Eugene O’Neill’s Long day’s journey into night depicts the story of the Tyrone’s, an estranged and divided family. O’Neill’s play takes place during only one day, in which we can observe the family’s fragmented nature and problems. The Tyrone family is defined by their persistent problems that shape not only the narrative of the play, but also the relationships between the members of the family. These numerous issues also lead to an endless cycle of argues and fierce conflicts.
Long day’s journey into night deals with various themes and motifs which are recurrent in other American dramas. The main thread is represented by the image of a dysfunctional family, which is extremely influenced by various external and internal factors. Eugene O’Neill takes the portrait of the ideal American family and tears it to pieces by introducing several afflictions and burdens.
These factors appear in the form of various diseases and illnesses that take over the characters and slowly dissolve their lives and relationships. Furthermore, the problems that plague the members of the family are not only related to health issues, but they are also linked to their own conscious. The Tyrone’s are greatly affected by certain past events which proved to be turning points in their lives. Lacan’s theory can be applied to O’Neill’s play because the characters exhibit symptoms which belong to the three orders: the Real, the Imaginary and the Symbolic.
Jacques Lacan’s division of the psyche can be identified within the structure of Long day’s journey into night because they influence and determine the lives and decisions of the characters, while also configuring new values for the typical American family.
According to Lacan, the Real represents the state...
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...of alcohol or morphine, thus allowing them to escape their depressing reality. As a consequence they fall into a world of illusions, unfulfilled desires and past regrets that shape and influence their lives in the present, becoming the prisoners of their own conscious and fantasies. Thus, Jacques Lacan’s theory regarding the division of the human psyche can be clearly identified within O’Neill’s play, as evidenced by the characters’ personality traits, along with their repressed desires and lack of any kind of contentment.
Works Cited
Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Lacan: On the Structure of the Psyche." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. (2012) Purdue U. Visited on: 21.01.2014, Available at: http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/lacanstructure.html
O’Neill, E. (1956). Long day’s journey into night, New Haven & London: Yale University Press
?If you remain imprisoned in self denial then days, weeks, months, and years, will continue to be wasted.? In the play, 7 stories, Morris Panych exhibits this denial through each character differently. Man, is the only character who understands how meaningless life really is. All of the characters have lives devoid of real meaning or purpose, although they each have developed an absurd point or notion or focus to validate their own existence. In this play, the characters of Charlotte and Rodney, are avoiding the meaninglessness of their lives by having affairs, drinking, and pretending to kill each other to enhance excitement into their life.
...le for them throughout the play, and it came to a head at the end of their lives. This play highlights the importance of identity, by showing what happens without it. Without your identity, you will pass through life with no purpose, until you stopped living.
The scenes, which cover thirty years of the characters’ lives from eight to thirty-eight, each revolve around an injury that Doug has acquired through his accident prone life. The play progresses in five year intervals, jumping backwards and forwards, in a nonlinear progression. As they travel and run into each other’s lives, the two characters face new injuries. As the play progresses every five years, a new injury is added to one or both characters. Their lives intersect through these injuries, leading them to compare their wounds, both physical (Doug) and emotional (Kayleen), and drawing them closer together. With each new scene, old injuries and problems may have gotten better or resolved, but some became permanent. Yet, through these experiences, they are bonded together through bloodstains, cuts, and bandages.
In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of An Hour,” there are contrasting images of light and dark representing happiness and unhappiness. It isn’t until Louise Mallard thinks that her husband, Brentley Mallard, is dead that she really begins to realize just how unhappy she has been. Chopin shows through the characters light and dark imagery that speaks to this essay.
James Joyce created a collection of short stories in Dubliners describing the time and place he grew up in. At the time it was written, Joyce intends to portray to the people of Dublin the problems with the Irish lifestyles. Many of these stories share a reoccurring theme of a character’s desire to escape his or her responsibilities in regards to his relationship with his, job, money situation, and social status; this theme is most prevalent in After the Race, Counterparts, and The Dead.
