The document provides analysis of key themes in Eugene O'Neill's play Long Day's Journey into Night. It discusses several themes: 1) Addiction - All the Tyrones depend on drugs/alcohol to escape their problems, but this exacerbates rather than alleviates their issues. 2) Displacing blame - The characters obsess over the past and blame others for their problems rather than accepting responsibility. 3) Denial and self-delusion - When sober, they deny flaws and choose to argue they are victims rather than face failures. 4) Hopelessness/religion - A lost faith results in a loss of hope, especially for Edmund who awaits his death without purpose. 5) I

1. Name:…………………………………………………………………….
Themes in Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill Addiction
Displacing Blame
Denial and Self-Destructiveness
Hopelessness/ Religion
Isolation/Loneliness
Reality vs Illusion
Suspicion and Doubt
The Past
Addiction:
“There's nothing like the first after-breakfast cigar, if it's a good one, and this new lot have the
right mellow flavor.”
The play to some extent is centered on addiction. This is what can be held accountable
for broken family relationships. Mary’s morphine addiction is balanced by the men’s
alcoholism. Although the morphine is perhaps a more destructive drug, alcohol does its fair
share of damage to the Tyrone men. Addiction serves as an escape from reality. “But, of course
he’ll never come home so long as he has the price of a drink left.” This was said by Mary on
page 94. Jamie does this because he cannot face reality sober, and as a result hardens himself
by drinking to face it.
“I hope to God you haven’t taken to drink on top of---“In act 3 when Mary becomes
defensive when she was asked about drinking. She changes the subject and speaks about her
“rheumatism”. Aware that Mary is both intoxicated and ‘high’ from Morphine, Tyrone tries to
escape reality, “I’ll get a fresh bottle of whiskey…”
Just as the Tyrone men, when reality becomes too much to handle Mary escapes into
another world through the use of Morphine. “I must go upstairs. I haven’t taken enough.”
Avoidance is often their strategy for dealing with problems.
Besides as an escape, addiction act as a truth serum. This is as when the characters are
pg.26. This is said by Tyrone who stops Jamie from giving his tongue liberty to say what he feels
because he isn’t drunk, which clearly show what he was about to say would only be accepted if
he was drunk.

2. In act 4 or the emotionally cathartic scene we realize that their addiction no longer have
an effect on them. They are now forced to face the truth- reality. On pg. 137 Edmund tells
Jamie don’t drink anymore because he will pass out. Jamie’s response is that he, “Can’t, that’s
[the} trouble. Had enough to sink a ship but can’t sink” he is now forced to accept reality.
All of the Tyrones depend on drugs to escape their problems. James, Jamie, and Edmund
take refuge in alcohol and Mary in morphine. But instead of alleviating their problems, the
drugs exacerbate them.
Displacing Blame:
“You’re to blame James”
The characters in Long Day's Journey are absolutely obsessed with thinking over the
past and either feeling guilty about what they've done, or blaming someone else for all the
problems they face. Early in the play we see Jamie blaming his father, James for his mother’s
morphine addiction. On page 34 he says, “… he was another cheap quack like Hardy! You
wouldn’t pay for a first rate ---“Jamie holds Tyrone stinginess for his mother’s addiction.
Mary blames the doctor for her morphine addiction. On page 75 Mary compares how
she was before Edmund’s birth and after his birth. “I was so healthy before Edmund was born.
You remember, James. There wasn’t a nerve in my body… I was sick afterwards, and that
ignorant quack of a cheap hotel doctor--- All he knew was I was in pain. It was easy for him to
stop the pain” She suggests if the doctor had tried to help her instead of make a quick buck he
wouldn’t have made her a “dope fiend”
Seven years after Jamie was born Mary has a baby named Eugene. Eugene died as a
baby. Mary blamed herself firstly for his death. “I was to blame for his death. If I hadn’t left him
with my mother to join you on the road…” She accepts the blame for the loss of Eugene but
then she gives it to Jamie. Since he had “measles” he wasn’t allowed to go in the baby’s room,
but like any other child his age he disobeyed. She hold Jamie responsible for Edmund’s death as
she says, “I’ve always believed Jamie did it on purpose. He was jealous of the baby. He hated
him…” She then reverses the blame back onto herself. “It was my fault. I should have insisted
on staying with Eugene…”
After this she hen gives James full blame foe Edmund being born. “Above all I shouldn’t
have let you insist I have another baby to take Eugene’s place…” She also blames him for the
way she, Jamie and Edmund have turned out, by attacking he disability to create the kind of

