Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Eugene O’Neill won his first Pulitzer prize in the year 1918 for his play Beyond the Horizon. Anna Christie was published in 1920 and it won his second Pulitzer prize. He again won his third Pulitzer prize in 1928 for Strange Interlude. He died on November 27, 1953. In 1956, he won a posthumous Pulitzer prize for his play Long Day’s Journey into Night making him the only author with four Pulitzer Prizes along with his 1936 Nobel prize for literature. He wrote and completed Long Day’s Night into Journey in the year 1941, but insisted that this play must not be published or made public until 25 years after his death. He did not even copyright this play. Soon after his death, his then-wife forced the play to be published and performed and it proved to be the best work of Eugene O’Neill, which in fact, was an autobiographical play.
The play depicts the happenings of a single day from early morning to midnight in August 1912. The Long Day refers to the situations faced by the members of the Tyrone family and how they end up unresolved and unanswered. Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a tragedy and it is considered one of the best American tragedies along with Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. All four members of the family are facing their own failures while they accuse each other and thus, fail to find any affection, encouragement, compassion, tenderness, and a solution to their problems.
Characters of Long Day’s Journey Into Night
James Tyron is a 65 years old Broadway actor who has been doing the same role for years to ascertain financial stability. However, this has turned him into a stereotypical actor who fails to get versatile roles and proper recognition. He is too much thrifty and his miserliness has led to many problems for the Tyrone family over the years. He is a religious Catholic but has stopped visiting the church. Though he is an alcoholic, he is healthy with a good physique. He is obsessed with money and his only fear is dying in poverty, and thus he is stingy. His wife Mary Tyron is 54 years old but she looks younger, beautiful, and appealing. She is a morphine addict who just returned from rehab but failed to get rid of her addiction that she got during the harrowing birth of her youngest son Edmund as the doctor prescribed her limited cheap morphine as a painkiller. She became dependent and never got rid of it. Throughout the play, she remains self-delusional and nervous, failing to differentiate between the present and the past. Jammie Tyron is James and Marry’s eldest son who is a struggling actor. He is 33 years old. He is an alcoholic and whoremonger that has ruined his reputation and health. Jamie got measles at the age of seven and infected his younger brother Eugene Tyron. While Jamie recuperated, Eugene Tyrion failed and died at the age of 2 years. Mary was more affectionate for Eugene and she believed that Jamie had the intent to harm Eugene. Edmund Tyron is James and Mary’s youngest son. Mary conceived him after the death of Eugene. Edmund is attractive like his father and mother. He is an intellectually inclined poet but hasn’t attained success as a writer. He has some socialist leaning as he has traveled the whole world while working in the merchant navy. He got tuberculosis during one such tour on sea. Cathleen is a housemaid at age 20. She is oblivious or unconcerned about the troubles of Tyron's family members and remains "amiable, ignorant, clumsy with a well-meaning stupidity".
Summary of Long Day’s Journey Into Night
It is a four-act play that takes place in the family hall of Tyron’s house. The play is set in August 1912. Mary and James enter the family hall after taking their breakfast. Mary recently returned from a sanatorium for her morphine addiction. Their son Edmund has also returned from his foreign tour as he works in the merchant navy. Recently, he has got a disturbing cough problem and his health is deteriorating. Edmund enters the hall with his elder brother Jamie. Jamie and James have a tense relationship as Jamie has proven himself a failed actor despite his father being a well-established actor. James accuses his failure to his alcoholism and womanizing attitude. Jamie and starts arguing with James about his miserliness that has caused so many problems for the family. He says that James is like Old Gaspard", a character from the opera Les cloches de Corneville, who is also a miser. Edmund and Mary intervene and try to calm both of them. Edmund then tells a joke about one of their tenants. However, James doesn’t appreciate his joke as it shows his socialist leanings. James accuses him of being an anarchist. Jamie gets offended and decides to go upstairs to his room. He coughs disturbingly while going upstairs. James notices this and says that Edmund appears to be truly sick and he is worried. Jamie is also worried about Edmund but Mary refuses to believe that Edmund is sick and doesn’t want James to mention his sickness. She decides to go to the kitchen and supervise Cathleen who is the housemaid. As she goes away, Jamie and James discuss her health with Edmund. Jamie says that Edmund might be suffering from consumption. While both are compassionate towards Edmund, they soon start arguing over their own differences. James accuses Jamie of being directionless and advises him to control his alcohol abuse and remain away from women. He wishes Jamie to convert to Catholicism and visit Church regularly. James on the other hand isn’t religiously inclined. He blames his father for the family problems and accuses him of being the cause of Mary’s addiction to morphine. He says that she turned into an addict because of her husband’s bargain hunting and the consequent shoddy medical care. During the birth of Edmund, Mary suffered intense pain and difficulties while delivering. The doctor advised some pain killers but Jamie consulted his friend Doctor Hardy to get some cheap options and Doctor Hardy provided some cheap controlled morphine to reduce pain. Mary continued to use morphine to relieve her pain and soon became addicted. Soon their accusations become heated arguments. Mary returns at the same moment and both men shut their mouths. Both Jamie and James decide to go and mend the garden and the grass of the lawn.
