Setting and paradox

Setting
O’Neil’s Long Day’s Journey into Night takes place in the vacation house of the Tyrone family. The place is the only constant thing in the Tyrone family, and encapsulates the mood and beliefs of the family as it remains shrouded in fog, symbolizing their blindness to everything but the past. They wander about, seemingly “ghosts” in their “haunted” house. They, like these specters, don’t seem to realize their pasts hinder them in the present. Combined together with their narcotics, the foggy house of the ghostly Tyrones will never become a home.

Paradox
James Tyrone and Jamie Tyrone are constantly at odds with one another, yet each one shares similarities with the other creating a paradox. For instance, their names are only a few letters off, and their habits, such as drinking and laziness, are both apparent in the other. James found success in acting as the same character and lost all his artistic credibility. Jamie, too, is too lazy to find a job, and wastes any money he has on immoral acts. It seems, then, that no matter how much they detest each other, they are the same person.