Long Days Journey into Night by Eugene O’ Neill (Story Map)

October 5, 2007

Long Days Journey into Night by Eugene O’ Neill


Protagonist: Mary Tyrone
Antagonist: alcohol

This plays setting mostly takes place in a home. The owner of this typical home is James Tyrone. He is a land owner, once was famous actor, and is the husband of Mary Tyrone. James Tyrone is a landowner. He once was a famous actor. Mary is the protagonist of this play. Before returning back home Mary was treated for Morphine addiction. The antagonist of this play would be alcohol. It is the main reason that leads the characters to have many arguments. They have two sons named Edmund and Jamie. Jamie is the eldest son of the Tyrone family. Throughout this play Jamie mostly depends on his family for support. Edmund is a hard working person. In this play Edmund is mostly sick. Later on in the play Edmund learns that he is suffering from tuberculosis. Cathleen is the maid of the Tyrone family who is a flirty type of character. Many times in the play, the Tyrone family has many arguments about their past. This can be one reason why Mary is addicted to morphine. She gets emotional about the family problems. They all argue about both Jamie and Edmund not being successful in life. Most of the characters in the play are alcoholic. O’Neill’s Long Days Journey into Night shows effects of a dysfunctional family.

Setting: The setting is in a summer morning in August 1912.
It takes place inside in a home, in the living room.

Vocabulary:
1. Sanatorium- A hospital for a long-term care of people who are mentally or physically ill.
2. Consumption- The process of consuming.
3. Accentuated- To show the importance of, to emphasize
4. Resentment- A felling of anger about unhappiness, bitterness.
5.Fectionate-

Plot:
Long days Journey into Night mostly talks about the struggle of family members and how they overcome their problems. The characters of the play are Tyrone, Mary, Edmund, Jamie and also Cathleen. All characters are alcoholic. This family has many arguments over their past lives. Mary had just returned from a treatment.

After Mary’s treatment everyone thought that she had left Morphine and was not addicted to it anymore. The rising action of this play was when Mary’s family finds out that she is still addicted to Morphine. This leads to fights in the family and also many arguments. The climax of this play is when Edmunds father Tyrone was really drunk one night. At that moment Edmund was also drunk. Both started arguing about keeping the lights on and wasting electricity. Tyrone becomes angry and intimidates Edmund of beating him up.

The falling action was when Mary admitted that she was still on Morphine. She was still addicted to morphine because she cannot forget the past. She gets very emotional. The resolution of this play is that Tyrone, Jamie and Edmund were all drunk. Later after having Morphine, Mary comes to the living room. She sees everyone drunk. She then starts to remember her childhood and tells Tyrone and her sons that she is choosing to be a nun. After Listening to that, the whole room was silent. Finally when all characters are motionless the play ends.

Quotes:
Mary is a character who is accused of relapsing. After being accused she said “It would serve all of you right if it was true.” Mary is trying to say that she is seeking an excuse for taking drugs again, by using her families’ reservations as a reason to relapse.

O’ Neill also quotes “I was stone cold sober. That was the trouble. I’d stopped to think too long.” This quote talks about Edmund. Basically this quote is trying to say that the main reason Edmund uses alcohol is to forget the past.


Conflict: A family who struggles through family problems would be the external conflict for this play, mainly because they face outside problems. The internal conflict would be that the family uses alcohol to overcome family problems.

Theme: Remembering the Past
This play mainly talks about remembering the past. All characters argue about the past. Mary who is the protagonist has huge dreams of her family being successful, and owning a beautiful house. None of her dreams came true.

Alcohol Abuse
Half of this play talks about alcohol abuse. The Tyrone family is alcoholic. The main reason they all use alcohol is because they struggle with family emotional problems. The characters cannot forget the past.

Literary Elements:
1) Motifs- are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help
to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
(Page 11)
Motif- The setting of the play mainly takes place inside a house in a living room. The Tyrone family always has arguments within each other. To solve their problems they use alcohol while there in depression. The play ends with the characters using alcohol.

2) Flashback- A movement in time from the present to the past.
(Page 175)
Flashback - After Mary sees her husband Tyrone and her two sons drunk, she starts to have flash backs of her childhood. She starts to think that she is back in her childhood. Mary also takes out her wedding gown.

(3) Theme- Themes the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work
(Page 126)
Theme- (alcohol abuse) Edmund and his father Tyrone are drunk. Both are on alcohol. Edmund and Tyrone have an argument of wasting electricity. When Tyrone becomes angry he threatens to beat Edmund up. The characters also argue over many other things when they are drunk.

Annotated Bibliography:

Eugene O’Neill. Long Days Journey into Night 1956

Eugene O’Neill’s Long Days Journey into Night talks about family relationships. How a family struggles throughout the play. The Tyrone family is alcoholic. They try to face their problems by taking alcohol. Eugene O’Neill takes the reader into his own life. This play was mostly like a memoir. It talks about O’Neill’s life.

The most significant point of views that this novel talks about is about family relationships. This play mainly focuses on Eugene O’Neill’s life. O'Neill biographer Barbara Gelb explains the publication history of Long Day's Journey into Night. Many websites focus on the relationships between O’ Neill and the play. Online resources also illustrate the meaning of the title and what relations it has with the play. These resources not only provide concepts about the play to the reader, but also give the background history of the play.