Name: - Trushali Dodiya
Roll No: - 19
Semester: - 2(Batch 2022-24)
Enrolment number: - 4069206420220011
Paper No: - 108
Paper name: - American Literature
Paper code: - 22341
Topic: -The Sense of Failure in ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’
Submitted to: - Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Date of Submission:- 31/03/2023
Email Address: - trushalidodiya84@gmail.com
The Sense of Failure in ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’
Table of Contents:
Introduction
About Eugene O’Neill
The Sense of Failure in ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’
Conclusion
Introduction:-
Long Day’s Journey into Night is a play written by Eugene O’Neill in 1939–41 and produced and published posthumously in 1956 by his wife. The play consists of 4 acts, one scene each- only the second act has two scenes. The play is widely considered to be O’Neil’s Magnum Opus and one the finest American plays of the 20th century. This play brought O’Neill Tony Award for best play and Pulitzer Prize in 1957 (“Long Day's Journey into Night | play by O'Neill”). The entire novel is based on a story of a Tyrone family which took place in a single day. It is also considered an autobiographical novel as the characters and their stories are based on O’Neill’s life. Each character of the novel suffers from a kind of failure which is in a way the outcome of their own doings, which leads the play towards the tragic end.
About Eugene O’Neill:-
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill is a foremost American dramatist, the Nobel Laureate in Literature and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. He was born on October 16, 1888 in New York, U.S ansd died on November 27, 1953in Boston, Massachusetts. In the US, he introduced the drama techniques of realism. His masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey into Night which published posthumously 1956 is considered as one of the finest of Americn plays. (“Eugene O'Neill | Biography, Plays, & Facts”) His other great works are
Beyond the Horizon (1920)
Anna Christie (1922)
Strange Interlude (1928)
Ah! Wilderness (1933)
The Iceman Cometh (1946)
The Hairy Ape(1922)
Most of the characters of O’Neill struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into dissolution and despair.
The Sense of Failure in ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’:
"Long Day's Journey into Night" is a tragedy where every character's hamartia contributes to their downfall. All the characters are in pursuit of their individual happiness.Each character bears equal responsibility for their tragic flaw, which ultimately leads to their failure. The sense of Failure remains at the core of the play, which is a result of the characters' actions and circumstances. The central theme of "Long Day's Journey into Night" is the failure of each character in their respective pursuits, and this theme is woven throughout the conflicts and actions of the play's characters. The outcome of every deed in the play ultimately contributes to this overarching theme of failure.
To understand the sense of failure, it is important to understand “What leads all the characters to failure?” There are various factors that are responsible for the downfall or the tragic end or the failure of all the characters, sometimes others and sometimes they themselves are responsible for this.
All the characters don’t accept their own failure and weaknesses and blame others for their own failure. Actually they don’t want to accept the reality and continuously dwells into the past. Their failure leads them to addiction. Each character is addicted to drugs, alchohol or women.
James Tyrone is the one who is accused by all the family members of blaming most of the problems on him, the most serious of which is Mary'a illness or profound depression and her morphin habit. The acussation that Tyrone is needlessly and selfishl and cheap, runs throughout the play. And no one can deny this part of James. Mary calls him 'cheap', 'sting', Edmund calls him 'cheap skate', 'crazy miser' and 'a stinking old tightwad'. Jamie refers to him as 'old gaspard, the miser in the bells'. (Wallerstein)
At the same time he also accuses Mary for the condition of the house and herself. There are a lot of arguments between Jamie and James where James openly accuses Jamie of setting a bad example for Edward who has apparently picked up many of their habits including drinking to access. James blames his failure to his addicted wife and his sons who are not respecting him because of their mother Mary. Edmund often takes the side of his brother instead of his father.
Mary’s sense of failure, as she believes is to marry James, death of Edmund and the painful birth of Edmund. Throughout the play, she regrets choosing a person like James as a life partner. As per Mary, this marriage brought nothing but only despair. She has so amny dreams for him- she wanted to become a pianist but when she fell in love with James she left that passion as well. Because of James, she had to live in a cheap hotel room as James doesn’t have any house to live in except the summer house in Connecticut. Even during the birth of Edmund Tyrone brought a cheap doctor and to reduce pain she is addicted to morphin. This is why she always dwells into the past. By recalling the past events, she becomes happy and sad both at the same time. At the end of the play(in the last act), she completely goes mad. She comes downstairs with the white gown in her hand and tries to remember what she has done.
"Then in the spring something happened to me. Yes I remember I fell in love with James tyron and was so happy for a time." (O'Neill)
This "for a time" means a lot to the play as she throughout the play is sad.
