Long Day's Journey Into Night Mini Research Paper

Authors often choose to focus their works on events that have occurred in their own lives in order to record their experiences. They can make sense of them by writing them out, and portray the events in the context of a character’s life. Authors who choose to do this have usually lived through situations which are difficult or remarkable in some way, and that are easily related to by readers who may find themselves in the same place. Eugene O’Neill lived a life of instability and difficulties which doubtlessly led him to his life as writer and, therefore, to the autobiographical writing in his play Long Day’s Journey Into Night, in which O’Neill portrays a day in the life of the Tyrone family. The Tyrones are modeled after O’Neill’s family, with James and Mary Tyrone representing his parents and their children representing himself in various ways.
O’Neill’s presence in his work is not outright, but easily implied through the experiences of his characters. He is seen as portraying himself in two different ways throughout the play: as his older self, viewing from afar, and his younger self, symbolized by Edmund Tyrone (Mann). The purpose of this dual existence is to unite and reconcile the older O’Neill with his younger self. Edmund Tyrone’s very existence and role in his family is representative of those of O’Neill; he is responsible for his mother’s relapse into illness and drug use, and as the author, too had a drug-addicted mother, readers may infer that he carries some guilt for her problems. Just as Mary’s issues influenced Edmund, so too did those of O’Neill’s mother influence her son; his very view of life and the human condition were shaped by her suffering, which in turn influenced his writing.
In the play, O’Neill is an “unseen narrator” (Mann) who, as an adult, shifts his view of his family. While growing up under their influence, he saw himself as their victim; as a more mature, experienced adult, O’Neill sees that they, in fact, were victims of fate itself and that his early life led to his later career (Mann). James O’Neill, father of the author, is a miserly actor whose actions and principles convinced his son to subscribe to and maintain his own parameters in relation to his writing; he is represented in the play by James Tyrone. O’Neill had an older brother who was self-destructive and introduced his younger brother to the influential writings of controversial figures at the time, much like Jamie Tyrone. The suffering of O’Neill’s drug-addicted mother shaped his opinions on human life as a somewhat negative experience; the shortcomings of Mary Tyrone has a similar effect on her children (Mann).
The actions and behaviors of each of the Tyrones has an effect on every other member of the family. Edmund’s birth led to Mary’s sickness, James’s miserly ways led to her morphine addiction, James’s bad example led to his son Jamie’s discontentment with his life and the fact that he has nothing to live up to; all of these feelings coalesce to create a dysfunctional, discontented family unit made up of people who blame each other for their problems. Edmund blames his father’s cheapness for Mary’s addiction by accusing him: “It never should have gotten a hold on her! I know damned well she's not to blame! And I know who is! You are! Your damned stinginess! If you'd spent money for a decent doctor when she was so sick after I was born, she'd never have known morphine existed!” (O’Neill 140). The fact that O’Neill’s parents fit the same descriptions as James and Mary Tyrone leads readers to conclude that O’Neill himself places the same blame on his own father for his mother’s addiction. It is through the author’s blatant representation of his own family members by the Tyrones that readers are able to infer the more private issues of the family through those that of the Tyrones. Mary’s addiction to drugs led Edmund to his feelings of loneliness and his desire of solitude, as expressed through his being “dissolved in the sea” (O’Neill 156) much as O’Neill’s mother’s addiction led him to those same conclusions about abandonment and loneliness, a representation of the human condition and recognition of human limitations and shortcomings (Mann).
O’Neill’s usage of his play as a portrayal of his own life is effective as it centers on a theme of human suffering. This theme is universal to all people and easy for leaders to relate to; it is easy for readers to sympathize with the characters and, therefore, the author himself. As O’Neill’s presence in the work is implied as being that of a narrator or observer, readers understand that he has come to peace with the events of his life. He is able to separate himself from them enough to objectify them as the happenings of another family, though they are directly based on those of his own. O’Neill’s comprehension of the events that led his parents to their situations in life and the way he allowed them to shape his own life gives people hope for letting negative experiences lead to positive outcomes.












Works Cited

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 Resource Center. Gale. LEE COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM. 21 Sept. 2008
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O'Neill, Eugene, and Harold Bloom. Long Day's Journey into Night. New York: Yale UP, 2002.