Catholic immigration to the United State from Ireland began to pick up during the 1820s, as translantic fare began to come down on the new “packet
ships” that sailed to America regularly scheduled basis. Immigration statistics began to be kept by the U.S government in 1820. These showed that more than 35
percent of immigrants from 1821 to 1830 came from Ireland. Irish immigration picked up even more in the decade that followed, with almost 240.000 immigrants
from Ireland arriving in America from 1841 to 1846.
b. Famine and Plague
In the mid-1840s famine and plague came to an overpopulated Ireland, dependent for most of its food on its potato crop. From 1690 to 1840, the Irish
population had grown by more than four times, from an estimated 2 million people to 8.2 million. Most were poor subsistence farmers, working very small
plots of land with little or no resources or reserves of any kind. In 1845, the European potato crop was infected and partially destroyed by a potato disease that
had earlier appeared in North America. The crop failed again in 1847 and partly in 1848, largely coming back in 1849 that result Ireland’s Great Famine, together
with a series of plagues. From 1847 to 1854 some 1.3 million Irish emigrants fled to the United States. After the famine and the plague years, the Irish kept on
coming to America, but Ireland was still poor and ruled by Britain, while the United State was full of Irish American.
The Irish immigrants are called ‘the great hungers’ since the famine was the major factor in the 1840s and early 1850s Daniel, 2002:126. Another
segment of Irish past was the Catholic Irish migration that has come out of Ireland in great numbers since the 1820s. The great majority of Catholic Irish immigrants
had been subsistence farmers in Ireland; however, less than 10 percent became farmers in the United States. Until the end of 1920s, Ireland was an un-free nation
and one largely unchanged by the industrial revolution. From the Irish point of view, the immigration may be divided into three
periods. First the years before famine in 1844s, the second is the famine years and their aftermath roughly 1845-1855 the potato famine. The third is the post
famine migration which goes on until the onset of the Great Depression, Ireland not being adversely affected by the immigration act of 1924.
The famine years in Ireland burgeoning population and had inevitable effect of reducing in size the already small holdings of Irish farmers. As the Irish
farmers plots grew smaller and smaller and rents grew higher and higher, more and more Irish farmers sold their grain and came to subsist largely on potato. An
acre and a half of potatoes could feed a family of six. The economic deterioration was steady, although minor improvements were made in the political situation of
Irish Catholics. All told, in the famine years something more than two million Irish went overseas. Most of them, nearly a million and a half come to the United
States, and a third of a million went to Canada and many of those came sooner or later to the United States. The total emigration was about a quarter of the pre-
famine population. More people left Ireland in the eleven years 1845-55 than it its previous recorded history.
By 1845 Irish immigration was growing and would undoubtedly have continued to grow at a quickening pace in normal circumstances. But the great
famine which began in that year and its aftermath influenced not only Irish immigration, but also the whole Irish American community, for decades to come.
Herby Miller argues that the famine years left enduring scars on the Irish and on Irish American psyches, exacerbating their attitudes. The Irish –
particularly Irish Catholics – often regarded emigration as involuntary exile, although they expressed that attitude with varying degrees of consistency,
intensity, and sincerity. This outlook reflected a distinctive Irish worldview that impacts their interactions among culture, class, and historical circumstance.
Others fact was that few Catholic Irish were well prepared for either urban or rural success in America. Almost none had trades to enter the basic of an
education. Large numbers of Irish were at the very bottom of the economic structure, overrepresented as common laborers or domestic servants. Finally both
the exile motif and its underlying causes led Irish Immigrants to interpret experience and adapt to American life in ways which were often alienating,
expedient and conducive to the survival of Irish identity and the success of Irish American nationalism. The wave of immigration to America also affects the
numbers of American. In the next chapter I am going to analyze the effect of Irish immigration on O’Neill’s family as reflected in his play Long Day’s Journey into
Night.
CHAPTER IV THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF EUGENE O’NEILL THROUGH
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
In this chapter I am going to analyze how the play Long Day’s Journey into Night can be used to study Eugene O’Neill’s autobiography. Eugene O’Neill
integrates his life into his play, as it can be found that he used the names of his own family in the characters of Long Day’s Journey into Night. The analysis is
done by giving comparison of the characters in the play and the family members of Eugene O’Neill. I also describe the characters in the play reflect the experience
of Eugene O’Neill’s family. There are five characters in the play that reflect O’Neill’s family in his real
life. From five characters there are two characters that have greater experience among others. They are James Tyrone and Edmund Tyrone. Other characters are
Mary Tyrone, Jamie Tyrone and Cathleen. Besides reflecting the characters, O’Neill through this play also described the bitterness and poverty that was
underwent by his father, James O’Neill. His father’s experience affected the way he raise his sons and treats his family. In the end of this chapter, we can see that
most of characters in this play reflect the family in Eugene O’Neill’s real life James Tyrone in the play is James O’Neill in Eugene O’Neill’s real life.
Tessitore states in Extraordinary American Writers, “His father, James O’Neill, was a popular actor of the late nineteenth century, an Irish immigrant famous for
playing the title role in the stage version of The Count of Monte Cristo. 2004:163
Edmund Tyrone in the play reflects the writer of its play, Eugene Gladstone O’Neill. O’Neill made himself as one of the character since this play
has the autobiographical content. O’Neill’s portrayal in Edmund shows the incidents in his real life that can be used to study his autobiography in Long Day’s
Journey into Night. Mary Cavan Tyrone in the play is Mary Ellen “Ella” Quinlan O’Neill in his
real life. She is O’Neill’s mother that had to accompany her husband on the road from one stage to another stage.
Jamie Tyrone in the play is James ‘Jamie’ O’Neill., Jr. in Eugene O’Neill’s real life. Jamie Tyrone in the play is the elder brother of Edmund those ten years
older than him. In O’Neill’s real life his elder brother’s name was James ‘Jamie’ O’Neill., Jr., those also ten years older than him.
Cathleen is the last main character in the play. She is the Tyrone’s maid servant that helps Mary in Tyrone’s summer rent house. In Eugene O’Neill’s real
life Cathleen was his first wife that married to him on summer 1909. Cathleen Jenkins was the daughter of prosperous middle-class family. I am going to analyze
James Tyrone, Edmund Tyrone, Mary Cavan Tyrone, Jamie Tyrone and Cathleen in the play, and how they reflect O’Neill’s real life.
James O’Neill was born in Ireland in 1846 during the Potato Famine when 20 of the Irish population died of famine. The family like many Irish during this
terrible time of hunger, moved to the United States when James O’Neill was nine. James O’Neill, Eugene’s father came to America in 1855 Christophersen,
1919:1063. Based on the data, it can be assumed that James O’Neill came to America when its famine years. After the potato crops failed in the 1840s,
Ireland’s poor face starvation, disease, and eviction from their homes. All those things also experienced by James O’Neill and James Tyrone in the play.
