108 assignment (Semester-2)

Subject :- Important Themes and symbols in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night.

Name: Himanshi Parmar 

paper: 22401 Paper 108: The American Literature.

Roll no: 08

Enrollment no : 4069206420210025

Email id: himanshiparmar3004@gmail.com

Batch : 2021-2023(M.A sem 2) 

submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English, maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji bhavnagar University

Introduction :-

Long day's journey into night is a well known American play written by Eugene O’Neill in 1939 - 41. The play is widely considered as one of the finest play of the 20th century. It was first published posthumously in 1956. The play also received many awards like, 1] Tony Award for Best Play. 2] Pulitzer Prize in 1957, And others. This play 'Long day's Journey Into Night' is also considered as a semi - autobiographical play based on the playwright's own life. And that is the reason that O'Neill did not permit the publisher to publish this play until 25 years after His death. But soon after his death, his wife permitted him to publish the play and it got worldwide fame.

There are so many themes and symbols O' Neill used in his play and give it immortality and a special touch. The themes he used are, 1] Denial and Self - delusion, 2] The Haunting presence of the past, 3] The destructive power of addiction, 4] Loss of Faith,5] Forgiveness, 6] Isolation, 7] Breakdown of communication etc. Some symbols are also used in play like, 1] Fog, 2] Alcohol, 3] Wedding Dress ect. Here is the detailed information about all. But before that let me briefly discuss the storyline of the play.

Summary of the play :-

The play Long Day's Journey into Night is about the Tyrone family and is set in their summer house in 1912. The story begins just after lunch time, in the morning. Mary, the mother of Jamie and Edmund and a wife of James Tyron, was just returned to her family recently after receiving treatment in a sanatorium for morphine addiction.  At the same time period started coughing so widely and later we came to know that he has tuberculosis. We also came to know that Mary is still addicted to morphine. And Mary and Jamie try to suspect Edmund's condition of tuberculosis from Mary.

The main story is just about the addiction of both the characters. But the other addictions are also there, for example James, Jamie and Edmund are also addicted to Alcohol. The family constantly revisit the old fights and blame each other for what happened in the past and because of what condition they are suffering now. They have Lots of problems in their life like economical problems, health issues, mental instability and the regret and guilt of the past. And they are ruining their present by looking back to the past events. Most of the parts of play are repetitious and about quarrel between Father - Son, Husband - Wife, Brother - Brother etc.

Themes in Long Day's Journey Into Night :- 

1] Denial and Self - delusion :-

All four Tyrone members are living in self - delusion and denying their own faults and blaming others for their condition and illness. They all are Blaming others for what is happening with them and behaving as a victim. For example, Jamie blames his father James for His mother's addiction and tells him that just because he hires a cheap doctor during her pregnancy, is the reason she became addicted to morphine. Because that doctor gave her painkillers which have the majority of morphine in it.

   Similarly Mary is also blaming James that he is not able to give them a good, satisfied life, and not even provided them a good fortune and that's the reason they have no other house axcepting Summer home. Jamie also blames her mother Mary that the mess in their family is somewhere because of her also because she is not able to see anything out of morphine and that leads their family in chaos.

2] The Haunting presence of the past :-

In this find Mary is the one who is constantly going back into her past and counting faults of her and others. Other members are also returning into their past but Mary is one of the main among them. Mary says that,

"The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future too". - Mary Tyrone.

Mary dwells into the past, and remembers that she once wanted to be a nun, but then she fell in love with James and married him but in the end she got no satisfaction from him and no happiness at all. Somewhere she has that regret that is why she chose relations instead of separation from the world. Because the more we are attached to something, the more pain we feel.

Mary also makes the audience or readers aware about the past of James Tyrone. Who failed to give them good fortune and peace to her. Jamie also remembers the past event that her mother got addicted to morphine because James didn't appoint a good doctor for her. 