Edmund returns to the hall and starts talking to Mary. He is worried about her health and wants her to get rid of her addiction. She says that she has overcome her addiction and says that she is more worried about Edmund’s health. Edmund is not convinced that Mary has gotten rid of her addiction. He says that she should forget her past and take care of the present. Mary tries to avoid the discussion and says that it is all because of the miserliness of James because of which she never got a real home. Edmund then goes to the lawn to rest under the shade leaving Mary alone.
After some time, Mary goes upstairs to her room while Edmund returns to the hall where Cathleen is cleaning up. He starts a friendly banter with Cathleen when Jamie returns to the hall and sneaks some alcohol from his father’s closet. After taking some drink, he says that Mary has been too long upstairs alone and he fears she is taking morphine again. Edmund opposes him and says that she has stopped taking morphine. Mary comes downstairs and her disheveled hair and detached manner confirm Jamie’s suspicion. Edmund is forced to accept that his mother failed in getting rid of her addiction. James enters the hall too and realizes that Mary has used morphine again. They take their lunch together and soon Mary goes upstairs again to take her next shot. Cathleen has been ignorantly helping her in getting morphine. As soon as she goes upstairs, the three men start arguing again. Soon the phone rings and James goes to attend to it. It is a call from Doctor Hardy. Edmund and Jamie notice their father’s manner after he returns from the call and surmise that it is not good news. Edmund decides to go upstairs to talk to his mother while James informs Jamie that Edmund is suffering from tuberculosis. Jamie urges his father to not act miserly again and provide better medical care for Edmund. He goes out and waits for Edmund so that both brothers may go to the town for some lighter moments. Mary and Edmund return downstairs to the hall. Edmund tells his mother to resist taking any more morphine. Mary refuses to accept that she has taken any, though it pretty clear from her confused eyes and uncontrolled speech. Edmund leaves with Jamie to the town. As James and Mary are alone, they talk about Edmund. Mary and James decided to give birth to Edmund because of the death of Eugene, their second son who died at the age of 2. Jamie was 7 years old then. Jamie got sick with measles and Eugene got the infection from him. While Jamie recuperated, Eugene failed and died. Mary says that Jamie had this inclination to harm his younger brothers and this is the reason why Edmund is sick now. James also comes out to the lawn. Mary is alone in the hall. At first, she is relieved that nobody is going to question her about morphine now. But soon she starts feeling lonely and that worries her. She calls Cathleen and they start chatting. She offers whiskey to Cathleen and asks about her childhood dreams. Cathleen says that she would like to be a nun or a concert pianist. Mary also tells her about her youth and how she fell in love with Tyron and left her vocation.
In the evening, Edmund and James return from the town and observe that Mary has taken more morphine and she is delusional. Mary faces Edmund and warns him of Jamie. She says that Jamie doesn’t like Edmund and wants him to be a failure like he is. She then starts talking about Jamie’s childhood and how her son got addicted to alcohol because of his bad habits of James. Mary reminds James of their marriage. She talks about their first night and how much she loved her husband. She starts talking about her wedding gown and how she ruined it. She doesn’t remember where is her wedding dress now. Edmund again tries to convince her mother to stop using morphine but talking about the past hurts Mary so he stops and leaves. James and Mary are alone again. He asks her to take dinner with him. But she decides to go upstairs again as she is not feeling hungry. James realizes that she is going to get some more morphine and he doesn’t stop her.
Edmund returns late at night and finds his father alone, playing solitaire. He starts talking to him and they have an argument over Mary’s addiction. Then James tells Edmund about his childhood and how he faced poverty. He says that he continued to play the same role to ascertain financial security but this has ruined his career. He says that despite being a talented actor, he cannot get any better roles now because he has been stereotyped. James then says that his only fear is to die in poverty and that is why he is stingy and tries to save as much money as he can. Edmund understands his father better now. He tells him about his experiences at sea and how he hopes to become a successful poet. Jamie knocks on the door at the same time and James realizes that he is drunk again. He goes away from the hall to avoid any argument with Jamie. Jamie comes in and starts talking to Edmund. He says that though he loves Edmund, he doesn’t want him to succeed as a poet and he will try to make Edmund fail. Jamie is too much drunk and he passes out. James goes to his drawer and notices that Jamie has stolen some of his alcohol. He comes back to the hall and sees Jamie snoozing. He sits down with Edmund. Jamie wakes up after some time and James starts quarreling with him over alcohol. Mary comes downstairs at the same time with her wedding gown in her hands. The men notice that she is out of her mind and is in the deep effect of morphine. She barely recognizes them while talking about her marriage as if she is lost in the past. She says how she has sacrificed her vocation to marry Tyron. Her husband and sons watch her helplessly while she is not able to recognize them. The play ends at the midnight with no solution to the problems of Tyron's family.
It was an autobiographical drama. Eugene O’Neill’s father was an actor while his mother was also an actor who got addicted to morphine. Eugene O’Neill himself worked as a sailor and he got consumption during one of his tours on the sea after which he was admitted to a sanatorium for health care. Later on, he established himself as a writer and won four Pulitzer prizes. The character of Edmund Tyron is based on Eugene O’Neill.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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