In Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, we see another horrific family situation. This is not surprising, coming from a modernist author. No other modernist family compares to the Tyrone’s, who constantly bicker at each other. Every second of the day is a relentless battle between each family member, firing off one insulting comment after another.
EDMUND: Cut it out, Jamie! Can’t you think anything but-? You’re all wrong to suspect anything. Cathleen saw her not too long ago. Mama didnt tell her she wouldn’t be down to lunch.
JAMIE: Then she wasn’t taking a nap?
EDMUND: Not right then, but she was laying down, Cathleen said.
JAMIE: In the spare room?
EDMUND: Yes. For Pete’s sake, what of it?
JAMIE: You damned fool! Why did you leave her alone so long? Why didn’t you stick around?
The source of most of the issues surrounding the family is Mary’s extreme morphine addiction. She takes numerous shots of morphine over the course of the day, and by the time that night comes, she is as high as a kite. She can’t even function, and it bothers Edmund, Jamie, and Tyrone to no end. To compound this problem even more, the men of the family get progressively more drunk as the day goes on. This increases the amount of fighting and bickering even more!
Mary’s whole character is a mess of personal reflection. She constantly refers to times in the past. It seems as if she almost thinks she is living in the past when she gets high. Mary talks in circles as well, constantly contradicting herself. There is absolutely no focus or ending to any of her irrational stories, so that is almost like an open ending in itself. Every time she brings up a new subject without finishing the previous one, it leaves the reader almost confused.
Mary is also filled with an unbelievable amount of regret and remorse. When she talks about the past, she constantly refers to the opportunity she had to become a nun. She implies that her life would be much better if she had never fell in love with James Tyrone, and started a family. It has to be psychologically damaging to her family for them to know that she wishes that she was not a part of their lives. Mary also implies that this “tough” family situation is the reason for her addiction.
These open ended conversations are also seen when the men of the house argue and bicker. For five minutes the men argue about some random subject, and then they stop arguing either when it gets too heated or when Mary comes around. The whole arguments just stop, and there is never any establishment of who is right or wrong. Everyone seems to always lose, leaving an unresolved open ending.
At the very end of the play, Mary goes on one final rant about being a nun. She is completely gone at this point, and all she can talk about is “what could have been”.
I never dreamed that the Holy Mother would give me such advice! I was really shocked. I said, of course, I would do anything she suggested, but I knew it was simply a waste of time. After I left her, I felt all mixed up so I went to the shrine and prayed to the Blessed Virgin and found peace again because I knew she heard my prayer and would always love me and see no harm ever came to me so long as I never lost my faith in her. That was in the winter of senior year. Then in the spring, something happened to me Yes, I remember. I fell in love with James Tyrone and was so happy for a time.
This is where the play ends, with Mary suggesting that she is no longer that happy at all with her situation. The reader understands how Mary feels, but what ends up happening to her? Does she ever get over her morphine addiction? Does the Tyrone family situation ever improve? On another note, does Edmund get better from his illness of consumption? Does Jamie continue to abuse alcohol, only drinking to try and forget his mother’s problems? Does James just continue to let Mary take morphine every single day? By ending the play at the end of one day, Eugene O’Neill leaves all these problems unresolved and open. In my opinion, this family situation is as close to “Hell on earth” as we’ve seen yet. How was Eugene O’Neill able to deal with this and remain sane? It is truly remarkable.
