EFFECTS OF A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY
SUMMARY OF THE WORK
Long Day’s Journey into the Night is a descriptive play about a dysfunctional
family in the year 1912 August in Connecticut. This story is a rough depiction of the
author’s family history.
The main characters in the play are James Tyrone and Mary who are the
parents of two middle-aged men Edmund, the eldest son and Jamie. In the novel,
Mary who is a long time addict finally returns home from treatment. Mary has been a
morphine addict since the birth of his first son Edmund deteriorating her health. This
state is clear from her weak, sickly appearance. The state of her marriage with Tyron
doesn't seem to help either due to their financial hardships and his somewhat stingy
behavior. Edmund had been coughing violently for a while. everyone suspected it
was tuberculosis. Even though the disease was curable at that time, this would mean
that he would go to the sanitarium which was way out of their budget. Mary is
defensive of her insomnia and addictive behavior when asked about it not admitting
that she is still taking the morphine. (Gray, Leigh, P.155) Mary has also been faced
with several tragedies since she spent her youth at a convent planning to be a nun. She
lost her father to tuberculosis and feels miserable for getting married to Tyrone.
Tyrone, Jamie and, Edmund are alcoholics. Mary "bribes" and convinces Cathleen
into taking her to the store to get her alleged prescribed dosage of morphine. Later
on, she engages her in a conversation about her childhood. Upon James and Edmund's
returning, the two converse about Mary's odd behavior induced by her morphine
intake. This observation drives both of them away. Later on, Edmund finds Tyrone
home playing solitaire. They converse and argue about their dreams and pasts. Jamie
then comes home drunk and gets a blow from Edmund for mouthing off their mother.
He also admits that he has not been the best son or brother due to his jealousy and that
he presents his own life. Edmund later gives him another blow for taking a crack at
his mother who was carrying her wedding dress oblivious of the people watching her
confessing that her marriage to Tyrone James was happy for a time. (Orchs, L)
INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author of the title Long Day's Journey into Night Eugene Gladstone
O'Neill is of American origin born in New York and has had a successful career as a
writer of playwrights and many novels. His early childhood is described as lonely
since he spent most of it in hotel rooms, trains and, backstage. He blamed his father
for his rough upbringing and, his mother wasn't of much help since she was struggling
with addiction. Writing to him was hereditary following his father's brief writing
career. Vividly evident in his plays, is a struggle with religion and understanding of
God especially because his mother was a devoted Irish Catholic. From his 7th to 13th
age, he attended a Catholic boarding school followed by four years preparatory school
which provided him with the opportunity to join Princeton University for a year
before being expelled. His urge to make ends meet forced him to do odd jobs.
Towards the end of the year 1912, O'Neill fell ill with tuberculosis. In 1913,
he began writing plays one being Bound East for Cardiff which put him on the map.
He was admitted into Harvard University but left a year after. In 1916, his only
merited play was finally produced and even given on Broadway winning him his first
award which was highly appraised by critics making it a stepping stone that propelled
him to greater heights in his writing career earning him much more significant medal
including the Nobel prize in literature 1936. He spent the remaining part of his life
writing and finally died in Boston in 1953.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The time that the story is based was a disastrous period because this was when
the Titanic ship sank claiming more than one thousand five hundred lives. Captain
Robert Scott’s expedition went south. End October the same year, the vice president
of the United States of America James Sherman died in office days before the year’s
presidential elections. These are but a few devastating events that took place in the
year 1912 but omitted by O’Neill just because he wanted to concentrate on his family
issue only mentioning the tuberculosis epidemic which severely affected his health.
DYSFUNCTIONALITY OF THE FAMILY
This playwright brings light to many underlying issues that are avoided in
topical discussions about our society including drug abuse and addiction. This is
evident from Mary's rollercoaster with morphine. She goes in and out of different
rehabilitation and treatment sanitariums time and again but to no avail. Mary explains
that she was addicted to the drug since the birth of her second child Edmund and for
the better part of life. This use tremendously affects her health and consequently
cripples her ability to raise her children and take care of her household as her
responsibility pertains. The reason why Mary has failed to tend to her family is the
adverse effects of morphine which are insomnia which is triggered by her husband's
loud snoring, anxious and restless especially as they awaited Edmund's tuberculosis
results remembering the death of her father caused by the same. Mary also lost weight
and, all these forced her to relapse. (Murphy, Brenda, P.162)
Alcoholism is extensively highlighted. Tyrone spent most of his time
drowning his sorrows in alcohol. He regretted his acting career which drove him
brokenness and loss of skill since he acted a specific role for an extended period. The
outcome of continuous regret was misery which made alcohol his perfect ally. Both
Edmund and Jamie followed in their father's footsteps by drinking as often as they
could to the extent of watering down Tyrone’s whiskey. (Gray, Leigh, P .157).This
consumption was an added expense to the money they barely had. It was irresponsible
of Tyrone to follow this line of thinking as a parent. Instead of being a positive
influence for his sons to look up to, he was on the contrary when he and Edmund
were drinking together which led to some misunderstandings and a minor fight
between the two. He ushered them into alcoholism. This poor judgment was a visible
result of excessive drinking.
