Entanglement of Characters in the Web of the Other LDJN

• Entanglement of Characters in the Web of the Other 

Lacan holds that the Symbolic Order is the stage in which the subject recognizes themselves as having a separate
identity from that of their mothers'. Moreover the law of the father is gradually presented to and imposed on the subject
by the social rules and ideologies engendered by the Other that equals the symbolic order, language, and the law of the
father in Lacan's terminology. The Symbolic Order is the realm of the Other or the symbolic father that is not, however,
the real father, but a function that imposes rules and regulates desires. The real father is the agent of the symbolic father
that shapes desires and has a decisive role in shaping the subject's identity. There is no escape from the law of the
father; it is inevitable, because "the law is the father, the thing before, the inheritance, the compulsion, the inescapable,
the inevitable, and the desire for the law itself" (Mottram, 1995, p. 25). Lacan holds that the law of the father is
symbolized by the phallus "the primacy of [which] is established by the existence of the symbol, of discourse and of the
law" (S5, 1957, p. 169-170).
In the Long Day's Journey into Night, James Tyson represents the Other and his rules have a crucial impact on shaping
the desires and identities of his wife and sons. He plays the role of the big Other who sets the desires of the other
members of the family in motion and expects their obedience. For instance Mary is not satisfied with the place they live
in, but Tyson has decided to be there. She tells Edmund that it is his father's desire to be there not hers: "not that I want
anything to do with them. I've always hated this town and everyone in it. You know that. I never wanted to live here in
the first place, but your father liked it and insisted on building this house, and I've had to come here every summer"
(LDJ, I. p. 2020). And this is one of several things he has decided for Mary. The suppression of her desires gradually
becomes a complex and causes her abnormal deeds at the end of the play.
Tyson also encourages Jamie to become an actor, while he does not like it, as he says here: "I never wanted to be an
actor. You forced me on the stage"( LDJ, I. p. 2015) – hence his present unemployment for which he condemns his
father. Moreover Mary blames Tyson for his role in making Jamie a drunken loafer. She believes that when Jamie was
young, Tyson made him drink alcohol when he drank himself, as we read here: "you brought him up to be a boozer.
Since he first opened his eyes, he's seen you drinking. Always a bottle on the bureau in the cheap hotel rooms! And if
he had a nightmare when he was little, or a stomach-ache, your remedy was to give him a teaspoonful of whiskey to
quiet him" (LDJ, III. P. 2050).
 Even Edmund's desire to become a so-called man of literature is his father's desire, not his own. Tyson appreciates
Edmund's writing and asks him to read books and write poetry to be a journalist, though he is not a good writer and the
journal he works for does not like his writing. There is a dialog between Jamie and his father that shows the father's
desire to make Edmund a journalist, while he has no talent for it:

TYSON: He's been doing well on the paper. I was hoping he'd found the work he wants to do at last.
JAMIE: [sneering jealously again] A hick town rag! Whatever bull they hand you, they tell me he's a
pretty bum reporter. If he weren't your son— [ashamed again] No, that's not true! (LDJ, I. p. 2015)
Regarding the role of the father as the big Other in shaping his sons' desires and destiny, Abbotson argues that "Tyson
pushes his sons to make something of their lives to compensate, but usually in the wrong direction, exploiting rather
than assisting them. James despises acting and Edmund sees working on a newspaper as a waste of time" (2005, p. 104).
The desires of the father for them have caused a frustrating life for them.
Another notable case regarding the functioning of the Other in the play is a mother's functioning as the big Other in
Mary's desire to be a nun that has originally been her mother's wish that was later internalized by her – representing her
wish for a perfect place where she could feel secure. Mary's mother was a strictly religious person who did not like her
daughter to get married, as Mary relates to James: "My mother didn't. She was very pious and strict. I think she was a
little jealous. She didn't approve of my marrying—especially an actor. I think she hoped I would become a nun" (LDJ,
III. P. 2052). After a while, however, it becomes her own desire, as she internalizes her mother's wish. This time Mother
Elizabeth acts as the big Other who decides for her by asking her to go away and experience the world for a while.
Though she does not like to do so, she has to accept it as the big Other's order.




Work Citation


Ali, Emman. “Lacanian Orders in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, www.academia.edu/3111234/Lacanian_Orders_in_Eugene_ONeills_Long_Days_Journey_into_Night.