ENG140YDrama EssayFebruary 10, 2003Long Day’s Journey into Night,The”Tyronian” TragedyIn Eugene O’Neill’s agonizingly autobiographical play Long Day’sJourney into Night, readers are introduced a dismal family situation. Drugs, death, illness and failure lace each conversation, and regret flowsalmost as unreservedly as the alcohol. In such a tragedy, one would expect to have a clear idea of with whom theblame lies. In this piece of drama, however, there is a distinct inabilityto do so. Eugene O’Neill persistently manipulates the emotional responses of thereader.
This manipulation keeps partiality off balance and uncertain. O’Neill accomplishes this by allowing readers to sympathize with one familymember. Once sympathy is established for one particular character, thatcharacter promptly says, or does, something that loses the reader’salliance, along with the alliance of whichever character he or she isberating at that particular moment. This results in the reader’s inabilityto discern who, precisely, is culpable for the Tyrone family’s situation. The idea of assigning culpability in Long Day’s Journey Into Night isalmost humourous. Even if one wanted to, it would be difficult to sortthrough years of built up anger, layer upon layer of repression, and hugeamounts of guilt in each character; for each character is at fault for onething or another, and, in addition, each character blames someone else forhis or her problem.
For example, Mary blames her husband and histightfistedness for her addiction to morphine. Due to their mother being anaddict, Jamie is unable to bring girls home, thus he visits prostitutes. Such behavior has influenced his younger brother Edmund, “making him oldbefore his time” (35). Consequently, Jamie is at fault for Edmund’s poorhealth. In turn, his mother, for causing the addiction by being broughtinto the world, as well as worsening it with his own illness, blamesEdmund.
And so, the vicious circle continues. However, if one does not wish to inflict upon one’s distinguishedteaching assistant a painfully long dissertation of each member’scontributions to the tragedy and the results thereof, one ought tomaintain, for argument’s sake, that the majority of the culpability lieswith James Tyrone, for his behaviour in regards to money, alcohol, and hisown status as a failed actor. James’s father had left the family when James was only ten years ofage. This left James as the man of the family, working twelve hours eachday to help provide for his mother and three sisters. As James explains,”It was in those days I learned to be a miser”(151). He feels proud of hissavings, and announces to his family in regards to buying something: “I gotthem dead cheap”(15).
His own early recognition of the importance of moneyexplains his continual contempt for his own children’s lack of concern whenit comes to working: “What do you know of the value of a dollar?”(150). Heaccuses Jamie of being lazy and having no ambition. Not only does James Tyrone wish his sons understood the value ofmoney, but since they do not, he is forced to be miserly enough for thewhole family. Consequently, the family resents his overly economic ways. There are many attacks throughout the play on James Tyrone for this, thefirst one being Jamie accusing him of not sending Edmund to a real doctorfor his illness when he first got sick.
Jamie says, “Hardy only charges adollar. That’s what makes you think he’s a fine doctor!”(31). Later,another dialogue gives an even worse view of the situation; Tyrone sendingEdmund to a cheap sanatorium, but spending money on real estate:JAMIE: Well, for God’s sake, pick out a good place and not some cheapdump!TYRONE: (Stung) I’ll send him wherever Hardy thinks best!JAMIE: Well, don’t give Hardy your old over-the-hills-to-the-poorhousesongabout taxes and mortgages. TYRONE: I’m no millionaire who can throw money away! Why shouldn’t Itell Hardy the truth?JAMIE: Because he’ll think you want him to pick a cheap dump, andbecause he’llknow it isn’t the truth especially if he hears afterwards you’veseen McGuire and let that flannel-mouth, gold-brick merchant sting youwith another piece of bum property! (82)Later realizing the anger this statement comes from, James Tyroneoffers Edmund “any place you like! Never mind what it costs! Any place Ican afford.
Any place you like”. Sadly, there follows the stipulationTyrone cannot seem to shake off: “Within reason. “(151). Cheap medical care seems to be Tyrone’s weakness. As Mary Tyrone makesclear, his tightfisted ways result, though inadvertently, in her downfallas well, due to a doctor giving her morphine as an easy fix. “But bearing Edmund was the last straw.
