Long Day's Journey Into Night

Long Day’s Journey Into Night

The characters in any story or play are affected by many outside stimuli. In O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the setting, plot, and theme all affect the characters in both positive and negative ways. Everything in this play has a symbolic meaning, from the fog around the house to things the characters themselves say or do. The author must first paint a picture of where and when the story takes place for the reader to better imagine what is happening in the story. The plot is necessary to move the characters along in their lives. Themes are important to connect the storylines with other works or everyday lives. All of these aspects come together to form the complete story with nuances and details.


Setting is very important to this work. The time period has a lot to do with how the characters are treated and interact. The play takes place during times when tuberculosis was a big problem. Edmund catches consumption and must be sent to a sanitarium, something that causes a lot of problems for the family. The physical setting of the summer house speaks volumes of the mindsets of the family. The house is only inhabited a few months out of the year, it’s a temporary place of residence, not a home, which is what the characters really need. Obviously the characters sense a lack of structure in their lives that they reflect in different ways. The house is constantly flooded with fog, making Mary nervous, while symbolizing how the family fog their emotions and refuse to see the truth in front of their faces. Mary has problems with the fog horn constantly sounding, showing her mental breakdown of worry over her son and her relapse back into addiction to morphine. The sea is nearby, symbolizing the changeable and cold nature of the family, aimless and without direction. Tyrone always keeps the lights off in the house, showing both his hatred of spending money and how the family keeps their feelings in the dark. Of course, the entire play takes place in just one day, going back to the Greek belief that a tragedy should all come to fruition in one day. Setting in this play tells information about both the characters and the place.


The plot of this play has a lot to say about the characters themselves and is the vehicle to get them from beginning to end. Over the course of the day, the plot allows the reader to see how the family interacts with each other, and Mary’s slip into a mental breakdown. Jamie and Edmund show the dependence on alcohol in the entire family while Mary talks to Cathleen and gives the information of her broken past and her unhappiness in the presence. Tyrone demonstrates his lack of dedication in his life, as shown in his settling on one job while moving around constantly. At the end of the play Mary gets her wedding dress out in order to symbolize her fragile mental state.


Regret is one of the major themes of this work. Regret tells so much about the people in the work. Each of them, especially Mary have problems in the past. She says that she had a bright future, either a concert pianist or a nun. Unfortunately she fell for Tyrone and had to follow him all over the country. When she lost her second child she never really got over it, especially since she thinks she tried to replace him by having Edmund. Her regret about how she ended up in the house by the sea seeps into the rest of the family. Jamie has no real ambition or drive, simply looking for meaning by visiting Fat Violet. Edmund sometime wishes for death, like when he says he should have been born a seagull. The regret affects the characters by perpetuating the sadness and circumstances of the family.


All of these aspects contribute to who the characters are. They are changed because of the setting, plot, and the way they deal with regret. If they had different reactions, they may have been a more functional or healthy family, able to cope with difficulties. Unfortunately it takes tragedy to shock them into noticing Mary’s health and everyone else’s need for alcohol. Peter Quinn writes about the affect of Catholicism has on Tyrone. A devout Catholic would do what is best for his family, instead of turning a blind eye. Instead of getting Mary the help she needs, he simply got her hooked on morphine, which does not help anything. The intricate web of the past and present causes the family sadness and unhappiness because of the choices they made.






Work Cited:
Quinn, Peter. "Down the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility." Commonweal 124.n18 (Oct 24, 1997): 22(2). Academic OneFile. Gale. Lee County Library System. 21 Sept. 2008 .