Here I am going to describe how the poverty during the immigration of Irish revealed by James Tyrone as Eugene O’Neill wrote in his play Long Day’s
Journey into Night. Eugene O’Neill showed the melodrama that come from the desperation of poverty in a first-generation Irishman who knew the exploitation of
his class and race at first hand Orr, 1981:200. Times were worse for James family because James’s father could not get a job so he deserted the family, and
went back to Ireland. James’s mother was left with six children to support. Two older brothers left the family to find work, and James at age ten was the ‘man of
the family’ and had to work for 50 cents a week. James still remembers all that happened to his family and how they survived to keep alive.
Tyrone: What do you know of the value of a dollar? When I was ten my father deserted my mother and went back to Ireland to die.
Which he did soon enough, and deserved to, and I hope he’s roasting in hell
Act IV, p. 807 line 12-16 Tyrone: ...My mother was left, a stranger in a strange land, with
four small children, me and a sister a little older and two younger than me. My two older brothers had moved to other parts. They
couldn’t help. They were hard put to it to keep themselves alive. Act IV, p. 807 line 22-26
Tyrone: ...I was the man of the family, at ten years old There was no more school for me. I worked twelve hours a day in a machine
shop, learning to make files. A dirty barn of a place where rain dripped trough the roof, where you roasted in summer, and there
was no stove in winter, and your hands got numb with cold. Where the only light came through two small filthy windows, so on grey
days, I’d have to sit bent over with my eyes almost touching the flies in order to see. You talk of work? And what do you think I got
it for? Fifty cents a week It’s the truth Fifty cents a week And my poor mother washed and scrubbed for the Yanks by the day,
and my older sister sewed, and my two younger stayed at home to keep the house. Act IV, p. 807-808 line 30-40, 1-2
James’s experiences during the wave of Irish immigration make him a very frightful man in spending money. A dollar is really matter for him since he
and his mother had to work really hard to earn a dollar. In this play, James O’Neill is described as a penny-pincher or old miser. There are some facts in the play that
prove he is a miser. Edmund says that his father is an old miser that only thinks about saving his money on property.
Edmund: ...I’ll let you get away with it I won’t go to any damned state farm just to save you a few lousy dollars to buy more bum
property with You stinking old miser – Act IV, p. 806 line 1-3
Edmund also blame James’s miserliness since James let them live in a cheap hotel not in a real home. In another case, Edmund sees that his mother’s addiction
was caused by his father who brought Mary to a cheap doctor. Edmunds says that If Mary was sent to a good doctor, not to the cheap one, she would not be suffered
in morphine addict as she first used it to endure the pain. Edmund knows that James intentionally keeps his money for another property instead of taking Mary
to a good doctor. Edmund: ...If you’d spent money for a decent doctor when she was
so sick after I was born, she’d never known morphine existed. Instead you put her in the hands of a hotel quack who wouldn’t
admit his ignorance and took the easiest way out, not giving a damn what happened to her afterwards. All because his fee was
cheap Another of your bargains
Act IV, p. 802 line 6-12
Edmund: – and then you went to the Club to meet McGuire and let him stick you with another burn piece of property.
Act IV, p.805 line 16-18
In Long Day’s Journey into Night it is described that James never provides his family with a real home; he thinks living in a hotel is a better way than having
a home for an actor family like him. Edmund says that his father has to provide the family with a real home.
Edmund: Because you’ve never given her anything that would help her want to stay off it No home except this summer dump in
a place she hates and you’ve refused even to spend money to look decent, while you keep buying more property, and playing
sucker for every con man with a gold mine, or a silver mine or any kind of get-rich-quick swindle You’ve dragged her around
on the road, season after season, one-night stands with no one she could talk to, waiting night after night in dirty hotel rooms
for you to come back with a bun on after the bars closed Act IV, p. 803 line 4-13
Mary also says that James never gives the family a real home that they should have. Mary states that James always chooses the cheapest thing and
doesn’t spend his money well. Mary always complains about James since he never understand that she really need to live in a home, not move from one hotel
to another hotel. She grumbles on James that often enjoyed himself in the barrooms since they were married. Mary says her disappointed to James many
times, but he never perceives it seriously. Mary, just like Edmund, blames James for he only spend his money on property and land.
Everything was done in the cheapest way. Your father would never spend money to make it right.
Act I, p. 738, 739 line 39-40, line 1
Mary: Oh, I’m so sick and tired of pretending this is a home You won’t help me You won’t put yourself out the least bit. You
don’t know how to act in a home You don’t really want one – never since the that we were married you should have remained
a bachelor and lived in second-rate hotel and entertained your friends in barrooms Then nothing would ever have happened.
Act II, p. 732-733, line 36-39, 1-3
Mary: ...But you’ve heard me say this a thousand times. So has he, but it goes in one ear and out the other. He thinks money spent on
home is money wasted. He’s lived too much in hotels. Never the best hotels, of course. Second-rate hotels. He doesn’t understand
a home. He doesn’t feel at home in it. And yet he wants a home. He’s even proud of having this shabby place. He loves it here. It’s
really funny, when you come to think of it. He’s peculiar man. Act II, p. 749-750 line 35-40, 1-3
Mary: ...And Mr. Tyrone never is worried about anything, except money and property and the fear he’ll end his days in poverty. I
mean, deeply worried. Because he cannot really understand anything else. Act III, p. 775 line 6-9
James Tyrone in the play reveals his reason why he thinks spending money to have a home is not an important thing and it is more important to save
money on property or land. His fear makes him often run from the reality and turns into alcohol in the barrooms. He finds his worried could be replaced by
everyone that accompanies him drinking then he would pay for the drink. James afraid of turning into poverty again, his traumatic experience from his childhood
during the Irish immigration affected his attitude and the way he spends his money. James thinks that having land is the safest way to save or to spend his
money. From this dialogue we know that Tyrone afraid of losing his job and living without money.
Tyrone: A stinking old miser? Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe I can’t help being , although all my life since I had anything I’ve
thrown money over the bar to buy drinks for everyone in the house, or loaned money to sponges I knew would never pay it back
But of course, that was in barrooms, when I was full of whiskey. I can’t feel that way about it when I’m sober in my home. It was at
home I first learned the value of a dollar and the fear of the poorhouse. I’ve never been able to believe in my luck since. I’ve
always feared it would change and everything I had would be taken away. But still, the more property you own, the safer you
think you are. That may not be logical, but it’s the way I have to feel. Banks fail, and your money’s gone, but you think you can
keep land beneath your feet. Act IV, p. 806 line 22-36
James also likes to spend money on real estate investments. The depth of his obsession with land is revealed when he buys a piece of property right after
agreeing to the junky sanatorium for Edmund. His real estate investments are really just another symptom of his miserliness. He thinks that buying land is a lot
safer than keeping it in banks or in the stock market.