3. home she wanted. “…by then that children should have homes to be born in, if they are to be
good children, and women need homes, if they are to be good mothers.”
As usual Mary blames herself, this time for Edmund’s fragility. “I wasn’t worth to have
another baby, and God would punish me if I did. I never should have borne Edmund.” On pg. 95
she again snatches the blame for Eugene’s death, “ I let him die through neglect.” In an effort to
create sympathy for herself and judgment for the others Mary provokes a give and take blame
game.
Denial and Self-Delusion:
“Oh, I know it’s foolish to imagine dreadful things when there’s no reason for it. After all,
When the four members of the Tyrone family are sober, they generally refuse to
acknowledge their own failures and weaknesses. Instead, they deny their faults altogether,
choosing to blame another family member for them or to argue that they are victims of
uncontrollable circumstances. Their self-delusions lead to petty bickering and raging discord
and avoid facing their failures; they take refuge in liquor or, in the case of Mary, morphine.
Under the influence of drugs, they tend to probe the past and ruminate over what could have
been or should have been.
Mary remembers what she wanted in past the past, “ I had two dreams. To be a nun,
that was the more beautiful one. To become a concert pianist, that was the other.” Mary
deludes herself with her of dream of being a concert pianist. Through the stage directions its is
noted that Mary isn’t as good as she thinks and her dream was quite far-fetched, “someone
starts playing the piano in there ---- the opening of one on Chopin’s simpler waltzes, done with
a forgetful groping, as if an awkward schoolgirl were practising it for the first time.”
Oddly, when they are primed with the artificial courage of their drug of choice, they
sometimes own up to their flaws or forgive others for theirs. But such conversational
benefactions are almost always negated by renewed verbal warfare.
Unfortunately, no one seems willing to take the necessary measures to overcome
addiction, although Jamie says he might have been inclined to seek help if his mother had set
an example of sobriety. But, of course, his sincerity here is suspect, for he is refusing to take
responsibility for his behavior. In effect, he is saying that he is still a drunk because his mother is

4. still a morphine addict. And so the family self-destructs. At the end of the play, each member of
the family is an alien in a familiar world; the Tyrones live together separately.
Hopelessness/Religion:
“ I had given up hope”
Although Tyrone professes to keep his faith, his two sons have long since abandoned
the Catholic religion. Just as Tyrone attacks them for not attending Mass regular, Jamie attacks
him as well, “… I don’t remember you’ve worn any holes in the knees of your pants going to
Mass.” The lives the Tyrone children choose to live blatantly reject any knowledge of God.
Tyrone's religion spills over into his taste in art. He considers Edmund's favorite writers like
Nietzsche who said, “God is dead” to be morbid and degenerate.
A lost in faith can account for the loss of hope. When Edmund’s doctor calls about his
condition he inquires about what he said but claims not to care, “What did he say not that I give
a damn”. Edmund, who has lost his faith, has lost all hope and has sentenced himself to death
not finding something or some higher being to put his trust in. He goes through the play
awaiting his bell of quittance.
Mary's loss of faith also recurs as an issue. Although she still believes, she thinks she has
fallen so far from God that she no longer has the right to pray. “You expect the Blessed Virgin to
be fooled by a lying dope fiend reciting words!” According to Tyrone, Mary’s loss of faith is
what needs to be held accountable for her relapse on morphine. “ if your mother had prayed,
too—She hasn’t denied her faith, but she’s forgotten it, until now there’s no strength of spirit
left in her to fight against her curse.”
Jamie, Edmund and James all too some extent can blame their loss of hope on broken
promises made by Mary. “There’s no help for it… I wish she hadn’t led me to hope this time”,
James in the above quote says he wished that she didn’t give him something to hope for. She
gave him hope by trying to stay off the drug but her relapse took that faith away from him.
Most of all Jamie’s hope has disintegrated since the first time she took the drug.

