O’Neill is the writer of an American play, Long Day’s Journey into Night. This play is about the story of one day of Tyrone family, and it has various themes like forgetfulness, homelessness, and forgiveness. The explanations of all the topics in the play are:
Loneliness and alienation:
Loneliness and alienation are prominent from the lives of all characters in the play, Long Day’s Journey into Night. Each character seems disconnected from others in this piece of literature. Although all members of Tyrone family reside within the same holiday house but feel loneliness. For example, Mary feels alienated from her family and the present world because of her morphine addiction which she is unable to control. She feels lonely. So, the condition of alienation and loneliness applies to the entire Tyrone family, and each member has his/ her individual reason for seeming alienated and lonely.
Conflict:
In Long Day’s Journey into Night, the theme of conflict appears from interactions of every character. For example, Mary Tyrone is in conflict with her husband, James Tyrone, all the time in the play because she thinks their family suffered a lot due to James’ acting career routine and miserliness. Then, James Tyrone remains in conflict with his wife because he thinks that Mary did not try her best efforts to leave morphine, and, therefore, she is still a drug addict.
Expressionism:
Expressionism is another theme that appears in Long Day’s Journey into Night. The term, expressionism, denotes European movement of the 20th century in the field of fine arts. According to this movement, the subjective expression of inner experiences is emphasized through the use of conventional characters and symbols, especially, in drama and art. Besides, under expressionism, the writers express their ideas and feelings about their subjects rather than mere external realities. O’ Neill is such a writer who is called an excellent expressionist due to one of his masterpieces of expressionism, Long Day’s Journey into Night. There are various elements which show expressionism in this play like autobiographical components and symbols like fog, ghost, foghorn, and poison etc.
Mostly, as a character, Mary displays the technique of expressionism through her recalling of some past memories in Long Day’s Journey into Night. For example, one of her memories is that she wanted to become a nun or concert pianist during her young age. Another memory is related to her meeting with James Tyrone which shows her first romantic meeting with a celebrity. Other experiences of Mary Tyrone are related to her wedding gown; homelessness; the death of her second son, Eugene, when the child was only two years old; and the expulsion of her sons, Jamie and Edmund, from their schools and boarding houses. She also recalls her memory about the birth of Edmund through cheap quacks like Doctor Hardy. That memory is very painful for her because the doctor gave her some high dose of morphine to relieve her labour pains which resulted in her rheumatic pains of hands and drug addiction. In the play, Mary also remembers her husband’s abnormal use of alcohol (dipsomania), even, during their honeymoon period; the relationship of James Tyrone with his mistress before their marriage; and the lechery of her sons.
Moral corruption:
In Long Day’s Journey into Night, the theme of moral corruption is mainly shown by the character of Mary. She behaves as a morally weak person because she does not stop her morphine addiction by any way. Even, the bad habits of Jamie like his drinking, gambling, and visits to prostitute centres are understood less threatening for the family than Mary’s drug addiction in the play.
Search for self:
In this play, every character is seen as a searcher of his or her own self. No one seems to be happy with his or her present time, and they try to find some escape in their past moments where time was not so bad. These characters think that their future is dark because of their bad present condition which occurred due to some painful past incidents. For example, James Tyrone thinks that if he had not traded his talent for some financial security then he would have become a rich actor with the passage of time. His regret shows that he is not happy with his present situation which is the result of his past career-related decision.
God and religion:
In Long Day’s Journey into Night, James Tyrone is upset with his sons’ rejection of their Catholic faith. He says in the play during some conversation with one of his sons that he does not visit church many times, but he still believes in God and religion and prays for his family in front of God. Tyrone is particularly upset with Edmund’s godless and pessimistic view of life, and he claims that his pessimistic views are due to his reading such poetry and philosophy based on depression and atheism.
Loyalty:
In the drama, the three Tyrone men, James Tyrone, Jamie Tyrone, and Edmund Tyrone, are upset and angry with Mary because she always destroys their hope for her recovery. Their disappointment, sadness, and anger are emotional reactions of their love for her. Besides, it is the common loyalty of these men towards Mary that keeps the family together. For example, this commonality explains why Jamie and Tyrone tolerate each other despite having so many complaints and disrespectful ideas for one another.
Forgetfulness:
In the play, Log Day’s Journey into Night, all the four major characters keep on forgetting something and remembering one thing or the other. For example, Mary feels sad for the decline of her sons’ careers. Then, Edmund requests her mother to forget it, and her attention diverts to something else.
Forgiveness:
In this drama, all the four characters accuse each other for one thing or the other but forgive each other for their faults as well. For instance, Mary forgives his husband’s premarital debauchery as seen in the play.
Homelessness:
In the play, all the characters feel homeless symbolically despite having their home. The reason is a home is a place of man’s physical and spiritual shelter. But their home isn’t like that for them. They don’t feel themselves to be sheltered spiritually in that place. That’s why they feel as if they have no roof of their own.
Conclusion:
So, that’s all about Long Day’s Journey into Night themes. I hope you liked this post. It is hoped that you liked the content. If you have any questions or concerns, let the author know via the contact form or email address on the website.