Tyrone ...but land is land, and it’s safer than the stocks and bonds of Wall Street swindlers then placatingly. But let’s not argue
about business this early in the morning. Act I, p. 720 line 23-26
Based on the dialogue, it can be known that Tyrone family often move from one hotel to another hotel. In Eugene O’Neill’s biography it is also stated
that O’Neill’s family moved from one hotel to another hotel. From O’Neill’s biography known that in 1889 until 1894 he traveled with parents across United
States for up to nine months a year as father tours in Monte Cristo Christopersen, 1919:1063. In 1907 Eugene O’Neill also lived in his parent’s apartment in Hotel
Lucerne on Amsterdam Avenue and 79th Street. O’Neill portrayed his father miserliness more clearly when James doesn’t
let even one bulb to light the room. He asks Edmund to turn out the light since it will increase the bill. James considers that one light bulb is as much as a drink. He
prefers to spend the money on a glass of a drink than to let a bulb on Edmund: – One bulb Christ, don’t be such a cheap skate I’ve
proved by figures if you let the light bulb on all night it wouldn’t be as much as one drink Act IV, p.793 line 13-15
Mary seems like not to blame James’s miserliness, but she harshly mentions that James people were the most ignorant kind of poverty-stricken
Irish.
Mary: ... Please don’t think I blame your father, Edmund. He didn’t know any better. He never went to school after he was ten.
His people were the most ignorant kind of poverty-stricken Irish. Act III, p. 782 line 20-23
It can be concluded that James’s experience as Irish immigrants obviously affected the way he spent on the money he had. His attitude toward
money shows how James really afraid of losing his money since he found that earning money was never easy. His past reminds him that money is the most
important thing to his family when they still lived as immigrant. James Tyrone still remember how hard he, his mother and his sisters earned money for their
live. James’s strength can be seen from how he got over himself from the desperation of poverty in a first-generation Irishman who knew the exploitation
of his class. This dialogue shows that James’s childhood is full of tragedy. He says that when he was a little man, he lived without insufficient food and his
mother had to work really hard to earn money. James’s past create him to be a miser man.
Tyrone: ...We never had clothes enough to wear, nor enough food to eat. Well, I remember one Thanksgiving or maybe it was
Christmas. When some yank in whose house mother had been scrubbing gave her a dollar extra for a present, and on the way
home she spent it all on food. I can remember her hugging and kissing us saying with tear of joy running down her tired face,
“Glory be to God, for once in our lives we’ll have enough for each of us”. A fine, brave, sweet women. There never was a
braver or finer. Act IV, p. 808 line 2-12
Tyrone: ...Her one’s fear was she’d get old and sick and have to die in the poorhouse. It was in those days, I earned to be a miser.
A dollar was worth so much then. And once you’ve learned a lesson, it’s hard to unlearn it Act IV, p. 808 line 14-18
As James Tyrone reflects James O’Neill, it can be seen that both Edmund’s father and Eugene’s father was an alcoholic. As quoted from
http:www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.ukJoneill.htm Jamie O’Neill, his brother died because of alcohol and his father, James O’ Neill also was an alcoholic.
Eugene O’Neill continued to suffer from depression and his state of mind was not helped when his parents and elder brother Jamie ONeill, also an alcoholic,
died within three years of one another 1920-1923. In the play, Mary’s dialogues show that Tyrone will be too much of
alcohol when he came home. Mary also says to Edmund that James Tyrone started to give Jamie a teaspoonful of whiskey since Jamie still a baby. Mary blames
James for giving Jamie whiskey and for being a bad role model for Jamie. Mary: No, by the time he comes home he’ll be too drunk to tell the
difference. He has such a good excuse, he believes, to drown his sorrows. Act III, p. 774 line 33-35
Mary: ... Poor Jamie No, it isn’t at all. 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 a little, or a stomach-ache, you
remedy was to give him a teaspoonful of whiskey to quite him. Act III, p. 782 line 1-8
After blaming James, Mary then confess that she would never married James if she knew from the start that he is a drunken. It indicates that Mary regrets
to marry James, but she doesn’t say it clearly. Mary: ...but I must confess. James, although I couldn’t help
loving you, I would never have married you if I’d known you drank so much. Act III, p. 783 line 20-22
Just like in Long Day’s Journey into Night, the Tyrone family is Irish American Catholic, Eugene O’Neill’s family is also Irish American- Catholic.
Both O’Neill’s and Tyrone’s family are Irish-American Catholic. In the play also described that James Tyrone and Mary Tyrone is Irish-American, as in the prolog
of the play: Mary is fifty-four ... her face is distinctly Irish in type. Her voice
is soft and attractive, when she is merry; there is a touch of Irish lilt in it. James Tyrone is by nature and preference a simple,
unpretend-cial man, whose inclinations are still close to his humble beginning and his Irish farmer forebears..
Act I, p.718, 722-723
James Tyrone admits himself as a Catholic that rarely goes to church but frequently pray. Edmund asks if James ever prayed for Mary.
Tyrone: It’s true I’m a bad Catholic in the observance, God forgive me. But I believe And you’re liar I may not go to
church but every night and morning of my life I get on my knees and pray.Act II, p. 759 line 21-24
Edmund: Did you pray you mama? Act II, p. 759 line 25 Tyrone: I did. I’ve prayed to God these many years for her Act
II, p. 759 line 26
Eugene O’Neill described James Tyrone in the play has the same occupation with his father James O’Neill. James Tyrone in the play works as an
actor in Broadway.
Not that is indulges in any of the deliberate temperamental posturing of the stage star. He is by nature and preference a
simple, un pretentical man, whose inclinations are still close to his humble beginning and his Irish farmer forebears. But the
actor shows in all his unconscious habits of speech, movement and gesture. These have the quality of belonging to a studied
technique. His voice is remarkably fine, resonant and flexible, and he takes great pride in it. Act I, p. 718
Tyrone: ...Yes, maybe life overdid the lesson for me, and made a dollar worth too much, and the time came when the mistake
ruined my carrier as a fine actor. Act IV, p. 807 line 3-5
In The American Tradition in Literature Volume II it is stated: “O’Neill was born in a Broadway hotel on October 16, 1888, and was christened Eugene
Gladstone O’Neill” Perkins, 2002:1045. In Encyclopedia of World Drama 1972:348 also stated that: “Eugene Gladstone O’Neill, American dramatist was
born in New York City on October 16,1888, the third child of the prominent actor James O’Neill 1847-1920 and Mary Ella Quinlan O’Neill.
In the play Edmund is a child of Broadway. It can be seen from Jamie and James Tyrone’s dialogue when they have argument about Edmund. Jamie, the
elder brother of Edmund feels really proud of being a child of Broadway. He never takes himself away from Broadway’s life.
Jamie: ...you can’t imagine me getting fun out of being on the beach in South America, or living in filthy dives, drinking
rotgut? No, thanks I’ll stick to Broadway, and a room with a bath, and bars that serve bonded Bourbon
Act I, p.733 line 14-18.
Jamie feels really proud of himself as being a child of Broadway even though he doesn’t have any job in his age, and its annoy Tyrone. James Tyrone
says that it’s better to be Edmund that doesn’t always count on him as Edmund ever worked in a news paper.
