Long Day’s Journey Into Night Analysis

Eugene O’Neill’s play, Long Day’s Journey Into Night is not morbid, full of despair and hopelessness or unpleasant. James, Mary, Jamie, and Edmund Tyrone all had the opportunity to change their ways. The Tyrone family had opportunities of redemption to help each other and help themselves but they chose to not to take them, even though they all loved each other they couldn't help one another as much as they needed but the opportunity of hope was still present.

O’Neill’s play is not morbid because of the meaning of the word. Morbid means “suggesting an unhealthy mental state or attitude” (“Morbid”). James Tyrone the Father of Jamie, Edmund, and late Eugene struggled with the addiction of alcohol. Even though this addiction is not healthy he wasn’t in a bad mental state, he was a functioning alcoholic throughout the entire play. Mary the Wife of James was addicted to morphine. She was a functioning drug addict for most of the play, but towards the end her addiction was changing her for the worse. "None of us can help the things life has done to us”( O’Neill ). Mary states this because she knows that the family’s addictions and also her addiction isn’t from things that happened now they are from problems of the past. Jamie the oldest son struggles with an addiction of alcohol, but also money and women. He isn’t in an unhealthy mental state because he functions everyday normally and he truly believes that he isn’t good enough for himself or for his parents. Edmund is the youngest son and he struggles with alcoholism. He is a functioning alcoholic who is very ambitious unlike his brother Jamie. “…For a second there is meaning! Then the hand lets the veil fall and you are alone…” (O’Neill 4.1.148). Edmund if trying to find the meaning...

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...ouglas Harper, 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

Works Citied

Black, Stephen A. "A Word to the Reader." Preface. Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy. 1st ed. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1999. N. pag. A Word to the Reader. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

Bogard, Travis. "Contour in Time." Introduction. Contour in Time: The Plays of Eugene O'Neill. New York: Oxford Univ., 1988. N. pag. The Door and the Mirror: Next Long Day's Journey into Night. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

"Despair." Dictionary.com. HarperCollins Publishers, 1998. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

"Hopelessness." Dictionary.com. HarperCollins Publishers, 1998. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

"Morbid." Dictionary.com. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

O'Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journey into Night. New Haven: Yale UP, 1956. Print.

"Unpleasant." Dictionary.com. Douglas Harper, 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.