Eugene O'Neill

Throughout the play “A Long Day’s Journey into Night” O’Neill instills autobiographical elements into each member of the Tyrone family in order to reflect upon his family’s own personal conflicts. Along with incorporating past emotions and situations into the play, the Tyrone family is based upon his own dysfunctional family.

The father of the Tyrone family is James, a sixty-five year old retired actor who is unable to acknowledge his past mistakes which helped cause the family to become disunited. The character James is largely based off O’Neill’s own father, James O’Neill, a once famous touring actor for playing the role of the Count of Monte Cristo in the early 19th century (O’Neill, Gale). Both James created an unstable environment for their families by continually traveling on the road and pursuing their acting careers instead of taking on the role of being a responsible parent. Guided by their own ambitions, James Tyrone and James O’Neill were unable to foreshadow the devastating effects of traveling with a family until everything unfolded later.

In the play Mary Tyrone is based upon O’Neill’s real mother, Ella (O’Neill, Gale). Marrying an actor at a young age and traveling across the country over the years has led Mary to become addicted to morphine. Even though her husband is a well paid actor his cheap money skills prevents her from acquiring the proper medicines necessary for recovery after giving birth. Since Mary is unable to find stability in her marriage with James she longs for a permanent home where she would be able to live a normal life and raise a family; however, James refuses to settle down. Mary is then forced to live in a summer cottage for about three months before going back on the road again. Since the house is cheap and only temporarily lived in, Mary despises coming back every summer. “Oh, I’m so sick and tired of pretending this is a home! You never wanted one – never since the day we were married!” (LDJIN, 69) Because Mary is unable to cope with pain after giving birth nor settling down in a respectable home, she searches for a way out of her misery by using morphine. As she becomes more disillusioned and addicted to the drug, the Tyrone men refuses to accept their part in allowing Mary to become ill.

Like Jamie in the play, O’Neill had an older brother names James, Jr. (O’Neill, Gale). The character in the play was modeled after the real life person. Jaime in the play is an alcoholic who has wasted his life away drinking, gambling and going in and out of brothels. Having never followed his father’s footsteps in the acting business, Jaime has no gumption to search for another career; instead, he lives off his parents. Although in the play Jaime does not die, in real life, O’Neill’s brother dies of alcoholism in middle age. Along with being drunkard, Jaime blames Edmund for starting Mary’s morphine addiction since he wasn’t supposed to be born. “And it was your bring born that started Mama on dope. I know that’s not your fault, but all the same, God damn you” (LDJIN, 169).

Having dealt with a family like the Tyrone’s, O’Neill turned to writing as his source of therapy. After going to a sanatorium for tuberculosis along with combating his own drinking problems, O’Neill expressed himself in the play as Edmund. Like Edmund, the two of them are the only ones of their families who turn to the poetic side of life along with realizing the tragedy of their families.

What O’Neill depicts in Journey is a disillusioned family who is unable to cope with their past mistakes in order to mend their present situations. Instead, the Tyrone’s are an example of the author’s own personal issues along with the American family tragedy which will continue on for centuries.

Sources
"Eugene O'Neill." American Decades. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

O'Neill, Eugene. “A Long Day's Journey into Night”. Yale UP, 1989.