Tyrone: He’s been doing well on the paper. I was hoping he’d found the work he wants to do at last. Act I, p. 733 line 26-28
Tyrone: You and Broadway It’s made you what you are. Whatever Edmund’s done, he’s had the guts to go off his own,
where he couldn’t come whining to me the minute he was broke. Act I, p.733 line 15-17
Another character in the play that can reveal and reflect Eugene O’Neill’s life is Edmund Tyrone. As I stated before that Edmund Tyrone in the play
represent Eugene O’Neill himself, I am going to write the reflection of O’Neill in his own play Long Day’s Journey into Night. Edmund Tyrone in the play
described as a son that replacing Tyrone’s second-died baby, whose name is Eugene. Eugene’s died is after contacting with Jamie who has measles. Mary told
James that she never wanted another baby after her second baby died. Tyrone suddenly tries to stop Mary from her past memories, but Mary keeps on continue
her remembrance about Edmund, as in: Mary: ... I blame only myself. I swore after Eugene died I would
never another baby. I was to blame for his death...Jamie would never have been allowed, When he still measles, to go in the
baby’s room.
Tyrone: Are you back with Eugene now? Can’t you let our died
baby rest in peace? Act II, p. 765 line 33-38, 766 line 4-5
Mary: he was born nervous and too sensitive, and that’s my fault. And now ever since been so sick I’ve kept remembering Eugene
and my father and I’ve been so frightened and guilty
Act II, p. 766 line 26-28
Mary feels so guilty because she lost her second son. According to Mary, Jamie jealously never wants to have any siblings and it’s made their second son,
Eugene, died. Another Mary’s regret is to have another baby after Eugene’s died and for this, she blames her husband James who ask her to have one more child.
Mary:.. But we must not allow Jamie to drag Edmund down with him, as he’d like to do. He’s jealous because Edmund has always
been the baby – just as he used to be of Eugene. He’ll never be content until he makes Edmund Act III, p. 780-781
In Eugene O’Neill’s real life, it is also stated in his biography that he had a died brother that died before he was born. Eugene O’Neill’s died older brother
whose name is Edmund. Edmund died in 1885 of measles contracted from Jamie Christhophersen, 1988:1063. The difference is, if in the play the died baby’s
name is Eugene, in the real life of the writers, the died baby’s name is Edmund. In the play, the second son of Tyrone is Eugene and the last is Edmund. While in
O’Neill’s real life the second child in his family was Edmund and the last was Eugene O’Neill himself.
Edmund Tyrone in the play and Eugene O’Neill in the real life are both ever sailed. Eugene O’Neill ever worked as a sailor for almost eighteen months.
As stated in Encyclopedia of World Drama 1972:353: “Late in the spring of 1910, O’Neill left the company and began a series of sailing for more than
eighteen months, took him to South America and England.” Christophersen also states that In October 1990, O’Neill sailed with Stevens and his wife, Ann, to
Amapala, Honduras, traveled back to Tegucipala, and began prospecting along Rio Seale without success in Mid-November. In 1910 O’Neill sailed from Boston on
Norwegian steel barque Charles Racine June 4, and arrived in Buenos Aires August 4. In July 1911 O’Neill sailed Southampton, England, and returned August
26 as able-bodied seaman on liner Philadelphia. 1988:1065-1066. On November 1942, O’Neill sailed to Bermuda and rent cottage in Paget Parish on south shore
1988:1072 In the play Jamie says that Edmund is fool since he worked as a sailor.
Jamie also claims that Edmund’s appearance is like a fool man. That’s the way Jamie looks down his brother.
Jamie: Besides its damned rot I’d like to see anyone influence Edmund more than he wants to be. His quietness fools people
into thinking they can do what they like with him. But he’s stubborn as hell inside and what he does is what he wants to do,
and to hell with anyone else What had I to do with all the crazy stunts he’s pulled in the last few years – working his way all over
the map as a sailor and all that stuff . I thought that was a damned fool idea Act I, p. 733 line 6-13
Edmund also remind his father that he ever earned money for himself by working as a sailor. Edmund told his father about his experience during sailing to
Buenos Aires Edmund: ...they’re all connected with the sea, here’s one, when I
was on the Square head square rigger, bound for Buenos Aires. Full moon in the Trades the old hooker driving fourteen knots.
Act IV, p. 811 line 31-34
Edmund: Don’t lie about it. God, Papa, ever since I went to sea and was on my own, and found out what hard work for little pay
was, and what it felt like to be broke, and starve and camp on park benches because I had no place to sleep. I’ve tried to be fair to
you because I knew that you’d been up against as a kid. Act IV, p. 805 line 22-27
One of bad experience that written in the play and also experienced by Eugene O’Neill himself is both Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone ever suffered
in Tuberculosis and entered sanatorium. In his biography it is stated that O’Neill developed persistent cough in
October 1912, and was diagnosed as having tuberculosis in November. On December 9 he resigned his newspaper job and entered Fairfield Country State
Sanatorium in Shelton, Connecticut, but left after two days. On December 24 he entered Gaylord Farm, private sanatorium in Wallingford, Connecticut
Christopersen, 1988:1066. In Encyclopedia of World Drama 1972:351 also
stated that in October he suffered a mild attack of the tuberculosis and was sent by his doctor to Gaylord Farm, a private sanatorium near Wallingford where his
health improved rapidly. In the play it can be seen that Mary shows her worried every time Edmund
cough. It can be known also from Tyrone that already planned Edmund to enter a sanatorium as Dr. Hardy said before. Mary is afraid to send Edmund to the same
sanatorium where she ever entered. She hates Doctor Hardy as she knows that Doctor Hardy cannot recover Edmund from his tuberculosis. Mary also regrets
James’s plan to separate her from Edmund, if Edmund finally enter the sanatorium
Jamie: What did Doc Hardy say about the Kid? Tyrone: It’s what you thought. He’s got consumption
Jamie: God damn it Tyrone: There is no possible doubt, he said.
Jamie: He’ll have to go to a sanatorium Tyrone: yes, and the sooner the better, Hardy said, for him and
everyone around him. He claims that in six months to a year Edmund will be cured Act II, p. 760 line 12-21
Mary: ...how dare your father allow him? What right has he? You are my bab Let him attend to Jamie. I know why he wants
you sent to a sanatorium. To take you from me He’s always tried to do that. Act III, p.788 line 2-5
If in the play Eugene O’Neill describes Edmund as man that suffer in tuberculosis, Eugene O’Neill in his real life had more than one illness during his
life. He had stroke that later on discovered to have intestinal cancer in 1920. Eugene O’Neill also ever contacted with malaria after he sailed. Tremor in 1944
caused occasional shaking of entire body. His doctor said that it was Parkinson’s as the primary cause of the tremor. The last one that caused him death was
pneumonia in 1953.
Edmund Tyrone in the play described as a man that not continues his college deliberately. After fails to continue his college, Edmund starts to ruin his
health. Tyrone states that Edmund is not deserve to get better specialist because he will only dissipate the money like he had done in the collage. It can be seen from
Tyrone’s dialogue when he gives his reason to Jamie for sending Edmund to the cheap Doctor Hardy.
Tyrone: ...And what could the finest specialist in America do for Edmund, after he’s deliberately ruined his health by the mad life
he’s led ever since he was fired from college? Even before that when he was in prep. School, he began dissipating and playing
the Broadway sport to imitate you.
