Delving into the Psyche of the Characters from Eugene O'Neill's 'A Long Day's Journey into Night.'

"Old sorrow, written in tears and blood."

☆ 'Long Day's Journey into Night' : Introduction :

》For introduction of the play, please touch the below image :

"Yes, forget! Forget everything and face nothing! It’s a convenient

philosophy if you’ve no ambition in life..."

(Source : Wikipedia)

The blog is a response to the Thinking Activity given by my professor Yesha Bhatt from Department of English - Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University - Bhavnagar.

☆ In this blog I am going to discuss three topics related to the play :

(1) The play described by author himself as "old sorrow, written in tears and blood" & discussion :

(2) Theme of Addiction (In reference with the characters of the play) :

(3) 'Sense of Failure' seen in psyche of the characters of the play :

Here we go!!

(1) In relation to the very first topic of our discussion, we can put forth the recurring sorry dialogues of Mary Tyrone as she repents to have married to James Tyrone and her anguish of being poor gets reflected in the words sadly spoken by her in the first scene of second act :

Mary : ...Oh, I’m so sick and tired of pretending this is a home!

'Sorrow' of the Tyrones shown in the play is that there is an undercurrent constant flow of disgust, nervousness (Mary), and the fear of having nothing significant to talk about. We find it in all but it often gets reflected further in Mary's resentful talks while she converses with Cathleen in third act :

MARY :

(Resentfully.)

I? What put that absurd notion in your head? I was brought up in a

respectable home and educated in the best convent in the Middle West. Before I met Mr. Tyrone I hardly knew there was such a thing as a theater. I was a very pious girl. I even dreamed of becoming a nun. I’ve never had the slightest desire to be an actress.

(2) Coming down to the second topic, one will find a continuous recurrence of addiction seen in the characters and thus extremeness of intoxication as seen in Mary after taking more amount of morphine than prescribed by doctor.

Let us have a look on each character's life which is one way or the other affected by some kind of addiction to alcohol or drugs :

1. Mary Tyrone :

MARY :

Her face again sets in stubborn defiance.

I don’t know what you mean by “believing in me.” All I’ve felt was distrust

and spying and suspicion.

Then accusingly.

Why are you having another drink? You never have more than one before

lunch.

Bitterly.

I know what to expect. You will be drunk tonight. Well, it won’t be the first

time, will it—or the thousandth?

Again she bursts out pleadingly.

Oh, James, please! You don’t understand! I’m so worried about Edmund!

I’m so afraid he— (Scene 1, Act 2)

2. James Tyrone :

TYRONE :

Pours a drink.

A waste! A wreck, a drunken hulk, done with and finished!

He drinks. Jamie has become restless, sensing his father’s presence,

struggling up from his stupor. Now he gets his eyes open to blink up at

Tyrone. The latter moves back a step defensively, his face growing hard. (Act 4)

3. James Tyrone Jr. or Jamie :

JAMIE :

Confusedly—appearing drunk again.

Don’t be a dumbbell! What I said! Always suspected of hoping for the

worst. I’ve got so I can’t help—

Then drunkenly resentful.

What are you trying to do, accuse me? Don’t play the wise guy with me!

I’ve learned more of life than you’ll ever know! Just because you’ve read a

lot of highbrow junk, don’t think you can fool me! You’re only an

overgrown kid! Mama’s baby and Papa’s pet! The family White Hope!

You’ve been getting a swelled head lately. About nothing! About a few

poems in a hick town newspaper! Hell, I used to write better stuff for the Lit

magazine in college! You better wake up! You’re setting no rivers on fire!

You let hick town boobs flatter you with bunk about your future—

Abruptly his tone changes to disgusted contrition. Edmund has looked away

from him, trying to ignore this tirade.

Hell, Kid, forget it. That goes for Sweeny. You know I don’t mean it. No

one hopes more than I do you’ll knock ‘em all dead. No one is prouder

you’ve started to make good.

Drunkenly assertive.