Maley Patrick in “Mary Tyrone’s Crisis of Agency: Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Ordinary Language, and the Tragic Humanism of American Drama” notes the statement of Laurin Porter who argues that “Mary takes morphine again, which suggests, because of the likelihood that her favourite son Edmund has contracted consumption… to escape the pain this fear brings, a pain you cannot bear, Mary withdraws via morphine, into her happiest past." (Patrick)
Jamie’s sense of failure is due to his relation with his father, affection of her mother, progress of his brother and betrayal in business. After getting betrayed in the businness, now he is doing nothing except drinking alcohol, he is not only addicted to alcohol but also women. Durin the conversation Tyrone says to Jamie that,
“Yes, forget! Forget everything and face nothing! It’s a convenient philosophy if you’ve no ambition in life except to—”(O'Neill)
This indicates that Jamie now has no ambition in his life. At the same time he is jealous of the success of his brother Edmund as he has been the biggest failure in his career and his family member accuses him for doing nothing in his life. But he doesn’t admit it till the end. He acknowledges that Edmund worked hard when he had a job working on a ship, he downplays this type of work as a great adventure. Tyrone also accuses him for setting the worst example for Edmund. Tyrone says,
“It’s the truth! You’ve been the worst influence for him. He grew up admiring you as a hero! A fine example you set him! If you ever gave him advice except in the ways of rottenness, I’ve never heard of it!” (O'Neill)
In response to his father, Jamie admits that,
“That’s a rotten accusation, Papa. You know how much the Kid means to me, and how close we’ve always been—not like the usual brothers! I’d do anything for him.” (O'Neill)
Later on in the play he admits to Edmund that he wants to destroy his career. In act IV, Jamie enters drunk, brags about paying for an undesirable prostitute and insults others. Edmund punches Jamie, but Jamie thanks him for straightening him out. They cry about their mother and Jamie expresses his love for Edmund, who is at risk of dying from consumption. Jamie feels responsible for making Edmund who he is today. Jamie admits to being a bad influence on Edmund and intentionally setting a bad example. He confesses to being jealous and trying to bring Edmund down but also admits that Edmund is all he has left. Jamie warns Edmund that,
"I'll do my damnedest to make you fail," but then he admits, "You're all I've got left." Jamie then passes out. (O'Neill)
Edmund is the one who rarely blames others for his own failure. His sense of failure is his own health isssues and his disturbed family life. He is suffering from consumption and as a result of it he is being weak day by day. Many times in the play the voice of his coughing disturb the audience. Though James and Jamie lie to Mary about Edmund’s health and pretends like nothing has happened to Edmund. Like towards Mary, Tyrone is less concerned about his health from the point of view of James because Tyrone believes in Dr. Hardy who according to Edmund is a cheap doctor.
When discussing the traits of the characters in the play, Alan Downer notes that...
"Again and again we meet the contrast of a young man, brothers or friends, the poet and the materialist. Over and over we meet the illusions induced by dreams, madness, alcohol and illusions which alone make leaving a tolerable experience. Again and again we meet the harsh father miserly remote from his children driven by some puritanical conviction of self rightness. Again and again we meet the mother idealised romanticly beautiful mystically associated with the symbolic force of nature yet also curiously removed unsympathetically with her sons." (Downer)
The tragic end of the play is driven by each character's individual sense of failure, resulting from their own choices and actions. Despite pursuing their own happiness, they ultimately fall short. While the characters certainly have an impact on each other's lives, each individual bears responsibility for their own downfall due to their own ambitions and flaws.
Conclusion:-
To sum up, The play "Long Day's Journey into Night" portrays the tragic end that arises from each character's personal sense of failure, caused by their own decisions and actions. Despite their attempts to find happiness, they all fail in their endeavors. Although the characters influence each other's lives, they are each accountable for their own downfall due to their individual flaws and ambitions. The play serves as a reminder that we are responsible for our own choices and the consequences that result from them, and that the pursuit of happiness can lead to tragic outcomes if not approached with care and consideration.
{Words: 1792}
Works Cited
Downer, Alan S. “Tragedy and ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’: ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night.’” Jahrbuch Für Amerikastudien, vol. 6, 1961, pp. 115–21. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41154777. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.
“Eugene O'Neill | Biography, Plays, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 February 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eugene-ONeill. Accessed 29 March 2023.
“Long Day's Journey into Night | play by O'Neill.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Long-Days-Journey-into-Night-play-by-ONeill. Accessed 29 March 2023.
O'Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journey Into Night: Multimedia Edition. Yale University Press, 2016.
Patrick Maley. “Mary Tyrone’s Crisis of Agency: Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Ordinary Language, and the Tragic Humanism of American Drama.” The Eugene O’Neill Review, vol. 35, no. 1, 2014, pp. 41–60. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5325/eugeoneirevi.35.1.0041. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.
Wallerstein, Nicholas. “Accusation and Argument in Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night.’” The Eugene O’Neill Review, vol. 23, no. 1/2, 1999, pp. 127–33. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/29784658. Accessed 29 Mar. 2023.
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