On re-reading, I found LONG DAY'S JOURNEY rather tedious.

Although it is hailed as the best American play by the best American playwright, the characters seem so rigid that they are constantly engaged in the same conversations.

Moreover, it is an unpleasant cycle steeped in alcohol, enhanced with morphine, and burdened with hardened memories and fears for the future.

However, after so much circular talking and concealment, I was satisfied that we finally get such heartfelt poetry from Edmund: \\"...and for a moment I lost myself—actually lost my life. I was set free! I dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim-starred sky! I belonged, without past or future, witching peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life, or the life of Man, to Life itself!\\" (156).

Through Edmund, O'Neill implies that piecing together the truth from one's own words, even if they are imperfect, is a more effective way to deal with family than by quoting the classics, lying, or hiding: \\"Stammering is the native eloquence of us fog people\\" (157).

This shows that authenticity and self-expression, even in their flawed forms, are crucial in understanding and relating to one's family and life.

That was truly traumatic.

Thank goodness the play was divided into four parts. It was such a relief that I could only read one act at a time.

O'Neill is undoubtedly a genius when it comes to portraying the nuances of his characters. The way he describes their postures, facial expressions, and hand gestures is simply remarkable.

I've never actually seen the play performed, so I can't help but wonder how O'Neill's claustrophobic set would project for an audience.

This is a quiet play that somehow manages to scream with anguish. It's a family tragedy that will surely stay with me for a long time.

The emotions and the depth of the story are so powerful that they leave a lasting impression.

I find myself constantly thinking about the characters and their fates.

It makes me realize the complexity of human relationships and the hidden pain that often lies beneath the surface.

Overall, this play has been a profound and eye-opening experience for me.

The first time I witnessed Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, I was truly astounded. I couldn't fathom how people could consume that much alcohol and still manage to survive. This thought crossed my mind despite the fact that I hail from a family with a drinking culture. In Albee’s play, alcohol functions not merely as a numbing agent but as an alchemic incendiary for the verbal abuse that transforms four intelligent individuals into the most malicious of harpies.

Likewise, in O’Neill’s play, the spotlight is on four people, members of an Irish-American family - a father, mother, and two grown sons (alongside a slack-jawed servant). All the dialogue and action unfold within the family’s summer house, and the passage of time (occurring within a single day) can be gauged by the decreasing level of the whiskey bottle. Or rather, bottles, in the plural. The excessive drinking is both breathtaking and cruel. The pendulum that swings between love and hate, forgiveness and scathing recrimination, the past and the present, only comes to a halt when all the men in the family, nearly decimated by booze, stop to watch the mother and wife slip into a morphine-induced fugue about the sweetness of her fantasized past………before her husband and sons entered her life. She is truly awful, with her passive-aggressive, nasty sweetness.

MARY
[. . .]I’ve always loathed this town and everyone in it. You know that. I never desired to live here in the first place, but your father adored it and insisted on constructing this house, and I’ve been compelled to come here every summer.
EDMUND
Well, it’s preferable to spending the summer in a New York hotel, isn’t it? And this town isn’t so dreadful. I like it well enough. I suppose because it’s the only home we’ve ever had.
MARY
I’ve never regarded it as my home. It was amiss from the very beginning. Everything was done in the cheapest manner. Your father would never part with the money to make it right. It’s just as well we haven’t any friends here. I’d be mortified to have them step through the door…………

O’Neill’s play is an extraordinarily disturbing family tragedy where love, which is undoubtedly present, cannot be sustained. The deep-seated animosity among the family members undermines any affection they have for each other at every turn. It’s a blame game, with not a single one of them willing to admit their own role in the emotional violence. Jamie, the eldest son, is a failure as an actor like his father once was and has descended into alcoholism and womanizing. He spends his last borrowed dime on “Fat Violet” while his brother and father futilely hope he won’t return home. The father, accurately accused of being stingy, is willing to save a buck by sending his ailing son to a public sanitorium. The younger son, Edmund, busy provoking his Shakespeare-loving father by quoting Beaudelaire and Rossetti, is listless and pathetic. The family is a Freudian dream. Each character has a core of anger so profound that it has become the only emotional security they know. Not one of them is willing to relinquish it. Instead, in order to feel something, anything, they drink to intensify the joy they experience in blaming someone else for their pain.

When the curtain descends at the end of the night, I am certain that the morning will be no different. I can perceive the influence O'Neill must have had on Edward Albee, particularly in Virginia Woolf. Is it a quintessentially American story? Perhaps. After all, O'Neill is被誉为 the "father of American drama," and this is his most autobiographical play. But the family dynamics are profoundly human, and I would venture to guess that somewhere within its pages, a human being anywhere in the world might recognize one or more of his/her own worst traits.