Act I, p. 731-732 line 38-40, 1-3
In his real life, Eugene O’Neill also left his college. As Christopersen 1988:1064 states that in 1907, O’Neill suspended at end of second semester for
poor scholastic standing after failed to take any final examinations. From Encyclopedia of World Drama, it is known that O’Neill entered Princeton
University in 1906 but spent most of his time dissipating. 1972:349 After knowing that both of Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone fail to
continue their study in university, it can be concluded that even though failed in study, it doesn’t mean that Eugene O’Neill in the real life and Edmund Tyrone as
the character in the play lack in knowledge. Edmund Tyrone in the play shows his excitement to the poetry. Eugene O’Neill is the real figure besides wrote poems,
he also wrote some plays that won Pulitzer Award and Noble Prize for literature in 1936. That fact shows how Eugene O’Neill naturally has talent in writing poems
and plays.
As what I had analyzed before, both Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone love to writ poems. In his biography, it is stated that Eugene started writing poetry
intermittently in 1915 after became friend with Terry Carlin, an alcoholic that deeply influenced by Nietzsche Christopersen, 1988:1067. Eugene O’Neill ever
wrote poems for the local paper in 1912. O’Neill contributed his poems in New London Telegraph started from summer of 1912. It is in the same year when he
should enter a sanatorium in Connecticut. In the play, Edmund is a young man that has talent to write poems. He
also memorize a poem from Baudelaire. Mary also admits that Edmund loves to write poems. But she doesn’t like Edmund’s poems since its show the pessimist
that want to die. Jamie indeed discourage Edmund and tell that his poem is not cheery.
Edmund: Drunken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will. But be drunken. Act IV, p. 797 line 5-7
Mary: do you hear Edmund? Such morbid nonsense Saying you’re going to die It’s the books you read Nothing but sadness
and death. Your father shouldn’t allow you to have them. And some of the poems you’ve written yourself are even worse You’d
think you didn’t want to live? Act II, p. 767-768
Jamie: Your poetry isn’t very cheery. Not the stuff you read and claim you admire. Your poet with the unpronounceable name, for
example. Act II, p. 759 line 2-5
Even if O’Neill was not so famous in writing poems, but he portrayed himself as the character that loves to write poems and memorizes some poems. It
is one way of Eugene O’Neill to appreciate himself for his ability in writing poems.
As the child of an actor that should act in different plays, both Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone often moved and lived in one hotel to another hotel.
Tessitore in Extraordinary American Writers states that James and his wife frequently traveled to different cities with his acting troupe and Eugene were born
in a hotel in New York’s theater district. Though his wife disliked theater and the wandering lifestyle of its actors, O’Neill joined his father on the road and acted in
some production as a child. Eugene O’Neill in one of his quotation stated that “born in hotel and die in hotel too”.
In Long Day’s Journey into Night, Tyrone often moves from one hotel to another hotel due to James’s work as an actor. It makes Mary always complains
and says that she tired of living in a summer rent house because she never felt that as a home. Mary remembers that they never stayed in the best hotel. Mary then
tells how her feeling to Cathleen when she realizes that summer will and they have to move to another hotel again.
Mary: He thinks money spent on a home is money wasted. He’s lived too much in hotels. Never the best hotels of course, second-
rate hotels. He doesn’t understand a home Act II, p.749 line 37-39
Mary: ...I’m so sick and tired of pretending this is a home you won’t help me You won’t put yourself out the least but You
don’t know how to act in a home You don’t really want one You never have wanted one – never since the day we were
married You should have remained a bachelor and lived in second-rate hotels and entertained your friends in barrooms.
Act II p.753-754 Mary: ...the summer will soon over, thank goodness. Your season
will open again and we can go back to second-rate hotels and trains. I hate them too, but at least I don’t expect them ro be like
a home, and there’s no housekeeping to worry about Act II, p. 756 line 2-6
Mary keeps on talking about living in the hotel. She tries to make excuse for that since James work as an actor.
Mary: ...I kept making excuses for you. I told myself it must be some business connected with the theater. I know so little about
the theater....I didn’t know how often that was to happen in the years to come, how many times I was to wait in ugly hotel rooms.
I became quite used to it Act III p. 783 line 30-32, 37-39
That’s how Eugene O’Neill described himself in the play as the son of a matinee actor that often moved from one hotel to another hotel. They don’t have a
real home that every family supposed to have it. Mary Cavan Tyrone in the play reflects Mary Ellen “Ella” Quinlan
O’Neill in O’Neill’s real life. In the play Mary is Edmund’s mother that addict to the morphine after giving Edmund birth. Mary states herself was so fine and
healthy before Edmund’s birth. Edmund has changed her condition. Then Mary blames the cheap doctor to whom James’s sent her. The doctor gives her the
medicine that easily stops her pain, but later on she knows is as morphine Mary: I was so healthy before Edmund was born. You remember,
James. There wasn’t a nerve in my body. Even travelling with you season after season, with week after week of one-night
stands, in trains without Pullmans, in dirty rooms of filthy hotels, eating bad food bearing children in hotel rooms, I still keep
healthy. But bearing Edmund was the last straw. I was so sick afterwards, and that ignorant quack of a cheap hotel doctor – all
he knew was I was in pain. It was easy for him to stop pain. Act II, p. 765 line 21-29
James, Jamie and Edmund know that every time Mary goes to the spare- room is the time for her to take the ‘medicine’ which is morphine. They have to
spy her to make sure that she won’t be overdose. Although Mary realizes that everybody is often spying on her, she still use the morphine in the spare room.
Mary: it makes it so much harder living in this atmosphere of constant suspicion, knowing everyone is spying on me, and none
of you believe in me, or trust me. Act, I p. 740 line 5-8 Jamie: is she coming down to lunch?
Edmund: of course Jamie: No of course about it. She might not want any lunch. Or
she might start having most of her meals alone upstairs. That’s happened, hasn’t it?
Edmund: Cut it out, Jamie Can’t you think anything but –? You’re wrong to suspect anything. Act II, p. 746 line 18-25
Tyrone: Up to take more of that God-damned poison, is that is? You’ll be like a mad ghost before the night’s over
Act III, p. 790 line 33-35
From that dialogue, Edmund, Jamie, and Tyrone, know that Mary still use the morphine after she is back from sanitarium. Tyrone assumes that Mary will not
have the lunch and decide to go upstairs is because she will use the morphine as she always does in the spare room. But Mary still denies and pretends that she
doesn’t understand what Tyrone meant. By pretending Mary tries to be an innocent. She goes to another topic when somebody starts to distrust her. Mary’s
reason for her restless at night is Edmund’s condition. She says that she really worry about Edmund’s health. In fact, she cannot sleep because she will use
morphine when others already slept, as in: Mary: I don’t know what you’re talking about, James. You such
mean, bitter things when you’ve drunk too much. You’re bad as Jamie or Edmund.
Act III, p. 790 line 36-39 Mary: stop suspecting me Please, dear You hurt me I couldn’t
sleep because I was thinking about you. That’s the real reason I’ve been so worried ever since you’ve been sick.