3] The destructive power of addiction :-

  The whole Tyrone family is addicted to something and something. For example,

Mary -  Morphine

James - Alcohol 

Jamie - Women and Alcohol 

Edmund - Alcohol.

The addiction is their reaction or we can say escapism from the reality of their past and present. They are trying to control their thoughts and past by living into illusions,  but in reality we find that it is not Tyrones who are controlling their pasts but it is addiction who is controlling all of them. The main reason for their addiction is that they are not able to accept their presents and their guilt of the past. And ruining their life under addiction.

4] Loss of Faith :-

If we see we find that Mary and James both belong from Catholicism. And now have very less faith in god. Similarly Jamie and Edmund already lost their faith in god. All the Tyrones don't even have faith in themselves, that it is very hard for them to believe in god. They are highly pessimistics. Instead of trying or believing in god they left their life on fate and started accepting what is happening with them. They initially lost their faith in god. 

5] Forgiveness :-

The family is living under hatred and jealousy and is not able to forgive each other for what happened in the past. In this case only Edmund is vise enough to understand that forgiveness is very important for mental peace.and only he is able to forget everything and move ahead to see a better present and future for him and his family. But all other tyrones are still stuck in the past and carrying all the hatreds and jealousy with them and ruining their own present as well as future. 

 6] Isolation :-

Although the four Tyrones live under the same roof this summer, there is a deep sense of isolation. Family meals, a central activity of family bonding, are absent from the play. Lunch happens between acts, and dinner falls apart as everyone in the family goes his separate way. Mary is isolated in a different way as she is the only woman in the family, so because of her gender she feels isolated.

Symbols in the Long Day's Journey Into Night.

1] Fog :-

fog we find all around the tyrone family house, it is symbolizing Mary's state of mind after taking morphine. It reflects the fear in Mary that she is under the chaos and problems because of it's addiction to morphine. Tyrone predicted that the fog is gone for good, but he later has to admit it is returning just as Mary's addiction is resurfacing. At the first time Mary doesn't like fog but as the play moves on she starts liking the fog and in fact loves fog now. Which shows her fear of looking into reality and fog is symbolised as a vagueness on it which she loves.

Also fog symbolises Edmund's denial of his fears about being seriously ill. He says that fog creates an atmosphere "where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself." Jamie and Edmund refer to Mary's addiction as a "fog" as well.

2] Alcohol :-

We find all the three men in Tyrone's family are addicted to alcohol. Here O'Neill used alcohol as a symbol of destruction. But still it must be noted that alcohol is showing less destructive than Mary's morphine addiction. All three men have different reasons for their addiction. James takes alcohol to forget the regret that he didn't succeed in fulfilling his parental duties. Also we find both the sons Edmund and Jamie keep asking for some money so that they can drink full. And James provides them without asking for reasons because he also believes that his sons also need addiction to forget about his mother's morphine addiction. But ultimately it is ruining their lives.

3] Mary's Wedding Dress :-

In the last act of the play, Mary wears her wedding dress again and walks down the stairs. Her wedding dress is symbolizing her hope for future and clarification of past that is why she once was chosen to Marry Tyrone instead of being nun.As Mary says in her last line, when she fell in love with Tyrone she was "so happy for a time." The dress symbolizes this happiness, now neglected and forgotten. 

Conclusion :-

Thus to conclude we are able to say that the play Long Day's Journey Into Night looks like it is a simple, tragedy play. Which only talks about tragedy and addiction of family with the title Tyrone family. But in a deeper way the play is more than this. It has lots of symbols, themes, autobiographical elements etc. Which created a kind of great sense of understanding and raised its importance.

References :-

“Long Day's Journey into Night.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Feb. 2022, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Day's_Journey_into_Night. 

O'Neill, Eugene. “Long Day's Journey into Night Symbols: Course Hero.” Long Day's Journey into Night Symbols | Course Hero, Andrew Grauer, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Long-Days-Journey-into-Night/symbols/. 

https://yeshab68.blogspot.com/2022/01/long-days-journey-into-night-eugene.html