In my opinion, this story sheds light to the contribution of drug abuse to the
moral decay of the society. First and foremost, Tyrone as the head of the family is
expected to take control of the state of his family by sobering up to support his wife's
recovery from her addiction, which would result to a common ground during the
decision making on matters affecting the household. The entire family would be
healthy, peaceful and financially stable.
Poor parenting is also a pressing issue in Tyrone's house. Tyrone and Mary are
irresponsible parents from the fore mentioned drug abuse and inadequate care of their
children. The author tells us that Tyrone's stingy nature made him assume parental
responsibility during his wife's labor experience during Edmund's birth. He also pays
the cheapest doctor possible to check his son's prolonged cough to know its probable
cause though it is assumed to be tuberculosis.
Mary is seen engaging in a heated argument with his son Jamie about her
addiction and relapse state. When Mary became agitated loses control over the
situation, Jamie abuses her and storms off. Also, her morphine addiction makes her
oblivious of her son's illness. She has to hear about the case from Jamie. Jamie and his
father cannot resist fighting. There is a lot of bitterness and blame between them.
Jamie blames his father for his brokenness and his mother’s morphine addiction while
Tyron blames his son for being a socialist. (Dowling, M, P. 162)
Jamie and Edmund are comfortable addressing their parent's rudely,
confronting them, fighting and abusing them due to the negligence of their parents.
The absence of Mary during their growth and early life also triggered the feeling of
being neglected as children making them distant from their mother. Distance is
illustrated when Edmund is not comfortable talking about his health state. In addition
to that, the parents are reluctant to correct their children.
Sibling rivalry and misunderstandings are evident when Jamie insists on
telling his mum about Edmund's illness even though she didn't consent of that. Also,
Jamie comes home late drunk from the brothels and starts insulting Mary. Edmund
gets agitated and hits his brother with a blow. He later does it again when their mother
is descending the stairs with her wedding gown oblivious of this act. The writer
effortlessly shows poverty. Jamie calls his father “old Gaspard” because the father is a
miser. He bargains everything and anything. He even bargains when it comes to
trivial matters like his son's heath he'd rather juggle to find the cheapest alternative
than to get the best health care for his son. After Mary was in labor, she experienced a
vast amount of pain. The doctor recommended that Tyrone pays for her treatment, but
it wasn't his concern because this would mean extra funds. ( Dowling, M, P.161)
COUNTERARGUMENT
The aforementioned behavior is collective in society due to the poor
upbringing of children and marital disagreements. This mainly caused by the presence
or absence of a parent in the life of their child and how involved they are in their
lives. Also, the participation of the parent in the day to day activities of the child.
Research has shown that most children take up what they see and often follow the
example of the parent. Which therefore determines how the children grow up to be as
clearly illustrated by the example of Tyrone drinking and causing chaos in the
presence of Jamie and Edmund. In my opinion, it is clear that parent involvement in
the growth of a child affects how they will grow and how they will behave. If only
Mary were available and there for his sons, they wouldn't have been bitter. Neither
would they have been distant with her.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it is evident that disagreements in a family have very severe
consequences to all the members of the family. In the text, Mary was an addict due to
her unhappy marriage, Tyrone was an alcohol addict due to his miserable state at
work while Jamie and Edmund had disagreements due to taking sides of parental
favor and also neglect from the parents. Thus these vital issues as well brought out
should be the first to be addressed by the society to bring up good, happy, healthy,
discipline and mentally stable children.
REFERENCES
Gray, Jaime Leigh. "Long Day's Journey Into Night by Jeanie Hackett." Eugene
O'Neill Review 38.1 (2017): 156-159.
Dowling, Robert M. "Long Day's Journey Into Night by Derron Wood." Eugene
O'Neill Review 38.1 (2017): 160-164.
Ochs, Vanessa L. Words on Fire: One Woman's Journey Into the Sacred. Routledge,
2018.
Murphy, Brenda. "Women Possessed: A Life of Eugene O'Neill by Arthur and
Barbara Gelb." Eugene O'Neill Review 38.1 (2017): 142-145.
Hill, Ernestine. The Great Australian Loneliness: A Classic Journey around and
across Australia. ETT Imprint, 2018.
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