Long Day’s Journey Into Night’s Genre: Tragedy
Originally Published: 1956
Playwright: Eugene O’Neill
Characters: Mary Tyrone, James Tyrone Jr., James Tyrone, Edmund Tyrone, Cathleen
Setting: The Summer Home of the Tyrones, August 1912
About Eugene O’Neill:
Before we go ahead and have a detailed look at the Review of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, It is important to know about the playwright.
Eugene O’Neill is the U.S. foremost playwright and dramatist. He won a Laureate Prize in 1936 for “the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy.” His name cannot be ignored when it comes to theatre because he ingrained human emotions, the psychology of a layman, and multiplex ties of social concerns and human struggles in his plays.
Brief Overview:
A tale pregnant with failures and disappointments!
I was profoundly impressed as well as saddened after reading the play for the author had beautifully captured the reality.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night carries a gloomy and sombre expression that captivates the audience and promises entertainment. Each character of the play is doomed and filled with resentment. However, every one of them self-analyzes yet blames the other for his failures.
Long Day’s Journey into Night was finished on December 20th,1940 as the author mentioned at the end of the manuscript. It was a gift for his wife on the occasion of their 12th wedding anniversary.
For Carlotta, on Our 12th Wedding Anniversary
Dearest: I give you the original script of this play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood. A sadly inappropriate gift, it would seem, for a day celebrating happiness. But you will understand. I mean it as a tribute to your love and tenderness which gave me the faith in love that enabled me to face my dead at last and write this play — write it with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all the four haunted Tyrones.
These twelve years, Beloved One, have been a Journey into Light — into love. You know my gratitude.
The play is the dramatic story of an American family with two sons and unhappy with their lives as most of O’Neill’s characters are. The story unfolds in four acts and the action is set at the summer house of the Tyrones, on a day of August in 1912. In Act III, we learn about a fog coming from (Long Island) Sound that is in New York, so the house is in Connecticut.
What is the Long Day’s Journey Into Night About?
This play is set in the house of the Tyrones in Summer and it revolves around the lives of four characters of the Tyrone family. James Tyrone, the family’s head, is an actor (but has sold his role for money), a penny pincher, and an alcoholic. He has been contrived after the real-life father figure of the playwright. Mary Tyrone, the wife of James just returned from treatment for morphine addiction. The elder son, Jamie Tyrone, is also an alcoholic who wastes his money on booze and prostitutes. He is a fiasco who is dependent on his father. Edmund Tyrone is the youngest son who bibliophile. But, like his father and elder brother, he is also an alcoholic. Moreover, he is suffering from tuberculosis. Edmund, unlike his brother, has a job.
Drwoned in the failures, the family frees itself from taking responsibility and tosses blame at each other. The play depicts family struggles, shattered dreams, intoxication, and drug addictions.
Review of Long Day’s Journey Into Night:
This play creates an aura of gloominess and sadness in all four scenes. Whenever the family members get together, they either talk about bizarre and sad chapters of their lives or dive into their past lives. Nostalgic memories of the characters are equally shadowy and cheery.
Besides this, O’Neill has successfully portrayed a real home that is imploding. The resulting series of reactions definitely collect accolades from the audience. And their reactions underscore only one thing, that is, reality. All characters do self-analysis from time to time, yet do not take full responsibility for their demise. For instance, James does not believe that his wife has a morphine addiction due to his pinchpenny’s ways. On top of that, he blames and insults Jamie for being a loser in his life. The lack of penetrating affection between a son and a father gives you a slight heartache.
O’Neill once said that his goal was “to get an audience to leave the theatre with an exultant feeling from seeing somebody on stage facing life, fighting against the eternal odds, not conquering but perhaps inevitably conquered. The individual life is made significant just by the struggle.” His goal seems to be accomplished as the audience and readers of the play experience thrill and struggle throughout the play. They feel that their struggle is real and unendurable, yet bizarre.
Undoubtedly, O’Neill experimented with using simultaneous action onstage. It can be observed in the play clearly at many points.
When you read a play where the characters are portrayed as both selfish and mean, you will find yourself hating those characters. However, this is not the case here. O’Neill’s characters (both George and Martha) are so pathetic and wretched, apparently helpless when it comes to change or even controlling their own lives, seemingly powerless to remove their weaknesses, and their habit of hurting and blaming others becomes a kind of coping mechanism that helps them avoid facing their real inner misery and its causes.
In simple words, It is utterly engrossing, heartbreaking, and a pleasure to read.
“None of us can help the things life has done to us. They’re done before you realize it, and once they’re done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you’d like to be, and you’ve lost your true self forever.”
-Eugene O’Neill
Writing Style:
The writing style of the playwright is exceptionally realistic, simple, and straightforward. As the play showcases the lives of ordinary people, O’Neill uses layman’s language to instill reality in the play. Nonetheless, he has used poetic expression in the play.
Recommendation:
What does the Review of Long Day’s Journey Into Night suggest? Is it worth giving the shot?
Yes, if you are a fan of tragedy, the play is for you. Or, if you are into classic literature, nothing will be more entertaining than this play.
Do give it a read and next thing you know, it will be on your list of favorite books.
