Eugene O’Neill in
Long Day’s Journey Into Night conveys the struggle which arises out of the growing social and psychological problems which face the victims of addiction and personal trauma in an America that increasingly subverts the accepted morality of older European religious beliefs. The decline of
family and community in O’Neill’s play represents a trauma that is unique to a Catholic viewpoint.
The shadow of old religious values looms consistently throughout the play; for example even within O’Neill’s character Edmund’s appropriation of nihilistic European literature to his personal beliefs
he feels a debt to his mother and excuses her self-martyring addiction.
Recognised as America’s “first important playwright” (Harold Bloom, Eugene O’Neill; Modern Critical Views-Updated Edition, New York, Infobase Publihing, 2007, 1) O’Neill used an autobiographical sense of family to imbue Long Day’s Journey into Night (completed 1942, first performed 1956) with an internally destructive familial hubris in an attempt to replicate the effects of Greek tragedy for the American stage. The overhanging moral albatross represented by the influence of a particular form of Irish-American Catholic guilt permeates this play, with it themes of addiction, self-destruction, blame and regret all reflecting the conflict of reverence and damnation which the Tyrone family accord to their family history and to each other. In a sneeringly judgemental display of the allocation of guilt regarding their family’s decline, James Tyrone intimidates his wayward son Jamie into accepting responsibility for his brother Edmund’s ill-health and lack of contentment:
decline. Jamie’s response to his father’s accusations asserts that he was merely acting out of hisbrother’s best interests, that the nihilistic streak was already alive in him despite his religiousupbringing to the contrary, and that he only offered him frank advice with regards his decadent
pursuits;
This sense of disregard for their parent’s moralistic standards contributes to the familial decline.However it also establishes an unusually dependent relationship between the two brothers. Jamiehas Edmund comply in many of his decisions throughout his lifetime, yet it is Jamie who isdependent on Edmund’s role as the “Kid” in the family to define his role as his brother’s keeper andthe wayward, bitter son. Edmund is the son who replaced the dead brother Eugene, whose infantdeath their mother blames Jamie for, yet both have catered to Jamie’s fragility and whimsthroughout his life. Jamie has as a result borne the majority of the guilt which the family wage oneach other, yet he takes it upon himself, in much the same way in which his mother acts out her role
of martyrdom.
In being the personification of a morally abhorrent bad influence on his brother, Jamie is determined to prove his parents’ accusations towards him to be true. This is explicably made apparent during the scene of Jamie’s confession to Edmund, which in the sense that it is spoken by a lapsed Catholic conveys Jamie’s wishes to absolve the wrongs which he feels he has committed to his brother. Jamie confronts his brother with the damning truth after he arrives home drunk after Edmund is diagnosed with tuberculosis. Needing to confess what he sees as his continuing moralising against his brother he speaks of his self-accused intent on ruining Edmund’s life:
By saying this, Jamie is not only announcing the transparency of his maliciousness but also opens the audience to the understanding of the shared maliciousness of the Tyrone family unit. In this light the critic Michael Hinden posits Jamie as the Tyrone family scapegoat, the sone who bears the burden of blame and the psychological contamination that his family expounds upon each other as solely the responsibility of himself; “O’Neill has Jamie function as a familial scapegoat, scourging his own conscience but also symbolically bearing away the various contagions that plague the Tyrones. (Michael Hinden, Long Day’s Journey into Night: Native Eloquence, Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1990, 59). By giving Jamie such an uncompromising admission of guilt in the confession scene, O’Neill conveys him as the prophet of the family’s moral demise
Work Citation
Barnes, W. (n.d.). Guilt and Dependence as Practised Family Religions in Eugene O' Neil's Long Day's Journey Into Night and Marsha Norman's 'night Mother. Retrieved May 25, 2020, from https://www.academia.edu/6731500/Guilt_and_Dependence_as_Practised_Family_Religions_in_Eugene_O_Neils_Long_Days_Journey_Into_Night_and_Marsha_Normans_night_Mother
Long Day’s Journey Into Night conveys the struggle which arises out of the growing social and psychological problems which face the victims of addiction and personal trauma in an America that increasingly subverts the accepted morality of older European religious beliefs. The decline of
family and community in O’Neill’s play represents a trauma that is unique to a Catholic viewpoint.
The shadow of old religious values looms consistently throughout the play; for example even within O’Neill’s character Edmund’s appropriation of nihilistic European literature to his personal beliefs
he feels a debt to his mother and excuses her self-martyring addiction.
