Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night unifies a plebian family of struggling hopefuls through the wrenching conflicts tied to past mistakes they constantly weigh one another down with. Their entire existence is just one large stalemate; neither member willing to let up their guard. That isn’t to say the Tyrone’s don’t speak the truth to one another, but the truth they spread is a scarring burning one, meant not to relieve but to intensify their pain. The family feeds off this pain, they believe it resolves their own personal insecurities, but in reality it only amplifies it. They believe that if they blow out their loved one’s candle, theirs will glow brighter. It is this assumption that fuels their conflict, and leads to bitter feuds within the family lines. One of the more prominent conflicts, the elder against the younger, provides a strong starting point for other quarrels.
Perhaps the most prominent within the work is the constant conflict between James Tyrone and his first-born son, Jamie. O’Neill hints at James’s intentions by giving his son his own name, and through this reveals the idea of family legacy. It is this idea that the father knows best, and because of this is horribly distressed to see his son turn the opposite direction. Jamie sees his father’s disapproval as motivation for rebellion, and pushes himself even further from his father’s shadow. James, who had been a hard-working youth, must stand before his own son and see worthlessness. It is always the people most similar to us that threaten us most (Gale), and James cannot look into the shattered mirror. He pursues other options, yet each are vain and end in only further conflict. He sends out his wealth to Jamie, yet only becomes angered by his loose-pockets. Jamie does not comprehend the importance of money in his father’s eyes, and so his spending leads to further conflict. A flawed act of love only responded to with harsh disparity.
If this was not enough, O’Neill also provides further conflict through Mary and Edmund, the mother and youngest son. Internal turmoil runs abound between the shared relationships of these two characters, as Mary looks to her son as a replacement, the second model of her first baby boy. Although Edmund only receives the best treatment from his mother, he holds a grudge of hurt emotions, knowing that her love spurts only from the grave of his lost brother. This misdirected affection leads to emotional outbreaks in the play, propelling Edmund forward as more than just the younger sibling. Through all of Mary’s care, he only feels obligated to revolt and speak from his inner thoughts to express his unrequited feelings of false love and relayed affection. He feels he is receiving what he does not deserve or request, and this leads to increased conflict among the two traditional roles of loving mother and nurtured child.
These open and internal conflicts between what should be loving guides and their hopeful youth leads to emotional distress within the Tyrone family, and motivates them even further down the stubborn path of unmoving subjugation. Even if any member moved to requite the feelings of another, by this time their relative would not know how to respond. These grudges have been forged on their minds and have become the guidelines to their everyday lives. They only see their own faults, but the only solution they can muster is blame. This vicious cycle of family degradation keeps the Tyrone’s from ever moving forward; forgive and forget is unheard of, and so they must squander their days in unrelenting night. Because the Tyrones will not forgive each other, and will not even forgive themselves, for their past faults, they forge for themselves a miserable present (Gale). The constant warring of an obstinate family leaves the individuals involved with a sense of unfelt affection, lost direction, and constant darkness. No one family member will pay their due, and so the loved one’s at their side must pay the price. Eugene O’Neill forms for the Tyrones a constant shroud, a self-induced cloud of spite that never ceases to reprieve their suffering.
Bibliography:
Wren, Celia. "All in the family: 'long day's journey into night'. (Stage)." Commonweal. 130.11 (June 6, 2003): p20. Literature Resource Center. Gale. LEE COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM. 21 Sept. 2008
1 comment:
I like your title. You are one of the few who actually made use of the title. Show us with textual evidence and quotes what you mean here and give us a reason as to why the relentlessness is the way it is. What idea is O'Neill trying to communicate through the various stalemates in the family. - elmeer
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