Act I, p. 741 line 10-12
Based on the dialogue it can be known that Mary also ever entered to a Sanatorium. Mary knows that her mind could not be burdened by anything after
she returned from sanatorium. Tyrone: ...I had it here waiting for you when you came back from
the sanatorium. I hoped it would give you pleasure and distract your mind.
Act II, p. 763 line 19-21 Mary: ...But I do know you should be the last one – right after I
returned from the sanatorium, you began to ill. The doctor there had warned me I must have peace at home with nothing upset
me, and all I’ve done is worry about you. But that’s no excuse Act II, p. 769 line 21-28
In that dialogue, Mary makes Edmund as the ‘black-sheep’ of her worry. The truth that happened to her is she become addicted to the medicine that given
by Doctor Hardy. In the play, Mary starts using morphine is after giving Edmund birth, and it is a wrong prescription from Doctor Hardy to endure her pain in that
time. Starts from that time, Mary always use morphine and become addicted to it. The medicine that she used to ask Cathleen to buy is actually kinds of morphine.
Mary: what are you talking about? What drugstore? What prescription? Oh, of course, I’d forgot them. The medicine for
the rheumatism in my hands. What did the man say?. Not that it matters, as long as he filled the prescription
Act III, p. 776 line 16-21
Cathleen: it mattered to me, then I’m not used to being treated like a thief. He gave me a long look and says insultingly, “where
did you get hold of this?” and I say “It’s none of your business, but if you must know, it’s for the lady I work for, Mrs. Tyrone,
who’s sitting out in the automobile”. That shut him up quick. He gave a look out at you and said, “oh” and went to get the
medicine. Act III, p. 776 line 22-28
Same as Mary Cavan Tyrone in the play, Mary Quinlan O’Neill, as written in Eugene O’Neill biography, was a morphine addict. O’Neill first knew
about his mother addiction on summer 1903. “O’Neill learnt that mother is morphine addict when she attempted to throw herself into Thames River outside
cottage while undergoing withdrawal. In 1914 O’Neill’s mother overcame morphine addiction during stayed at convent. Christopersen, 1988:1064
In Encyclopedia of World Drama stated that In 1900, O’Neill was transferred to the De LaSalle Institute in Manhattan and lived at home with his
mother, who had become addicted to morphine. That was same with Edmund in the play; he knows that Mary is addicted to morphine. As he asks his father about
Mary’s addiction to morphine Edmund: after you found out she’d been made morphine addict,
why didn’t you send her to a cure then, at the start? Act IV, p. 802 line 1-3
Besides addicted to morphine and ever entered to a sanitarium, both Mary Tyrone in the play and Mary O’Neill in his real life was a girl that has talent to be
a pianist after studied in a convent school. Mary states that she loves and used to play piano before married to James Tyrone. She remembers her father always
support her to go to Europe. Mary doesn’t make it real since she already in love and decide to marry James. Mary’s greater plan is become a nun. For the same
reason, her marriage forces her to forget all her plans in the past. Mary: The girls in the Convent who had seen him act, or seem
his photographs, used to rave about him Act III, p. 775 line 35-36
Mary: ...they were a musician’s hands. I used to love piano. I worked so hard at my music in the Convent – if you can call it
work when you do something you love. Mother Elizabeth and my
music teacher both said I had more talent than any student they remembered. My father paid for special lessons. He spoiled me.
He would do anything I asked. He would have sent me to Europe to study after I graduated from the Convent. I might have gone –
if I hadn’t fallen in love with Mr. Tyrone. Or I might have become a nun. I had two dreams, to be a nun that was the more
beautiful one. To become a concert pianist that was the other.
Act III, p 776, 777 line 37-40, 1-8
In Eugene O’Neill’s biography, it is also stated that his “mother, daughter of Irish immigrants, was born 1857 in New Heaven, Connecticut and moved with
her family to Cleveland, Ohio, where her father became a successful storeowner. She attended St. Mary’s Academy. Convent school in Notre Dame, Indiana,
studied piano, and married James O’Neill in 1877” Christopersen, 1988:1063. After compare and analyze Mary Cavan Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey
into Night with Mary Quinlan O’Neill in his real life, it can be concluded that Mary also as one of character that can be used to study Eugene’s autobiography.
In Eugene O’Neill’s real life Mary Ellen O’Neill was the emotionally fragile daughter of a wealthy father. Her father died when she was seventeen. She never
recovered from the death of her second son, Edmund, who had died of measles at the age of two. She later became addicted to morphine as a result of Eugene
O’Neill’s difficult birth. Another character is Jamie. In the play Jamie Tyrone is Edmund’s elder
brother. Jamie the elder is thirty-three. He has his father’s broad-
shoulder...He also lacks his father vitality... he has fine brown eyes, their color midway between his father’s lighter and his
mother darker ones...prolog Act I, p.722
In Eugene O’Neill’s biography by Christopersen it is stated that “their first son, James Jamie O’Neill, Jr. was born in 1878. Both in the play and in the real
life, Jamie is an alcoholic. In his biography, his elder brother, James “Jamie” O’Neill ever suffered severe alcoholic relapse in January 1922. In June 1923 Jamie
was committed to sanatorium after suffering acute alcoholic breakdown Christopersen, 1988:1071.
Same with Jamie Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night, Jamie Tyrone is a dissolute alcoholic; it can be seen from the dialogue when Mary warns
Edmund not to follow his brother to drink in someplace. Mary knows that Edmund like to share and do many things together with Jamie. This dialogue also shows
that Jamie often spends his time with women in the barrooms that work as whore. Mary: I suppose you’ll divide that ten dollars your father gave
you with Jamie. You always divide with each other, don’t you? Like good sports. Well, I know what he’ll do with his share. Get
drunk someplace where he can be with the only kind of woman he understands or likes.
Act II, p. 770 line 19-24
James Tyrone finds him come home in a too much of drinking alcohol Then Tyrone says that that the only thing Jamie can do are wasting money and
drinking whiskey, as in Tyrone: ... Get him to bed, Edmund. I’ll go out on the porch. He
has a tongue like an adder when he’s drunk. I’d only lose my temper Act IV, p.813 line 7-9
Tyrone: ...he loves to exaggerate the worst of himself when he’s drunk. A sweet spectacle for me My first-born, who I hoped
would bear my name in honor and dignity. A waste, a wreck,a drunken hulk, done with and finished.
Act IV, p. 822 line 12-15, 18-20
In Long Day’s Journey into Night, Jamie Tyrone is described as a young man that finds the comfort outside from the women who work as a slut or whores.
James and Edmund know that Jamie spend his money and his time at the bar with the whores, as in:
Tyrone: I’ve lost all hope you will ever change yours. You dare tell me what I can afford? You’ve never known the value of a
dollar and never will You’ve never saved a dollar in your life At the end of each season you’re penniless You’ve thrown your
salary away every week on whores and whiskey Act I, p. 730 line 22-27
Edmund: What? Did you go uptown tonight? Go to Marnie Burns?
