Long Day’s Journey Essay
I abide by the honor code:
"Eugene O'Neill, October 16, 1888 ~ November 27, 1953 America's greatest playwright was born on this site then called Barrett Hotel, Presented by Circle in the Square." reads the plaque on what is now a Starbucks, commemorating the place of O’Neill’s birth. Eugene O’Neill wrote many plays dealing with real life issues such as relationships between family members. He became one of the first playwrights to introduce into American drama the methods of realism. In O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey into Night his real life family became characters of the Tyrone family. One character in particular, Edmund Tyrone, parallels the life and thoughts of Eugene. Also Eugene O’Neill’s presence is felt throughout the play, as the true narrator. Long Day’s Journey into Night is truly an autobiographical work of the life Eugene O’Neill lead.
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was born on October 16, 1888 to James and Mary Ellen O’Neill. The third and last child of the family, Eugene had two older brothers, James Jr., known as Jamie, and Edmund, who died two years after his birth. More is shared between O’Neill’s real family and his fictional one, the Tyrones, than the same names. Both James O’Neill and James Tyrone were Irish immigrant actors on the stages of New York, playing the same characters including Edmund Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo. Each James also regrettably buys the exclusive rights to this play. Mary Ellen “Ella” O’Neill also shares much in common with Mary Tyrone. The pair both received Catholic educations from nuns and harbored musical talent. The way in which James and Mary O’Neill met matches exactly the way James and Mary Tyrone met. Backstage with her father, each Mary encounters her future husband and falls at first sight. Jamie O’Neill and Jamie Tyrone share an addiction to alcohol. A more serious commonality between the two is the responsibility felt for the death of the second son, Edmund in O’Neill’s life and Eugene in the Tyrones’ lives. The second sons died very early of measles contracted from the Jamies. Another parallel in this situation lies within the mother’s problems resulting from the tragic death of her second son. Each Mary becomes addicted to morphine after this death and fights the addiction for years. These obvious similarities between Eugene O’Neill’s life and Long Day’s Journey into Night show the autobiographical tendencies that help O’Neill’s methods of realism prosper.
Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone share similar qualities, feelings, and thoughts. Each is the third child, attached to poetry, afflicted with tuberculosis, and influenced by his older brother. Prominent issues of the pairs lives are brought about by the guidance of their older brothers. Each learns the ins and outs of the less-than-respectable places where they meet women and drink their sorrows away, squandering money in the process from a Jamie. While both are misguided by their brothers, they are also helped along. Each Jamie helps their little brother by introducing him to writers and poets such as Friedrich Nietzche and Hendrik Ibsen. Eugene and Edmund also feel deep mourn over their lives, becoming alcoholics. O’Neill attempts to commit suicide by an overdose, while Edmund’s continual drinking worsens his consumption and threatens to kill him. O’Neill was sent to a less than wonderful sanatorium to treat his consumption, while Edmund is too on that path. Another correlation between Eugene and Edmund is the love of the sea. Edmund only feels alive at sea and believes he was born as the wrong thing; a seagull would have suited him better. Eugene takes many voyages to sea, which inspire him. He wrote many plays centered around the sea, including Warnings and Fog.
Eugene O’Neill’s presence in Long Day’s Journey into Night is omniscient. He acts as the ultimate narrator. O’Neill’s voice can be heard through each of the main characters, as explained by Bruce J. Mann. A similar style is shown in the ways that James, Mary, Jamie, and Edmund speak. Numerous examples are utilized in “O’Neill’s ‘Presence’ in Long Day’s Journey into Night” of similar speech patterns such as, when angry they all speak with short, simple statements. There are also consistent feelings towards the fog between the characters, seemingly portraying and enforcing O’Neill’s own ideas on the subject. Mann gives the examples of:
“Mary: (Dreamily) It wasn't the fog I minded, Cathleen. I really love fog. ... It hides you from the world and the world from you. You feel that everything has changed, and nothing is what it seemed to be. No one can find or touch you any more.” and
“Edmund:(Staring before him) The fog was where I wanted to be. Halfway down the path you can't see this house. You'd never know it was here. Or any of the other places down the avenue. I couldn't see but a few feet ahead. I didn't meet a soul. Everything looked and sounded unreal. Nothing was what it is. That's what I wanted--to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself.”.
All of these similarities between speech patterns and feelings leads the reader to believe that these characters are no longer singular, but are all centered in the main narrator of O’Neill. Each character is presented as individuals, but upon examination they seem to be revealed as variations of one character. “All four are lonely, self-conscious, talkative individuals who are slaves to tormenting memories.” explains Munn. O’Neill shares this self-loathing, haunted by memories characteristic. O’Neill divulges into his own past to create the Tyrone’s past and present, causing each character to suffer.
Eugene O’Neill lived a life of ever-changing depression, love, and true self acceptance. He fathered three children, two sons and one daughter, to whom he “acted” as a father, paralleling the position of James Tyrone. He never was truly close to any of them, and felt like he could have done much better when both of his sons committed suicide. O’Neill’s feelings on life and the helplessness many humans feel is expressed through the lives of the Tyrones, which are true portrayals of his own life. Long Day’s Journey into Night is an autobiography of the life Eugene O’Neill lived.
Works Cited
1. Stilling, Roger J. "Eugene O'Neill." Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part 3. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 331. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. Edison College,CCLA. 22 Sept. 2008http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRG&u=lincclin_ecc.
2. Mann, Bruce J. "O'Neill's 'Presence' in Long Day's Journey into Night." Theatre Annual. 43.(1988) 15-30. Rpt. in Drama Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 20. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 15-30. Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. Edison College,CCLA. 22 Sept. 2008
