Eugene O'Neill mini-research paper

Tyler Watson
Period: A-3
Long Day’s Journey into Night blog essay
Biographical



O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night portrays the author’s own family and the dysfunction within it that led him to become the playwright known today. The son of Irish Catholics, he lived in a constantly changing world, with the only stable thing in his life a house named Monte Cristo (Gale). James O’Neill was an actor who had found success playing the same role over-and-over; Mary Ellen, his wife and mother of Eugene; and James Jr., Eugene’s brother. Each character, including O’Neill himself, was incorporated into the play. Pain was an everyday experience, yet it formed him to become a gifted, if troubled, writer.
The play takes place one summer day in the Tyrone family that leads into a dark and twisted end. James Tyrone, the frugal and alcoholic ex-actor, represents the real James O’Neill, who shared many similarities. James found success playing the character of Edmund Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo every time he was on stage, leading to vast sums of money, yet little artistic integrity, which he eventually felt guilt over (Gale). He bought a summer home in New York and christened it Monte Cristo in honor of the play. It is a form of this house that appears as the setting in Long Day’s Journey into Night. The importance of this house allows the reader to gain insight into O’Neill himself. Here, the life-changing events take place, instead of a hotel room, which shows how precious Monte Cristo was to O’Neill. The fog that lingers outside of the house in Long Day’s Journey into House represents the troubles that the house protected O’Neill from in his younger years, only to eventually seep in, representing his coming-of-age, in which he became more opinionated and independent, meaning that the safety of Monte Cristo was behind him.
James Jr. O’Neill, Eugene’s older brother, also faced challenges that became present in the character of Jamie. He was also an alcoholic, spending most of his time in bordellos (Gale), much like Jamie. After coming home from such a meeting, he shows sorrow for his romanticizing of immorality (LDJIN pg. 169), something that the real James Jr. had done as well. Yet this sudden upsurge of guilt begins when he finds out about his brother’s illness, something that he and Mary know all too well of.
Mary Ellen O’Neill lived the same way Mary Tyrone had, with the story of her meeting James almost exactly the same as Mary meeting James Tyrone (Gale). Her second son, Edmund, died of the measles from exposure to James Jr., leading to a terrible guilt for both Mary and her son. As in the play, Mary became addicted to morphine, yet, a few years afterward, broke free of her habit. As the reader knows, Mary Tyrone does not have the same fate. This may lead one to question the impact of the addiction on Eugene. Perhaps this was a traumatizing period for him, something he could only express in the horrifying ending to Long Day’s Journey into Night.
O’Neill’s upbringing led him to become a Nobel Prize winning playwright, yet the pain he experienced troubled him so much he could only relieve himself of the cross by writing Long Day’s Journey into Night. By the end of the play, the Tyrones face a, foggy future. However, the O’Neill family had several moments of happiness that were dichotomized with their failures. The darker experiences may have had a stronger emotional impact on O’Neill than the lighter, forming him into a troubled, if brilliant playwright.
Works cited:
Stilling, Roger J. "Eugene O'Neill." Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part 3. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 331. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature Resource Center. Gale. LEE COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM. 21 Sept. 2008.