Long Day's Journey into Night
by Eugene O'Neill
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Book Summary Information
Author: Eugene O'NeillForeword: Harold Bloom
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-03-01
ISBN: 0300093055
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Yale University Press
Book Reviews of Long Day's Journey into Night
Book Review: "The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too."
Summary: 5 Stars
When Eugene O'Neill wrote this play in 1940, it was so autobiographical that O'Neill requested it not be published until twenty-five years after his death. When he died in 1953, all the other characters in the play had also died, however, and his wife allowed the play's publication in 1956. Despite O'Neill's three previous Pulitzer Prizes and his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, it is this play (also a Pulitzer winner) that he regarded as his most important work, an assessment with which historians and theatre-goers universally agree. Many (and I am one) also believe it is the greatest American play ever written.
Long Day's Journey Into Night is a complete theatrical experience, satisfying on every level. Recreating his own family and its interactions, O'Neill's emotional connection with the characters is obvious in the roundness of their characterizations: there are no villains or heroes here. James Tyrone, modeled on his father, is an actor who found the "perfect play," resulting in years of travel performing the same role. Permanently typecast and by now bored, James has earned a substantial salary but is considered a tightwad, unable to escape his memories of poverty. Mary Tyrone, his wife, to whom he is devoted, traveled with him when he performed, often leaving the children with family members. When her youngest child died in her absence, she blamed everyone for this accident. Edmund, modeled on O'Neill himself, was born after this, but Mary never recovered, and when an incompetent doctor prescribed drugs, she became blissfully addicted.
The two sons, Jamie and Edmund, observe the interactions of their parents, their father losing himself in alcohol, their mother constantly re-addicting herself so she can live in a world without hurt, and they interact both with both parents and with each other. Jamie, considerably older than Edmund, regards himself as Edmund's protector, both from the outside world and from the sometimes hurtful relationships both have with their parents, who regard Jamie as a failure because of his drinking, and Edmund as a baby. Edmund, however, has traveled the world before returning home recently with a "bad summer cold," obviously the early stages of tuberculosis, a reality his mother refuses to recognize. As he awaits an official diagnosis from a cut-rate doctor, Edmund tries to channel his feelings and his fears into the poems he writes.
Though many gifted dramatists can make one or two characters come alive in a play, O'Neill does it here for all four characters, each of whom rings completely true. Their actions and conflicts arise from within, and the viewer becomes completely caught up in the dialogue and events on stage because they are so natural, so life-like. Though the play is about three and a half hours long, these are hours that fly by, the intensity of the family's internal conflicts totally involving, as the love underlying these conflicts and the hidden resentments which ignite them emerge at odd moments and create poignant scenes. Ironic humor, much more obvious in the hands of outstanding stage actors than in the written script, provides relief from the powerful tensions and keeps the play from ever appearing sentimental or melodramatic. The most moving theatrical experience I have ever had, this play is breathtaking, heart-rending, and utterly overwhelming. n Mary Whipple
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