Jamie: sure thing. Where else I could find suitable feminine companionship and love. Don’t forget love. What is a man
without a good-woman’s love? A God-damned hollow shell. Act IV, p.815 line 20-25
Both in the play and in Eugene O’Neill’s real life, his elder brother Jamie is an alcoholic. In his real life, Jamie’s died because of his suffered in alcohol.
Besides addicted to alcohol, Jamie Tyrone in the play and Jamie O’Neill in Eugene O’Neill’s real life is a man who incurably from prostitutes. In
Encyclopedia of World Drama Volume 3 L-R it is said that O’Neill was under the influence of his cynical brother, Jamie, he spent weekends in the barrooms and
hotels in New York. Incurably romantic, O’Neill was convinced from the first that the prostitutes and other characters he encountered with his brother all had hearts
of gold-an impression that was often to be incorporated in his writing 1972:349. From that statement, it is known that O’Neill’s experience with prostitute
influenced his writing. The scene of one of his play, Anna Christie, was in the prostitution. This play then won Pulitzer Prize in 1922.
From the analysis of both Jamie in Long Day’s Journey into Night and Jamie O’Neill in Eugene O’Neill’s real life, it can be seen that there are things that
Eugene O’Neill had portrayed from his brother into his play. Just like how Eugene O’Neill’s described the previous characters, James Tyrone, Edmund Tyrone and
Mary Cavan Tyrone, he also described Jamie Tyrone by giving the tragedy and the past that Eugene possibly could not forget.
Besides the same experiences that reflected by James Tyrone, Edmund Tyrone, Mary Cavan Tyrone and Jamie Tyrone, there is one character that also can
be analyzed have autobiographical content. She is Cathleen. Cathleen is one of the character in the play that works as Tyrone’s servant. She helps Mary in
housekeeping. But in Eugene O’Neill’s real life, Cathleen was the first wife of Eugene O’Neill. O’Neill married to Cathleen Jenkins in 1909 but divorced in July
1912. It can be seen in the play that Cathleen is the Tyrone’s maid servant Cathleen: ...here’s the whiskey. It’ll be lunch time soon. Will I
call your father and Mister Jamie, or will you?...Mister Tyrone Mister Jamie. It’s time Act II, p. 743.
From the same experiences in both main characters in the play and the family members of O’Neill that have been analyzed, it can be seen why this play
said to be Eugene O’Neill’s autobiography. Eugene O’Neill revealed his family background and some of his experiences in this play. All the analysis above are the
explanation from the first chapter which stated that this thesis is as a study of Eugene O’Neil’s autobiography trough his play Long Day’s Journey into Night.
Another aspect that I am going to analyze is the scene of this play which use only the living from Act I until IV. Eugene showed that the concentration on
the family and the use of the family living-room in its play is a family matter. The scene in the act one really describes O’Neill’s family who loved literary and
came from Ireland. Farther back is a large, glassed in bookcase with sets of Dumas,
Victor Hugo, Charles Lever, three sets of Shakespeare, The World’s Best Literature in fifty large volumes. Humes’s history
of England, Thiers’s History of the Consulate and Empire, Smollett’s History of England, Gibbon’s Roman Empire and
miscellaneous volumes of old plays, poetry and several histories of Ireland. Act One, Scene, p. 717
The opening scene starts on a deceptive of a domestic happiness. James Tyrone affectionately teases his wife, Mary about her putting on weight. From the
dining room the voices of their two sons Jamie and Edmund can be heard in laughter. But soon the image of domestic contentment has been all evaporated. In
this place there is a quarrel and recrimination, wounding and suffering, accusation and confession. The use of living room as the setting by Eugene O’Neill shows
how the family only meet and talk to each other in that place. O’Neill many times described in his play that the Tyrone’s house is a rented summer house which they
will soon leave. They are a trapped family who does not belong in any house and never has a home. Tyrone is a famous actor that captivates his female’s admirers
and it is contrasted with the poverty of an exploited child immigrant that desperately ever tried to support his fatherless family.
In order to make the reader easier and make the analysis above simpler as well, I also make it in the table form. James Tyrone in the play reflects James
O’Neill in Eugene O’Neill’s real life.
James O’Neill James Tyrone
James O’Neill was one of the Irish immigrants that experienced poverty,
depression and hunger. He went to America in 1855 when it was famine years. O’Neill’s
father was an Irish immigrants that famous for playing the stage version of The Count
of Monte Cristo. Same as described in the play, O’Neill’s father was a popular actor in
the late of nineteenth century. James O’Neill was an alcoholic
http:www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.ukJonei ll.htm. In O’Neill’s biography stated that
he ever suffer from depression and his state of mind was not helped when his parents
and his elder brother Jamie ONeill, also an alcoholic, died within three years of one
another 1920-1923. It can be assumed that O’Neill’s father was
an alcoholic just like his elder brother, Jamie O’Neill.
In the play James Tyrone told Edmunds how his life and an his
family was so hard during they were Irish immigrants,
We never had clothes enough to wear, nor enough food to eat. Well,
I remember one Thanksgiving or maybe it was Christmas.
When some yank in whose house mother had been scrubbing gave
her a dollar extra for a present, and on the way home she spent it
all on food...Act IV, p. 808
In the play, James Tyrone always have whiskey before meal. He also
give Jamie a tea spoon of whiskey when Jamie still baby
Mary: ... Poor Jamie No, it isn’t at all. 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 a little, or a stomach-ache, you remedy was to
give him a teaspoonful of whiskey to quite him.
Act III, p. 782 line 1-8
James O’Neill’s and James Tyrone’s are Irish-American Catholic.
James O’Neill James Tyrone
According to his biography. O’Neill’s were Irish-American Catholic. Christophersen
1988:1063 in Eugene O’Neill Complete Plays 1912-1920, states Eugene O’Neill’s
father was an Irish immigrants-Catholic with a religious father. His mother was
catholic that ever wanted to be a nun before met with James O’Neill
Mary is fifty-four,... her face is distinctly Irish in type. Her voice is
soft and attractive, when she is merry, there is a touch of Irish lilt in
it. Edmund Tyrone is ten years younger than his brother... he looks
like both his parents, but he’s more like his mother. His big, dark eyes
are the dominant feature in his long, narrow Irish face Act I, page 718,
722-723 Tyrone: It’s true I’m a bad Catholic
in the observance, God forgive me. But I believe And you’re liar I may
not go to church but every night and morning of my life I get on my knees
and pray Act II p. 759 line 21-24
Edmund Tyrone in the play reflects Eugene O’Neill. Both Edmund Tyrone and Eugene O’Neill’s are replacing child for each family’s died baby.
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill Edmund Tyrone
In Eugene O’Neill’s real life, it is stated in his biography that he had a died
brother that died before he was born and named Edmund. Edmund died in 1885
of measles contracted from Jamie. Christhophersen, 1988:1063.
Edmund Tyrone is a son that replacing Tyrone’s second-died baby, whose
name is Eugene Mary: I swore after Eugene died I
would never another baby. I was to blame for his death...Jamie would
never have been allowed, When he still measles, to go in the baby’sroom.