5. Isolation/Loneliness:
“I know it’s useless to talk. But sometimes I feel so lonely”
Isolated from larger society, the Tyrones’ predicament is worsened by their isolation
from each other. This happens since the characters display a fundamental inability to
understand one another. Mary is arguably the most isolated character in the play. This is as she
is the only morphine addict. No one understands her motives for things when she’s doped up
and sinks further, and further away from reality. Apart from her choice of substance addiction,
Mary is also isolated as the only female in the Tyrone family.
Mary is lonely because she doesn’t have someone she could talk to or have fun with, ” if
there was only some place I could go to get away for a day, or even an afternoon, some women
friend I could talk to… gossip and forget for a while.” When Mary was wedded she lost some of
her friends. Those who didn’t “pitied” her, “cut” her off. While everyone else in the play goes
out and relax or have a drink with their friend Mary doesn’t have this pleasure. This may be due
to her own stubbornness as she refused to talk to Tyrone’s friends when they were on the road
and also she has a car which she refuses to drive, she could have gone out and made friends.
Reality VS Illusion/Appearance:
Reality and appearance are constantly mixed up in this play. This is as reality for many
characters is what they choose to see, believe or be part of. For many of them Appearance is
reality (*just like Othello). The play begins at eight, thirty a.m it appears that the day would be
filled with new beginnings and full of hope but by lunch time we see that reality doesn’t match
appearance and the theme of the prevails. This is as just like any other day, it was a new day to
ruin with old problems.

6. Suspicion/ Doubt
“Why nothing, except you’ve seemed a bit high strung the past few days”
 The play opens with a typical family. A mother, a father and their sons. Early we
realize that Mary is a recovering addict. Tyrone in act one realizes that Mary is
beginning to gain weight, something that is only done when you’ve stop taking
drugs, “You’ve a fine armful now, Mary, with those twenty pounds you’ve
gained.” At first everyone in the play seems to be happy or grateful that Mary
has kicked the drug.As the play progresses the characters begun to question, if
what they believe is the truth or not. This is as Mary is getting better but when
she begins to act like her old self “turning her head away” while she they were
talking to her they suspect that something is wrong.
 On page 33 Jamie suspects that Mary has begun again. “I pretended to be
asleep. She stopped in the hall to listen, as if she wanted to make sure I was.” He
makes a clear indication that Mary has begun moving around at night, unsure if
what he thinks is true, he allows doubt to enter his mind and the mind of the
other characters as well
 “It was her being in the spare room that scared me. I couldn’t help remembering
that when she stars sleeping alone in there, it has always been a sign.” This
quote confirms what he has been suspicious about is true.
 Mary who is guilty of being back on the drugs can’t help but notice that her
family has realized her actions. “Tell me the truth. Why are you so suspicious all
of a sudden?” When Jamie replies that he isn’t she responds, “ Oh, yes you are. I
can feel it. Your father and Jamie, too – particularly Jamie. Mary is very intuitive
about how they perceive her.
The Past:
Oh, for God’s sake, don’t drag up that ancient history!”