Why shouldn’t I be proud? Hell, it’s purely selfish. You reflect credit on

me. I’ve had more to do with bringing you up than anyone. I wised you up about women, so you’d never be a fall guy, or make any mistakes you

 didn’t want to make! And who steered you on to reading poetry first? Swinburne, for example? I did! And because I once wanted to write, I planted it in your mind that someday you’d write! Hell, you’re more than my brother. I made you! You’re my Frankenstein!

He has risen to a note of drunken arrogance. Edmund is grinning with amusement now. (Act 4)

4. Edmund :

EDMUND :

Pouring a big drink—a bit drunkenly.

Enough is not as good as a feast.

He hands back the bottle. (Act 4)

(3) The third topic seems to be the crux of the matter around what the whole play spins. Each - somewhat Cathleen as well - character somewhere in their psyche has the embedded sense of failure, desolation, being at loss, and the cynical feeling of being abandoned by the fellow ones and cold loneliness. Let us delve into their psyche through referring to their voice in the play :

1. Mary : In the conversation with Cathleen, Mary grows solemn about her life as she thinks that she has spent it in wrong way, for she once was aspiring to become a nun instead of having conjugational life.

MARY :

Goes on as if she hadn’t heard. In nearly all the following dialogue there is

the feeling that she has Cathleen with her merely as an excuse to keep

talking.

I don’t mind it tonight. Last night it drove me crazy. I lay awake worrying

until I couldn’t stand it any more. (Act 4)

2. James Tyrone : He as alike his wife Mary is a sassy person always seen making the ends meet of the family and playing host between the day-to-day brawl amongst mother and children. He has lost his career as a successful actor and has been doing meager works and thus is a sole breadwinner of Tyrones'.

TYRONE :

Sits down sheepishly—grumbles pathetically.

That’s right, laugh at the old fool! The poor old ham! But the final curtain

will be in the poorhouse just the same, and that’s not comedy!

Then as Edmund is still grinning, he changes the subject.

Well, well, let’s not argue. You’ve got brains in that head of yours, though

you do your best to deny them. You’ll live to learn the value of a dollar.

You’re not like your damned tramp of a brother. I’ve given up hope he’ll

ever get sense. Where is he, by the way? (Act 4)

3. Edmund : The tuberculosis patient and the younger child of the Tyrones' seems to have lost hope in the prospect future life for he knows along the line with his family that sooner or later he is heading towards the untimely death and thus is shown timid, unassertive, and sometimes reticent. He gets teased by Cathleen on the grounds of lacking sturdy physical features like his father James and freaks off her arguments :

CATHLEEN :

It’s a wonder your father wouldn’t look at his watch once in a while. He’s a

divil for making the meals late, and then Bridget curses me as if I was to

blame. But he’s a grand handsome man, if he is old. You’ll never see the

day you’re as good looking—nor Mister Jamie, either.

She chuckles.

I’ll wager Mister Jamie wouldn’t miss the time to stop work and have his

drop of whiskey if he had a watch to his name!

EDMUND :

Gives up trying to ignore her and grins.

You win that one.

CATHLEEN :

And here’s another I’d win, that you’re making me call them so you can

sneak a drink before they come.

EDMUND:

Well, I hadn’t thought of that—

CATHLEEN :

Oh no, not you! Butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth, I suppose.

EDMUND :

But now you suggest it—

CATHLEEN :

Suddenly primly virtuous.

I’d never suggest a man or a woman touch drink, Mister Edmund. Sure,

didn’t it kill an uncle of mine in the old country.

Relenting.

Still, a drop now and then is no harm when you’re in low spirits, or have a

bad cold.

EDMUND :

Thanks for handing me a good excuse.

Then with forced casualness.

You’d better call my mother, too.

》Conclusion :

Concluding the discussion of the play gives a replica of the condition of an upper-middle class English family of second half of the 20th century England along with O'Neill's own autobiographical tinge. Here is the movie remaining much faithful to the original text and dialogues amongst the characters :

Thank you!