I had to read this for my 20th Century American Drama Grad class.

The play, which I also watched actors perform in movies via YouTube (I especially liked the one where Jack Lennon is playing James Tyrone and Kevin Spacey is playing Jaime Tyrone), was truly interesting. Each of the main characters comments on the others' addictions yet remains blind to their own, until the very last act when the three men finally acknowledge their own issues.

Mary Tyrone, the mother, fluctuates between the present and the past, from being high to low, unhappy with her life. She calls her husband cheap at times but then compliments him. It's not initially clear what her addiction is, but finally uncovering it was exciting for me. The anticipation of knowing that she is not fully in the present and her mind drifts, along with the circumstances that are gradually revealed throughout the play, added to the intrigue.

Each of the main characters (the father, the mother, and the two adult sons) is both complex and simple. By the end, there is a sense of sadness in how they don't fully address their addictions/vices.

In class, two idiots made rather absurd comments. They talked about how the addictions the characters have don't equal the ones in 2013. But why would you step out of the setting in 1912 and disconnect from what is happening with the characters? Another idiot wanted to argue that the alcohol consumption could simply be a way of "having a good time" rather than a means of escaping the problems the characters have within themselves and with each other. He is clearly mistaken. When someone has to sneak drinks, try to break open liquor cabinets, or check how much liquor was taken from a bottle behind their back, it's obvious that they are not just having a good time drinking. The author's family dealt with alcoholism, so it's safe to say that the characters were not simply enjoying a drink for pleasure, especially not in Jaime's case.

Loved this.

Women slowly (but oh my god, surely) losing their minds is my favorite literary trope. It's truly fascinating to see how authors explore the complex and often tragic journey of a woman's mental deterioration.

As a millennial woman, I find this trope unfortunately very, very relatable. In our modern society, there are so many pressures and expectations placed on women, and it's not uncommon for these to take a toll on our mental health.

So, the question remains: who did it best? Eugene O’neill with Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey into Night" or Tennessee Williams with Blanche Dubois in "A Streetcar Named Desire"? Both characters are iconic examples of this trope, and each has her own unique charm and tragedy.

Mary Tyrone's descent into drug addiction and madness is a slow and painful process, while Blanche Dubois' delusions and alcoholism ultimately lead to her downfall. It's hard to say which character is more powerful or more well-written, as they both offer a深刻 and moving portrayal of a woman on the brink.

Perhaps the answer lies in the eye of the beholder. Each reader may have their own personal connection to one character or the other, depending on their own experiences and perspectives.

Regardless of who did it best, one thing is certain: the trope of the woman losing her mind will continue to be a powerful and relevant theme in literature for years to come.

"None of us can help the things life has done to us."

"Long Day’s Journey into Night" is widely regarded as a classic of American drama, and rightfully so. This text offers a profound and searing examination of the complex web of family, addiction, jealousy, work, health, poverty, wealth, and love. It manages to touch on all these topics with remarkable success, which is no small feat. To achieve such depth and breadth in a single work is truly astounding.

The play delves into a day in the life of the Tyrone family. Husband and wife, Mary and James, along with their two adult sons, Jamie and Edmund, form the core of this dysfunctional unit. While the play is far from a comedy, it is infused with a black Irish sense of humor that adds an interesting layer. At times, this humor can be rather unnerving. The family lives together, yet each member is isolated and hidden behind a façade of lies we all tell ourselves to掩盖 our weaknesses or failures. Every reader will surely recognize themselves in the denial and lack of self-awareness that plagues all humans to some degree. The Tyrone family finds themselves at the center of a perfect storm of all these elements during the course of the play.

A significant aspect of this text is the stage directions and notes, which make up a large portion of the play and are crucial to its success as both a literary and dramatic work. At times, they convey more meaning than the dialogue itself, and this is not a criticism. In fact, the note/stage directions often have a narrative quality, and reading the play can feel like reading a novel.

Eugene O’Neill never intended for this semi-autobiographical play to be performed (it wasn't even published until after his death), but we are fortunate that it was. Its portrayal of four people is both unnerving and deeply human in its characterization. We will all find parts of ourselves in the Tyrone family, for better or for worse. As one character poignantly states, "We’ve loved each other! We always will! Let’s remember only that, and not try to understand what we cannot understand, or help things that cannot be helped - the things life has done to us we cannot excuse or explain." This is a plea that we can all relate to at some point in our lives.