Recognised as America’s “first important playwright” (Harold Bloom, Eugene O’Neill; Modern Critical Views-Updated Edition, New York, Infobase Publihing, 2007, 1) O’Neill used an autobiographical sense of family to imbue Long Day’s Journey into Night (completed 1942, first performed 1956) with an internally destructive familial hubris in an attempt to replicate the effects of Greek tragedy for the American stage. The overhanging moral albatross represented by the influence of a particular form of Irish-American Catholic guilt permeates this play, with it themes of addiction, self-destruction, blame and regret all reflecting the conflict of reverence and damnation which the Tyrone family accord to their family history and to each other. In a sneeringly judgemental display of the allocation of guilt regarding their family’s decline, James Tyrone intimidates his wayward son Jamie into accepting responsibility for his brother Edmund’s ill-health and lack of contentment:
Tyrone’s singling out of Jamie for responsibility comes loaded with a sense of patriarchal moralismthat is aligned significantly in his belief in the “one true faith of the Catholic Church” (O’Neill, 44).His son’s turning away from the influence of this ideological stronghold, as well as turning awayfrom the works of their father’s beloved Shakespeare and towards reading more modernist andnihilistic works of Nietzsche and the British Fin-de-Siecle poets invokes a rage in their fathertowards their self-destructive rebelliousness which eludes taste in literature with their personalTyrone: The less you say about Edmund’s sickness the better for your conscience.You’re more responsible than anyone!Jamie: (Stung) That’s a lie! I won’t stand for it, Papa!Tyrone: It’s the truth! You’ve been the worst influence for him. He grew up admiringyou a hero! A fine example you’ve set for him. You’ve made him old before his time, pumping him full of what you considered to be worldly wisdom,when he was too young to see that your mind was poisoned by your ownfailure in life, you wanted to believe every man was a knave with his soulfor sale, and every woman who wasn’t a whore was a fool!”(O’ Neil, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, London, Nick Hearn Books, 1956 1191 Act 1, 16, 17)
decline. Jamie’s response to his father’s accusations asserts that he was merely acting out of hisbrother’s best interests, that the nihilistic streak was already alive in him despite his religiousupbringing to the contrary, and that he only offered him frank advice with regards his decadent
pursuits;
Jamie: (with a defensive air of weary indifference again) All right, I put
Edmund wise to things, but I knew he’d laugh at me if I tried the good
advice, older brother stuff. All I did was make a pal of him and be
absolutely frank so he’s learn from my mistakes that...(He shrugs his
shoulders, cynically) If you can’t be good you can at least be careful.
(O’Neill, 1:16, 17.)
This sense of disregard for their parent’s moralistic standards contributes to the familial decline.However it also establishes an unusually dependent relationship between the two brothers. Jamiehas Edmund comply in many of his decisions throughout his lifetime, yet it is Jamie who isdependent on Edmund’s role as the “Kid” in the family to define his role as his brother’s keeper andthe wayward, bitter son. Edmund is the son who replaced the dead brother Eugene, whose infantdeath their mother blames Jamie for, yet both have catered to Jamie’s fragility and whimsthroughout his life. Jamie has as a result borne the majority of the guilt which the family wage oneach other, yet he takes it upon himself, in much the same way in which his mother acts out her role
of martyrdom.
In being the personification of a morally abhorrent bad influence on his brother, Jamie is determined to prove his parents’ accusations towards him to be true. This is explicably made apparent during the scene of Jamie’s confession to Edmund, which in the sense that it is spoken by a lapsed Catholic conveys Jamie’s wishes to absolve the wrongs which he feels he has committed to his brother. Jamie confronts his brother with the damning truth after he arrives home drunk after Edmund is diagnosed with tuberculosis. Needing to confess what he sees as his continuing moralising against his brother he speaks of his self-accused intent on ruining Edmund’s life:
Jamie: Never wanted you to succeed and make me look worse by comparison.
Wanted you yo fail. Always jealous of you, Mama’s boy, Papa’s pet!
(He stares at Edmund with increasing emnity) And it was you being born that
started Mama on dope. I know that’s not your fault, but all the same, God
damn you, I can’t help it, I hate your guts!
(O’Neill, 4: 103)
By saying this, Jamie is not only announcing the transparency of his maliciousness but also opens the audience to the understanding of the shared maliciousness of the Tyrone family unit. In this light the critic Michael Hinden posits Jamie as the Tyrone family scapegoat, the sone who bears the burden of blame and the psychological contamination that his family expounds upon each other as solely the responsibility of himself; “O’Neill has Jamie function as a familial scapegoat, scourging his own conscience but also symbolically bearing away the various contagions that plague the Tyrones. (Michael Hinden, Long Day’s Journey into Night: Native Eloquence, Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1990, 59). By giving Jamie such an uncompromising admission of guilt in the confession scene, O’Neill conveys him as the prophet of the family’s moral demise
Work Citation
Barnes, W. (n.d.). Guilt and Dependence as Practised Family Religions in Eugene O' Neil's Long Day's Journey Into Night and Marsha Norman's 'night Mother. Retrieved May 25, 2020, from https://www.academia.edu/6731500/Guilt_and_Dependence_as_Practised_Family_Religions_in_Eugene_O_Neils_Long_Days_Journey_Into_Night_and_Marsha_Normans_night_Mother
No comments:
Post a Comment