4 when he said that all that they can do is to try to be resigned again. Unfortunately for Mary, the past caught up with her present because she regressed to her childhood memories from the convent thereby completely shutting out her present (ONeill).

Paradox is the dominant figure of speech that dominates the play.  The main theme of the story is the past controlling the present but paradoxically speaking, the past is the present and the future. Alcohol is one of the primary motifs of the play. It is noticeable that the three men in the story all tried to dull their senses with alcohol in order to escape their past but no matter how many whiskeys they drink, they cannot seem to fight it and as such, they are forced to confront each other and to accept responsibility for their part in the family burdens as well as in Marys fate. In Act 4, Edmund confronted James about his experience while he was sailing for Buenos Aires. While he was on the deck witnessing the moonlight and listening to the relaxing sound of the water, he felt deeply connected with nature and he seemed to one with the sea. According to him, this unforgettable experience made him appreciate peace and unity as if there were no past and future. This encounter changed Edmund and taught him to find the meaning of his existence for the first time. His whole life has been filled with trouble and restlessness but this experience at sea took him outside of time and outside of the past. It is of no wonder why he treasured this trip so much because his entire family is dictated by their past  and according to the pay, there is no way that they can escape it yet just one brief moment Edmund became free from the past. Yet, time is indeed fleeting and he cannot live in this state for eternity but at least he was able to discover what freedom taste like (ONeill).

In Act IV, Jamie frankly tells Edmund that he wants to see him become a great success but he must keep his guard because Jamie will do everything to see him fail. He wants to take revenge and he cannot help but think these things. This is an example of a display of frankness in the story. It is no secret that Jamie is a bad influence on Edmund and because he cannot let go of the past, he does not want his brother to move on either. The frankness of the characters in the play suggests that the Tyrone family do not need to mask their feelings. The pain that they are all feeling fills their personality completely thereby pushing their nature so close to th surface. Another example of this frankness is in Act II when Mary speaks of her past in a monologue that resulted from her adduction. As the drug takes effect, she babbles a little but remains aware of her condition. She involuntarily talks about her longing for her life when she was still a little girl. She speaks as if she is speaking to her past self just to ease her present loneliness (ONeill). The final act is likewise important because it portrays that the Tyrone men reach for one another as deeply as anyone can ever do but it leaves the character of Mary.

The family loses faith in each other and as a consequence, they completely lost sight of the future. There are times when they act like there are inevitable forces at work that are out to get them. In addition to this situation, both Jamie and Edmund lose their belief in God and such fact is partly because Catholicism is the religion of their father who is lukewarm in their faith. Those who watched the play capture only the harsh realities of family life thereby failing to recognize the contradiction within the dialogues. The pain is deep but there are responses and situations that alleviate the pain. The essence of this play is a mixture of denial, abuse and acceptance. All characters except Mary changed because at the end, James, Jamie and Edmund has come to accept the truth about how they are but Mary displayed denial until the very end. This is the difference between the honesty of the men in the play and the self-deception of the woman. There is a chance, albeit a small one, that Edmund will get well and that James will stop drinking. Jamie also has the slightest opportunity to branch out unlike Mary who is stuck in her past dreams and her web of lies.

The genre where Long Days Journey into Night belongs to is a tragedy, it leaves the audience feeling cathartic by simply watching the series of emotional events.  It is incredible how the play speaks to a person in many levels. It relates not only to the authors understanding of the dark side of men as they struggle to find the true meaning in their lives but his ability to capture its essence and leave it for the audience to ponder upon. The viewers will learn to love and hate the Tyrone family. They have become trapped in their own world with each others past, feeling guilty yet innocent at the same time, loving, scorning, and understanding each other yet not understanding them completely, forgiving but still doomed not to forget.