I was so sickafterwards, and that ignorant quack of a cheap hotel doctor-All heknew was I was in pain. It was easy for him to stop the pain. “(90)Tyrone is also to blame for his wife’s general unhappiness, not justher addiction to morphine. Mary says to Edmund that she has never beenhappy in the house, because “Everything was done in the cheapest way. Yourfather would never spend the money to make it right. “(45).
The subsequentscene has Mary come downstairs (60), in a detached sort of manner. Shecomplains bitterly to Edmund about Tyrone’s inability to make a real home. He is too stingy to build a real home, with good servants, and so she hassuffered all her life. When Tyrone himself comes in, she says incontinuation of her previous statements ” I’m sick and tired of pretendingthis is a home! You won’t help me!”(69). She goes on to say that had heremained a bachelor “Then nothing would have happened.
” This indicatesstrongly that she blames him too. Tyrone condemns Mary for her addiction, yet feels no guilt orresponsibility for it, taking away any amount of forgiveness readers mayhave parted with in Tyrone’s favour. The amusing part of this however, iswhile he condemns his wife for substance abuse, the same thing is his ownmajor vice. Mary tells her husband: ” I would never have married you if I’d knownyou drank so much” (115). She also launches into a story about theirhoneymoon, when Tyrone was dragged home intoxicated.
It appears that in afashion similar to that of their father, Jamie and Edmund seem quitepartial to alcohol. In fact, the entire family seems unable to confrontreality without chemical assistance. Mary’s words indicate that drinkingall day is a common Tyrone family activity: “I know what to expect. Youwill be drunk tonight. Well, it won’t be the first time, will it or thethousandth?” (72). The Tyrone men validate their drinking habits with folkwisdom about whiskey’s alleged health benefits: “It’s before a meal andI’ve always found that good whiskey, taken in moderation as an appetizer,is the best of tonics” (68).
Alcohol has contributed to Jamie’s failures. It has hurt Edmund’s health. And it becomes a source of conflict betweenJamie and Tyrone, as Jamie consistently steals his father’s whiskey,replacing the amount taken with water, so his father won’t take notice. Regrettably, the alcohol solves no problems, and problems get moreintricate as the tongues loosen from the booze. The three men share adrink, but none of the social magic of alcohol seems to work.
Tyrone,Edmund and Jamie remain as miserable as ever. The last, most driving element of James Tyrone’s guilt is his statusas a failed actor. In act four of the play, James Tyrone relates somethingto his youngest son that he has never told anyone before. He explains thatsince his father left the family when he was ten, he grew up to be miserly. Thus he was quick to give up artistic fulfillment in exchange for financialsecurity, ruining his career as ” one of the three or four young actorswith the greatest artistic promise in America”(153).
James Tyrone now musesthat he doesn’t even know what it was he had wanted to buy. It appears that James has never forgiven himself for this, andtherefore inflicts it on his family and neighbours. Mary says in regards tothe neighbours: “they bowed to your father and he bowed back as if he weretaking a curtain call”(44). Jamie relates that Tyrone puts on an act foreverybody (57).
Tyrone begins to quote a play almost as tragic as his own family life,but his son, obviously well versed in his father’s repertoire ofchastisements from King Lear, finishes the sentence before his father cancontinue, with ” ‘to have a thankless child’. I know”(92). His sons alsoimmediately think in terms of tragedy when referring to their father,quoting Othello in reference to James’s snoring: ” ‘The Moor, I know histrumpet'”(21). It appears that Tyrone turns his own life into a tragedy,like the ones he once portrayed so well upon the stage, switchingaffections and emotions like he would have to between scenes, although hisfamily isn’t as accepting of this as Edwin Booth and the critics obviouslywere. But why bother to deal with the question of fault? After all, thecharacters themselves claim not to care about it, such as in act two, scenetwo, when James Tyrone tries to blame Edmund’s consumptive state on Mary’sside of the family. Jamie cries out against blame: “Who gives a damn aboutthat part of it!”Apparently, everyone does.
O’Neill, Eugene. Long Day’s Journey Into Night. New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1956