7. Long day’s journey into night is a story of defeat, struggle, pain, love and acceptance.
“Well you know how it is, I can’t forget the past” says Jamie in Act one in relation to his
mother’s drug addiction (indirectly). Every interaction with the Tyrone family involves their
past. As Mary puts it, “the past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too”. Each day they revisit
old fights to open old wounds of hurt that cannot be forgotten.
Tyrone’s major flaw is his miserliness. He values money way way to much. Tyrone
reveals a though past. “my mother was left, a stranger in a stranger land, with four small
children… At ten years old! There was no more school for me… And what you think I got for it?
Fifty cents…. We never had clothes to wear, nor enough to eat…it was in those days I learned to
be a miser. A dollar was worth so much then. And once you’ve learned a lesson it is hard to
unlearn it.” Tyrone’s past is to be held accountable for Mary’s addiction and she never lets him
forget that.
Mary’s main flaw is her inability to face reality/truth. The past reveals that Mary’s father
died of consumption, Mary refuses to believe that, that would also be the fate of her youngest
son. ”What makes it worse is her father died of consumption”. She refuses to believe that
Edmund is quite sick “It’s just the summer cold.” She is unable to accept that the cycle of past,
present and future continuum.
Jamie’s major flaw is his cynicism. As his parents points out, “the worst he can suspect is
the only truth or him.” As a result of Jamie’s cynicismcoupled with hurts from the past can
never truly love Edmund. This is as he blames his birth for his mother’s drug addiction and as
result tried to ruin Edmund’s future. “I’ve been rotten bad influence, And worst I is, I did it on
purpose.” When things begin to look forward or in the right direction the past rare its ugly head
to destruct again. “ I’d begun to hope, if she’d beaten the game, I could too”. Unfortunately
Mary has sunk back into old habits.
 Everyone in Long day’s journey into night has some major anxiety about the lost ‘good
old days’ and about old mistakes that still show scars. Both parents express real regret
over choices that they made in their youth. All conflicts and problems from the past
cannot be forgotten, and in fact they seem doomed to be relieved day after day.
 It is important to note that Long day’s journey into night is not only a journey back into
the past lives of all characters, who continuously dip back into their old lifestyles. The
audience is left realizing that “the past is the present… the future too” as the family
makes no progress towards betterment, but rather continuously slides into despair as
they remain bound to the pas that they neither forget nor forgives or is ready to forgive.
 The play is more tragic because it gives a little hope but then takes it back. The Tyrones
can only be seen as one long cycle of a repeated past bound by alcohol and morphine.

8. FEAR & THE PAST.
 Just like everyone each member of the Tyrone family has a fear. Each character fear lies
in the past, and experience that they do not want to relive. Tyrone in act four give his
reason for his miserliness. As he said “once you learn a lesson it is hard to unlearn it” his
past experience is what made his the man he is, cheap. This is something he would always
have to live with because it lies in his memory.
 Tyrone fear is the “poor house”. He was once there and tries everything he thinks he
can do to prevent that situation from returning. Hence the only thing he spends money
carelessly on is property.
 The source of Mary's fear isn't much of a mystery when she says things like "I
knew I'd proved by the way I'd left Eugene that I wasn't worthy to have another
baby, and that God would punish me if I did". Mary feels extremely guilty over
the death of her second son. She thinks that, if she'd been there, she could've
stopped little Jamie from giving Eugene that lethal case of measles.
 It's likely that Mary was afraid something awful would happen to Edmund as
well. This mental anguish, coupled with the physical pain of childbirth, was
probably pure torture for Mary. The cheap hotel doctor that James dug up to
help her came in with very little understanding of the complexities of her
torment. He saw only a lady in pain. So, he prescribed one of the most effective
legal painkillers of the day – morphine.
 Morphine, like its cousins, opium and heroine, is almost instantly addictive. Mary
had no idea the sort of dangerous medicine she'd been given. She only felt
euphoria and, for a sweet moment, a release from her anguish. If only she'd
known how much more pain it would cause her in the future. Before she knew it,
she was trapped in addiction's vicious cycle.
 Jamie’s fear is that his mother would go back on morphine--- but she is back on
the drug. “I hope she’d kick the drug this time”. He also fears that his brother’s
idea of consumption is true, “ what I’m afraid of is, with your Irish bog-trotter
idea that consumption is fatal, you’ll figure it would be a waste of money to
spend any more than you can help.

9. The past lives in the memory. This memory of the past of is what creates each character’s fear.