Mini Research Paper

Eugene O’Neil was a playwright who embodied and described realism, truth and the depths of the human condition. O’Neil himself is eerily present in his creation of Long Day’s Journey into the Night, especially through his ideology behind the main character known as Edmund Tyrone. Edmund, as the sickly youngest son in the play, and O’Neil, the like within his family, endure a similar lifestyle, but also show strong comparisons in traits and beliefs. Eugene O’Neil was a man who was not content with the world in which he lived. O’Neil stood by and watched his family crumble, and witnessed countless more destructive families end as his did throughout his life; before it started. “For the author himself, it was only a brief holiday from his most persistent memories, which were normally bleak, and from the contemporary world, about which he never felt particularly cheerful. That it represented only a vacation from a gloomy view of la condition humaine” (Gassner 11). In Long Day’s Journey into the Night, the life and times of O’Neil’s past manifest themselves into forms the title: day, journey, and night, creating a dark and hopeless view of the American family unit.
Days represent what is obvious in the life of Eugene O’Neil and within the play Long Day’s Journey into the Night. As the light from the son brightens the sky, seeing is easy in the day, and there is nowhere to hide faults and failures. O’Neil’s father was an actor, as was James Tyrone in the play. They are both described as “Penny pinchers”, and showed little regard for their family throughout their acting careers. Eugene was kicked out of college and went to Central America in search of gold. Edmund was also removed from his place of study, but instead of gold digging, he went out to the sea. Edmund describes multiple times how free and wonderful his experiences on his ship were, when there were no worries, only nature and his body. Novelty wore off quickly, and both returned to everyday life soon after. Both Eugene and Edmund were greatly affected by their fathers, and they would never fully recover from what they were put through.
As the journey through life rolls on a story is what forms from the past and is carried, whether true or altered into the uncertain future. Eugene O’Neil had an unlucky but fitting start to his journey. He was born in a hotel room, a place of which he would become quite familiar with as he traveled around with his father throughout his early years. “Usually,” O’Neil declared to a reporter in 1932, “A child has a regular, fixed home, but you might say I started as a trouper. I knew only actors and the stage. My mother nursed me in the wings and in dressing rooms” (Gassner 2). Edmund did the same in this play, and as a result, he never felt as if he had a home, or even knew what home was. Certainly that lifestyle is not suitable for a child, and both Edmund and Eugene miss something in their life through that experience, they are homeless. This is what leads them to go off and explore places such as the sea and Central America, they need something more. They needed to find a deeper meaning in life, or they would be left wit nothing.
The night and the darkness hides what people are unwilling to reveal. The darkness, like the fog in the play, represents a screen that no one wants to remove out of fear of the unknown. Eugene O’Neil’s mother had a drug addiction, as did Mary Tyrone. Both O’Neil and Edmund had alcoholic brothers as bad influences as well. These are things that both of these people unsuccessfully tried to shield from their lives, but the fact of the matter is, it consumed their lives. Darkness did not help, because at the end of the night, there was day, and amidst day, their journey was staring them in the face.
Eugene O’Neil implements his entire being into the play Long Day’s Journey into the Night. O’Neil’s life is fully represented through the work and specifically Edmund in content, ideology, and events. This makes for a very deep and full work that digs viciously into human emotions, and shows us a true American family.