The universal tragedy (or power) of this play lies in its exploration of the things we say (and sometimes don't say) to the people we love the most. It forces us to confront the complex and often painful realities of our relationships and the human condition.

I truly wish that I could have witnessed it with my own eyes instead of simply reading about it. (

It is such a pity that I missed the opportunity to experience the real thing.

Just imagining the scenes and emotions that must have unfolded on stage makes me feel a sense of longing.

This play is truly amazing and yet so sad at the same time.

The story must have touched the hearts of all those who had the chance to see it performed live.

I can only try to picture in my mind what it would have been like, but I know it would have been an unforgettable experience.

I hope that one day, I will have the opportunity to see a play of this caliber and be able to fully immerse myself in the world that the playwright has created.)

The posthumous, Pulitzer Prize-winning play is from the only American playwright who ever won a Nobel Prize for Literature. This play offers an absolutely agonizing, autobiographical portrayal of an American family from the first half of the 20th century. It is a powerful and poignant work that delves deep into the complex relationships and inner turmoil within the family. Sadly, it's probably all the more relevant here in the first half of the 21st century. The issues and themes explored in the play, such as family dynamics, alcoholism, and the search for meaning and identity, still resonate with audiences today. O'Neill was truly a master of the dramatic form, able to create characters and situations that are both realistic and deeply affecting. His work continues to be studied and performed around the world, a testament to his enduring legacy as one of the greatest playwrights in American history.

[3.3⭐] "Long Day's Journey into Night" is a remarkable play written by Eugene O'Neill and premiered in 1956. Set within a single day in the summer of 1912, the play follows the Tyrone family: James, the father and a theater actor; Mary, the mother struggling with morphine addiction; and their two sons, Jamie and Edmund.

The plot delves into profound and painful themes such as addiction, illness, guilt, resentment, and family conflicts. As the day progresses, the tensions and secrets that have corroded the family are gradually revealed, showing how each member copes with their own tragedies and frustrations.

The protagonist, Mary, is a character as complex and deep as Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Nora in "A Doll's House". O'Neill portrays her in a very human way: Mary is hard to classify as she is unstable and multifaceted. At times, she acts like a child, and at others, like a mother; sometimes she is lucid, and other times she is drugged. These psychological and emotional fluctuations give her a lyrical richness, making her seem at times to inhabit another world.

The play also uses the contrast between the interior and exterior of the house to emphasize its themes. The summer house, with its two floors, provides a space for Mary's isolation as she frequently retreats to the second floor. The darkness inside the house contrasts with the outside world, reflecting the cultural and social decadence of the era.

The character of Cathleen, the servant, plays an essential role in the dramatic structure as a catalyst for the relationships between the characters. She acts as a "nurse" and confidante for Mary, asking questions that no one else dares to pose and commenting on the characters, making her a kind of narrator within the play.

The title "Long Day's Journey into Night" is highly symbolic and alludes to the family's actual journey to the coast and the inner journeys of the characters. These psychological and moral journeys reveal a tragic element: the day that begins clear and ends in darkness reflects the family's descent into their own abysses. Mary's journey, in particular, is towards unconsciousness, increasingly submerged in the fog of her addiction and moving away from reality.

Finally, I can say that this is a play that presents a harrowing and deeply human vision of the internal struggle and the decadence of a family, encapsulating universal themes of pain, addiction, and the search for consolation in the midst of darkness.

Undoubtedly, it is a play full of symbolism, cruelty, and harshness. The intimate and harrowing portrayal of the Tyrone family is largely autobiographical, reflecting O'Neill's own experiences with his family, which adds an extra layer of authenticity and pain to the work. Therefore, its reading is truly fruitful and essential if you want to enter the world of North American realistic theater. However, it is true that it is not one of my favorite works of this movement.

So... that was heavy.

The "Long Day's Journey into the Night" is the most famous play of Eugene O'Neill, and there's a reason for that. The reason? It's amazing.

It's a very, VERY, heavy book about the family of Tyrones. The basic themes of the book are addiction, sickness, family, denial, and lies. All the characters in this play have flaws. Lots of them. They all do bad things, but they all have their reasons.

None of them is perfect, because perfection doesn't exist in human nature. They are all human.

This play delves deep into the complex and often tumultuous relationships within a family. It shows how addiction and sickness can tear a family apart, while also highlighting the power of denial and lies to keep the truth hidden.

The characters are richly drawn and full of depth, making it easy for the reader to empathize with their struggles.

