Long Days Journey into Night

In the play, Long Days Journey into Night, Eugene O’Neill uses a broken family to deal with the topic of solving problems. The play focuses on the Tyrone family, whose once close family has deteriorated over the years. The family has fallen apart through addiction, alcoholism, and sickness. We encounter the family at what appears to be it’s worst position. O’neill uses the Tyrone family situation to explore the theme of dealing with problems wrongly, and even hints at possible ways to solve deep family issues.

One of the major reasons that Tyrone family’s issues are so deep and impacting, are that they try only to cover the pain rather than treat the illness. This is what has caused many of their issues in the first place. One of the most devastating problems in the family is Mary’s addiction to morphine. This has been both caused by and an example of how the family attempts to cover pain rather than treat the illness.

Mary first became addicted to morphine when giving birth to Edmund. Tyrone had hired an inexpensive doctor, and when the physician dealt with Mary, he found an easy fix to cover her pain from childbirth, rather than dealing with the source of the problem. O’Neill implies with this that covering up problems not only doesn’t fix them, it creates new and greater ones.

Mary also uses morphine as her easy fix to complex problems. Morphine seems to be her way to deal with the pain. When she is on morphine, she don’t have to face the issues of failure and dissatisfaction within her family. She, has begun to do the very thing she blames the doctor of, she covers the problem rather than treating it.

The three men of the family, Tyrone, Jaime, and Edmund, have the same problem. Except their drug of choice is alcohol. They turn to drunkenness and debauchery to cover over their issues of pain and despair. They will constantly point their finger of judgment at Mary, but they do the same thing as her. They all deal with pain by numbing it.

Throughout the play, O’Neill uses the setting to exemplify the problem with just numbing the pain. The family is decaying away. The play starts in sobriety, and ends in absolute inebriation. Jaime and Tyrone are so drunk they are passing in and out of consciousness, Mary is completely doped up. Just as the morphine is destroying Mary’s body, so the Tyrone family’s effort to cover their pain is destroying the family.

O’Neill draws much attention to the problem with blaming others for the issues you are dealing with. Mary is the worst at this. Mary blames Tyrone for her addiction to morphine. (quote) She claims that if he hadn’t been so stingy with his money, and got a good doctor, she wouldn’t be facing the issues that she is today. O’Neill doesn’t deny the reality that this claim is true. But he does emphasize that this does not solve problems. It seems to be a more counter-productive approach than a solution to the problem.

Mary even blames fate for her families issues. She claims that most events are somehow predetermined, and that therefore none of them have any real control over their lives. “[Jaime] can’t help what the past has made him. Any more than your father can. Or you. Or I.” [citation] If she has no control over her choices, or her problems, then she can’t do anything to fix them. She blames her issues on fate, and therefore can do nothing about them.

Mary also blames Jaime’s drinking on Tyrone. She thought he was a very smart kid, until he started drinking. She states that the Irish are stupid drunks. Even Jaime’s lack of success is ultimately blamed on Tyrone.