Long Day's Journey Into Night Theme Card

QUOTES:
-“It’s the foghorn I hate. It won’t let you alone. It keeps reminding you, and warning you, and calling you back.” -Mary Tyrone, pg. 101
-“No, I know you can’t help thinking it’s a home.” -Mary Tyrone in reference to James and the Tao House, pg. 77
-“Oh, we all realize why you like him [Dr. Hardy], James! Because he’s cheap!” -Mary Tyrone, pg. 76
-”A stinking old miser. Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe I can’t help being, although all my life since I had anything I’ve thrown money over the bar to buy drinks for everyone in the house, or loaned money to sponges I knew would never pay it back--.” -James Tyrone, pg. 149
-”It would be like a curse she can’t escape if worry over Edmund--It was in her long sickness after bringing him into the world that she first--.” -James Tyrone, pg. 39
VEHICLES:
-paradox between James and Jamie in their father-son relationship, similarities
-symbolism of Tao House: representative of James’s cheapness, the tentativeness of the Tyrones’ home situation
-setting: is at root of many of Mary’s problems, family’s dysfunctions (temporary housing, darkness)
-allusion: Tyrone’s constant allusions to Shakespeare in relation to his sons shows that he thinks of them as failures and that he wishes they’d turned out differently; he thinks they are wasting their lives and becoming nothing.
CONFLICTS:
-James and Jamie constantly butt head because they are too much alike; James sees the negative aspects of his character in his son, and Jamie sees very little to live up to in his father.
-Mary is resentful towards James because falling in love with him is what kept her from achieving her dream of being either a nun or a concert pianist.
-Edmund is bitter towards James because his frugality made his mother sick and threatens to kill him if James won’t pay to send him to a good sanitorium.
SUBJECTS:
-vacillation
-blame
-regret
THEMES:
-The dysfunctions of a family as a result of inter-relational conflicts harms the members of that family and leads them down a path of uncertainty, regret, and blame.
-People who are unable to move out of the past due to regret will experience feelings of hopelessness and failure that will keep them from succeeding in life.
PLOT LINE SUMMARY:
The Tyrone family experiences much turmoil when its matriarch, Mary, becomes ill again; she is a morphine addict and has relapsed. A cycle of blame results: the family blames James, the patriarch, and his penny-pinching ways for sending Mary to a cheap sanitorium when her illness first surfaced after the birth of Edmund; the family members subconsciously blame Edmund for causing Mary’s illness, but refrain from truly allowing themselves to believe that because it is unfair; Jamie and Edmund blame their father for not setting a good example for them; and Mary blames James for keeping her from realizing her true potential in life.
TITLE SIGNIFICANCE:
The title embodies the fact that the entire story takes place over one day; the Tyrones’ hope fades into blackness as quickly as the day fades into night.
MAJOR CHARACTERS:
-James Tyrone
-Mary Tyrone
-Jamie Tyrone
-Edmund Tyrone