Overall, "Long Day's Journey into the Night" is a powerful and thought-provoking work that explores the darker side of human nature and the challenges that come with being part of a family.

9/10

The play under discussion is a true masterpiece that delves deep into the lives of the Tyrone family. It is a story filled with lunacy, rheumatism, addiction, alcohol, whiskey, morphine, Shakespeare, consumption, and tragedy. James Tyrone, Mary, Jaime, and Edmund all find themselves in a state of chaos and turmoil in one boozy, morphine-soaked afternoon.

This drama is not only one of the finest but also one of the most wrenching I've ever experienced, both on the page and on the stage. As James Tyrone Sr's acting career is on its last legs, the family retreats to their summer cottage at the Monte Cristo home in Connecticut.

As the day turns to night, we are introduced to James' two sons. Jaime is brutish yet gentle, while Edmund, who is dying of consumption, is sensitive. There's also Kathleen, the maid, and finally, Mary Tyrone, the matriarch and one of the most unforgettable female protagonists. The play is a domestic drama that showcases a battle of wits between the parents and their sons, who alternate between blaming and comforting each other in quick, brutal moments.

Mary's addiction to morphine is a result of Tyrone's miserly ways and the pain of giving birth to Edmund while Tyrone was on the road. The morphine has only made her more delusional and masochistic. She misses her father and punishes herself constantly for not being the ideal daughter. James is often obsessed with making a quick dollar, which leads him to fall prey to money-making schemes that leave him broke. Jaime turns to drink to cope with his brother's illness and his father's role in their mother's addiction. Edmund, shy and sensitive, seems stunted in his growth, trapped in a childlike state as everyone awaits his death.

The play is cruel, with some of the most lacerating dialogue I've ever heard or read. It also explores the theme of toxic love. No wonder it set the tone for Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" several years after its production in 1956.

The 1962 film adaptation, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Katharine Hepburn as Mary, is my favorite incarnation of this tragic anti-heroine. The performances of Ralph Richardson as Tyrone, Jason Robards as Jaime, and Dean Stockwell as Edmund are also wonderful, capturing the tragedy in glorious black and white.

I've had the opportunity to see three live productions of this play. The 2016 Broadway revival, starring Jessica Lange as Mary, had its flaws but was still affecting. The 2018 production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with Jeremy Irons as James and Lesley Manville as Mary, truly captured the poetry of O'Neill's broken heart. The third production, a modernized version set in the Covid era in Connecticut in 2021, was a misfire, as much of the drama and heart of the play had been chopped off.

I often debate with friends about which of the big three American Dramas has the most mentally unstable characterizations - Mary Tyrone, Blanche DuBois, or Willy Loman. I'd say they are all about equal, but Mary is the most sympathetic as she has never deliberately tried to ruin or be cruel to anyone.

**On the Fragility of Glass in a Hailstorm of Stones**:

The family and family crisis is one of the most complex and intense social phenomena. It provides a good framework for psychological, historical, economic, cultural, political, and social analyses, and it is also the most talkative and least collectivist subject for performance on the theater stage.

Eugene O'Neill was one of the first people to notice many of the fractures in the American individual and society. To bring this to the stage, he offered his experimental theater, as a result of which he left some of the most memorable works in the field of performance and playwriting for us.

His works, with stories that constantly refer to his personal life, are very simple, transparent, and talkative, yet they require precise examinations because they accurately target the intricacies from various perspectives.

"Long Day's Journey into Night" is perhaps the closest text to his real life. It is an extremely bitter work that begins with a false and fading smile and ends with a passionate and melancholy confession.

Although the story is originally about one day in the life of an ordinary American family, beneath its surface lies a wealth of psychological equations, social intricacies, and personal mistakes. Just as many of O'Neill's later colleagues, such as Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams, expanded on the idea of the dysfunctional family and put it at the mercy of breakdown, "Long Day's Journey into Night" has distinct characteristics.

In the works of others, there is a relatively naturalistic view of many problems. They see many of the problems that enter society as a result of political decisions, capitalist thinking, or the American dream. That is, the main emptying and gradual disintegration of the family is a political and economic problem that has come from the outside and has caused these widespread but silent disasters. While O'Neill, with the psychological awareness of his characters, describes their motives, upbringing, way of thinking, and desires, and changes the equation from external factors to internal-external factors.

Above all, "Long Day's Journey into Night," just like its name suggests, is an extremely readable, thought-provoking, and touching work. The fatigue and sadness that remain in the heart of the audience after the last curtain will linger for a long time.

It is one of those books that will draw you into a corner, oblivious to the world around you.

Published in 1942.