While Night and Life is Beautiful demonstrate family being more valuable than a life similarly, in comparison their development of silencing the truth contrasts significantly. The reasoning behind the views of Night is to open the eyes of the people who did
123 help me editors, “symbolism in ‘The Story of an Hour.’” 123 help me, Inc., n.d web. 17 Mar 2014
In Dubliners, James Joyce tells short stories of individuals struggling with life, in the city of Dublin. “It is a long road that has no turning” (Irish Proverb). Many individuals fight the battle and continue on the road. However, some give up and get left behind. Those who continue to fight the battle, often deal with constant struggle and suffering. A reoccurring theme, in which Joyce places strong emphasis on, is the constant struggle of fulfilling responsibilities. These responsibilities include; work, family and social expectations. Joyce writes about these themes because characters often feel trapped and yearn to escape from these responsibilities. In “The Little Cloud”, “Counterparts”, and “The Dead” characters are often trapped in unhappy living situations, often leading to a desire of escape from reality and daily responsibilities.
The annual holiday party thrown by the Morkan Sisters is described as “a great affair” that “never once had…fallen flat.” (Joyce 175). There is always music, dancing, and a grand feast, and each year the attendees include pupils from Mary Jane Morkan’s class, friends, family, and chorale members. The party appears to take place in the same fashion each year. This illuminates the notion that the Irish paralysis was a result of their habit of repeating the past without any thought to how the present has changed. Another manifestation o...
Psychoanalytic Theory itself has, what seems to be, two contradictory halves: Freudian psychoanalysis and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The first half focuses solely on the author and the unconscious mind; the second considers the unconscious, but prefers to concentrate on outside influences by deconstructing the text itself. According to Freud, interpretation is achieved by examining conflicts and symbols, such as Freudian slips and dream images. These outlets are help to determine whether an individual’s external behavior coincides (or conflicts) with their internal emotion. Freud placed emphasis on sexuality and the Oedipus complex, which is the idea of repressed sexual feelings toward a parent of opposite sex. He also defined three levels of the subconscious mind: the ego, the super-ego, and the id. Barry explains that the stages align with “the consciousness, the conscience, and the unconscious” respectively (93). On the other hand, Lacan, a follower of Freud, concentrated on the relationship between an author and his or her work. He claimed the two were inexorably connected, that objectivity is nonexistent. In an essence: an author’s personality is used to interpret the text and, in contrast, the text is used to gain insight about the author. Regardless of the emphasis, psychoanalytic criticism engages an
The madness of each individual is not realistic, but the idea that death, grievance, and revenge can drive someone to do things that seem to be mad or make them do things out of their nature. Overall, we see that the theme of madness has a significant impact on the conflicts and overall development of the play as well as the characters themselves and is successfully conveyed. Shakespeare developed a theme that tied the many important emotions and ideas together to make the play what it is. He used Ophelia’s grief and love, Hamlet’s wit and ruminative nature to convey a theme that could be related to more than the one character, and tie all of the conflicts and complications down to one cause.
In my report I plan to prove that Eugene O'Neill's life affected the content and main ideas of his plays. I will go through moments in Eugene's life that were significant, then I will compare them to plays that Eugene made. Eugene's parents' life also played an important role in his own life. Eugene's parents had rough lives full of scandal, depression, and drugs. These moments affected Eugene's life. Points in his life that affected him that he wrote about mainly were about the forces behind human life. His plays were built around drama. Eugene is credited with rising up American Theater from its narrow roots. His career as a playwright consisted of three periods: realist plays, expressionistic plays, and then his return to realism. I will analyze his life and explain how these moments in life affected his plays.
Dubliners by James Joyce is a novel with a collection of short stories. A mutual theme establish throughout Dubliners is the feeling of paralysis that is felt by the characters in the stories. It is not hard to detect the idea of paralysis after reading Dubliners but can easily be overlooked. Therefore, the idea of paralysis is a common theme. In most of the stories in Dubliners, such as “The Sisters”, “Araby”, “Eveline”, and “The Dead” a character has a want, but has difficulties to overcome. Yet, would eventually yield and not pursue his/her aspiration. The events of paralysis demonstration the characters’ incompetence to change their own lives. They have the chance or opportunity to change their lives, but freeze up when push comes to shove.
123helpme Editors. “Symbolism in ‘The Story of an Hour’.” 123helpme. 123helpme, Inc., n.d Web. 17 Mar 2014.
The ideas used to interpret this play are not classically Freudian, but rather a more contemporary understanding of psychodynamics as influenced by modern existential theory. The ideas of Ernest Becker, one of the more influential figures in the new psychoanalysis, are used throughout this psychological examination.