MA Part 1, Semester II Paper 108: The American Literature

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The Pharmacology of
Long Day’s Journey
into Night
Prepared By Divya Sheta

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Name: Divya Sheta
MA Part I, Semester II
Topic :The Pharmacology of Long Day’s Journey into Night
Paper no.108: The American Literature
Subject Code: 22401
Enrollment Number: 4069206420210033
Contact Info.: divyasheta@gmail.com
Submitted to : S.B.Gardi Department of English,MK Bhavanagar University.

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Cambridge dictionary rightly
mentioned: the study of
medicines and drugs, including
their action, their use, and
their effects on the body
Definition of
Pharmocology:

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Dr. Ronald Melzack-The Tragedy of Needless Pain
● "When patients take morphine to combat pain, it is rare to see
addiction. Addiction seems to arise only in some fraction of morphine
users who take the drug for its psychological effects, such as its ability
to produce euphoria and relieve tension" (Melzack,27).
● Patients who do develop a dependence on morphine "are usually those
who already have a history of psychological disturbance or substance
abuse"(Melzack,29)

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There are dramatic statistics to support this conclusion. For example,
● In one study of 11,882 patients who were given narcotics to relieve
pain stemming from medical problems, only four patients
subsequently became drug abusers (Melzack 30).
● In another study of 10,000 burn victims who were treated for pain
with narcotics, only 22 later became addicts-and in each of those
cases the addict had a history of drug abuse prior to hospitalization.
Morphine might be a reasonable treatment not only for short term
pain but also for chronic pain, even in patients who are not
terminally ill (Melzack,33).

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● Little reason to question the assertion that the hotel doctor who
gave Mary morphine to ease the pain of childbirth was a quack. Nor
had we reason to question Mary's scornful attitude toward Dr.
Hardy, the family practitioner who prescribes "will power" as a
means of controlling her desire for the drug. (Hinden,48)
● Such representatives of American medical practice at the turn of
the century may have acted in a competent manner. Mary's
response to morphine was unusual: many were given morphine for
pain but few became addicted. (Hinden,48)

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● We know that Mary has been able to resist the drug for long
stretches. On the day the play takes place, she has returned from
one of her "cures" and so presumably has been drug-free for
some time. (During the opening chatter of the play the men
comment on Mary's robust health and express their pleasure at
having her home again.) O'Neill suggests that her flight to the
spare bedroom, where she has secreted a cache of morphine, is
motivated by an emotional rather than a physiological craving.
Tyrone repeatedly begs Mary to stop while she can—he insists
that she is capable of stopping if she wants to—and his two sons
repeat the plea. (Hinden,48)

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● As an adolescent, Mary was a romantic day-dreamer who hoped
to become a concert pianist or perhaps a nun. noteworthy that as
she recalls her convent days, she remembers that (It is Sister
Martha, who ran the infirmary, always had "things in her
medicine chest" that could cure anything [171].) (Hinden,48)
● Her next romantic dream was to marry James Tyrone, a matinee
idol, and that she did-although she quickly became disillusioned
with the seedy, itinerant life of a backstage spouse. (Hinden,48)

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● The death of her father, whom she adored; the death of
her second child from measles; her introduction to
morphine after Edmund's birth; her eldest son's
alcoholism and failed career; her social isolation and lack
of a proper home; and finally the prospect of Edmund's
death from consumption. These are the emotional
disruptions, recollections, and fears that prompt Mary to
seek her hidden syringe.(Hinden,48)

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● "It's a special kind of medicine," she confides to her
maid. "I have to take it because there is no other that
can stop the pain-all the pain I mean, in my hands"
(103). But that self-conscious qualifier gives Mary
away. She needs her "special medicine" to muffle her
emotional pain, which is far more overwhelming
than the rheumatism in her hands, to which she
alludes.(Hinden,49)

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O'Neill based the characters in Long Day's Journey Into Night on
members of his own family.
● The playwright's birth in 1888 was indeed the occasion of his
mother's introduction to morphine under circumstances similar to
those recounted in the play. However, chemical dependency appears
to have been a problem spanning several generations in the O'Neill
family. It is probable that O'Neill's maternal grandfather was an
alcoholic (in the play, Mary's father is said to have died from
consumption aggravated by champagne). (Hinden,49)

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O'Neill based the characters in Long Day's Journey Into Night on
members of his own family.
● O'Neill's father was a heavy drinker, and O'Neill's brother, Jamie,
died an alcoholic at age 45. (In the play, both James Tyrone and
Jamie consume staggering quantities of liquor.) O'Neill's two
sons, in turn, became chemically dependent, and both took their
own lives. The elder, Eugene, Jr., was an alcoholic; the younger,
Shane, was both an alcoholic and a heroin addict.(Hinden,49)

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Does this inter generational pattern suggest a genetic
link?(Hinden,49)
Melzack's findings offer a tantalizing
clue in this regard: "The discovery of a
genetic influence on morphine's actions
raises the possibility that susceptibility
to addiction might also have a genetic
component in some people" (32).

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● O’Neill became addicted to morphine even though the vast
majority of patients who receive the drug for pain suffer no
lasting ill effects. If the addiction of O’Neill’s mother Ella O’Neill,
was triggered by a genetic proclivity, then Mary’s plaintive cry in
the play takes on special significance: “None of us can help the
things life has done to us” It is the view that some basis in
physiological fact.(Hinden,50)
● During the winter of 1911-1912, O’Neill was living in a
combination bar and rooming house in New York City known as
a Jimmy the Priest’s(later become the setting of ‘The Iceman
Cometh.’)(Hinden,50)

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In time O'Neill wrote Long Day's Journey
Into Night, which contains one of the most
harrowing portraits of addiction in world
literature. As he stated in his dedication, it
was a play "written in tears and
blood."(Hinden,51)

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Worked Citation
Hinden, Michael. “The Pharmacology of ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night.’” The Eugene
O’Neill Review, vol. 14, no. 1/2, 1990, pp. 47–51, http://www.jstor.org/stable/29784382.
Accessed 13 Apr. 2022.
Melzack, Ronald. “The Tragedy of Hinden, Michael. “The Pharmacology of ‘Long Day’s
Journey Into Night.’” The Eugene O’Neill Review, vol. 14, no. 1/2, 1990, pp. 47–51,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/29784382. Accessed 13 Apr. 2022.
Needless Pain.” Scientific American, vol. 262, no. 2, 1990, pp. 27–33,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24996676. Accessed 13 Apr. 2022.
Thank you!