Long Day’s Journey Into Night

1. O’neill uses the character’s dialogue to slowly make disclosures and revelations about the past. The characters, and Mary in particular, are preoccupied with the past and continually disclose issues they have had with things that occurred in the past.

2. The fog and foghorn appear often in the Long Day’s Journey into Night. The characters in the play retreat from their true feelings and problems at the sound and sight of the fog, foghorn, and bells and use it as an escape from their woes. In the first act of the play, the pleasant weather with the sun shining through the window is mirrored in the almost pleasant moods of the characters. As the play progresses and the problems and difficulties that troubles each family member is exposed, the fog begins to thicken. The family members then retreat away from their problems into the fog and with each sound of the foghorn with their respective drugs.

3. The Tyrone family suffers from problems that are universal to many families in past and present times. Firstly, the Tyrones lack true communication and honesty. Though they often reveal their true issues and personal feelings with each other in outbursts of emotions, every member of the family later retreats and conceal those feelings. They have trouble listening to each other, and resent and blame each other for all of their woes. Furthermore, the whole family suffers from addiction which commonly plagues many families. Mary suffers from addiction to morphine while the rest of the family turn to alcohol to forget their problems. Also, Tyrone is wary about his finances causing issues with the family who feel that he is too tightfisted with his own family.

4. All of the family members lie to each other and to themselves. Tyrone and his sons lie constantly to Mary by hiding Edmund’s disease in order to preserve her feelings and in hopes of suppressing her morphine addiction. They also allow her to dismiss her own morphine addiction as arthritis. Mary deludes herself by claiming that her morphine addiction is arthritis and denying that her son is ill. The sons are deceitful to their dad in hiding their alcohol consumption. They are also dishonest with themselves when they constantly admonish Mary’s addiction while ignoring their own. Tyrone is also dishonest with his stinginess, disliking their discussions about it. He lies to himself and his family members when he claims that he has not been stingy in the past in regards to medical care for his son or his wife.

5. All of the characters have broken, unrealized dreams. Mary (supposedly) had dreams of becoming a nun and pianist while Tyrone had hopes of becoming a more famous and celebrated actor. Their hopes and dreams for their sons are also unrealized as both of their sons lack ambition. The play also shows that none of the characters can be self-reliant. They are all

burdened by the opinions of the other members of their family. Therefore, they lack their individual identity as their identities are also forged by the actions of the other characters.