Tyrone: Are you back with Eugene now? Can’t you let our died baby rest
in peace? Act II, p. 765 line 33-38, 766 line 4-5
The difference is, if in the play the died baby’s name is Eugene, in O’Neill’s
real life the died baby’s named was Edmund. In the play, the second son of
Tyrone is Eugene and the last is Edmund. While in O’Neill’s real life the
second child in his family is Edmund and the last is Eugene O’Neill.
In the play it can be seen from the dialogue that Mary feels so guilty
because she lost her second son, Eugene that died because of measles
from Jamie. Mary:.. But we mustn’t allow Jamie to
drag Edmund down with him, as he’d like to do. He’s jealous because
Edmund has always been the baby – just as he used to be of Eugene. He’ll
never be content until he makes Edmund Act III, p. 780-781
Edmund Tyrone in the play and Eugene O’Neill in the real life are both ever went sail and worked as a sailor.
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill Edmund Tyrone
As stated in Encyclopedia of World Drama O’Neill left the company and
began a series of sailing on spring 1910. Christophersen also states that In
October 1990, O’Neill sailed with Stevens to Amapala, Honduras. He
traveled back to Tegucipala, and begun prospecting along Rio Seale without
success. In the play, it can be seen that Edmund
told his father about his experience as sailor in the sea, as in:
Edmund: Don’t lie about it.. God, Papa, ever since I went to sea and was on my
own, and found out what hard work
for little pay was, and what it felt like to be broke, and starve and camp on park
benches because I had no place to sleep. I’ve tried to be fair to you because i
knew that you’d been up against as a kid. Act IV p. 805 line 22-27
Both Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone ever suffered in tuberculosis and entered sanatorium.
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill Edmund Tyrone
In his biography O’Neill developed persistent cough in October 1912, and
was diagnosed as having tuberculosis in November. He entered Fairfield Country
State Sanatorium in Shelton, Connecticut on December 9, but left
after two days. On December 24, he entered Gaylord Farm, private
Sanatorium in Wallingford, Connecticut Christopersen, 1988:1066. In
Encyclopedia of World Drama also stated that in October 1910 he suffered a
mild attack of the tuberculosis and was sent by his doctor to Gaylord Farm, a
private sanatorium near Wallingford, Conn., Where his health improved
rapidly. 1972:351. In the play Mary shows her worried
every time Edmund cough. James Tyrone also plans to enter Edmund to
Doctor Hardy, to whom he ever sent Mary. Mary doesn’t agree with
James’s plan since she knows that Hardy is a cheap doctor that cannot
help Edmund. Jamie: What did Doc Hardy say about
the Kid? Tyrone: It’s what you thought. He’s got
consumption Jamie: God damn it
Tyrone: There is no possible doubt, he said.
Jamie: He’ll have to go to a sanatorium Tyrone: yes, and the sooner the better,
Hardy said, for him and everyone around him. He claims that in six
months to a year Edmund will be cured Act II p. 760 line 12-21.
Both Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone got fail to continue their college.
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill Edmund Tyrone
In his real life Eugene O’Neil left his college in 1907 after suspended at end of
second semester for poor scholastic standing after failing to take any final
examinations. From Encyclopedia of World Drama, it is known that O’Neill
entered Princeton University in 1906 but spent most of his time dissipating.
Edmund Tyrone doesn’t continue his college deliberately then starts to ruin
his health. It can be seen from Tyrone’s dialogue when he gives his reason to
Jamie for sending Edmund to the cheap Doctor Hardy.
Tyrone: ...And what could the finest specialist in America do for Edmund,
after he’s deliberately ruined his health by the mad life he’s led ever since he
was fired from college? Even before that when he was in prep. School, he
began dissipating and playing the Broadway sport to imitate you.
Act I p. 731-732 line 38-40, 1-3
Both Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone love to write poems
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill Edmund Tyrone
Eugene started to write poetry intermittently in 1915 after becomes
friend with Terry Carlin, an alcoholic that deeply influenced by Nietzsche.
Christopersen, 1988:1067. O’Neil also wrote poems for The London
Telegraph In August 1912. Edmund is a young man that loves to
write poems, but his mother doesn’t like his pessimistic poems about life
Mary: ...It’s the books you read Nothing but sadness and death. Your
father shouldn’t allow you to have them. And some of the poems you’ve
written yourself are even worse You’d think you didn’t want to live? Act II p.
767-768
The last reflection that found from Edmund Tyrone is both Eugene O’Neill and Edmund Tyrone often moved and lived in one hotel to another hotel
Eugene Gladstone O’Neill Edmund Tyrone
Tessitore in Extraordinary American Writers states that James and his wife
frequently traveled to different cities with his acting troupe, and Eugene was
born in a hotel in New York’s theater district. Though his wife disliked
theater and the wandering lifestyle of its actors, O’Neill joined his father on the
road and acted in some production as a child. Eugene O’Neill was born and
died in a hotel. His life as a child of actor forced him to follow his father’s
show from one country to another country.
In the play, Tyrone often moves from one hotel to another hotel. It makes
Mary always complains and says that she is unhappy because she never felt
how to live in a real home. Mary:... He thinks money spent on a
home is money wasted. He’s lived too much in hotels. Never the best hotels. Of
course. Second-rate hotels. He doesn’t understand a home.
Act II p.749 line 37-39
Mary tells how her feeling to Cathleen
Mary:... I’m so sick and tired of pretending this is a home you won’t
help me You won’t put yourself out the least but You don’t know how to act in
a home You don’t really want one You never have wanted one – never since
the day we were married You should have remained a bachelor and lived in
second-rate hotels and entertained your friends in barrooms.
Act II p.753-754
Mary Cavan Tyrone in the play reflects Mary Quinlan O’Neill in O’Neill’s real life. Both Mary in the play and in O’Neill’s real life are a morphine addict.
Mary Quinlan O’Neill Mary Cavan Tyrone
Eugene O’Neill started to know that his mother is a morphine addict is on summer
1903. In 1914 O’Neill’s mother overcame morphine addiction during stayed at
convent Christopersen 1988: 1067. Mary starts to use morphine after giving
birth to his died baby, Edmund. She was a fragile daughter from the wealthy father.
Her father was died when she was seventeen. She was a beautiful wife of a
popular actor, James O’Neill. Mary states that James is
responsible for her pain, since he sent her to a cheap Doctor Hardy.
In the play, James Tyrone, Edmund and Jamie spy Mary since they
consider she still use morphine Mary: I was so sick afterwards, and
that ignorant quack of a cheap hotel doctor – all he knew was i was in
pain. It was easy for him to stop pain Act II, p. 765 line 27-29
Mary: it makes it so much harder living in this atmosphere of constant
suspicion, knowing everyone is spying on me, and none of you
believe in me, or trust me Act I p. 740 line 5-8
In the play Mary’s addiction is
known by Edmund. Edmund asks his father about Mary’s first
addiction. Edmund: after you found out she’d
been made morphine addict, why didn’t you send her to a cure then, at
the start? Act IV, p. 802 line 1-3
Mary Tyrone in the play and Mary O’Neill in his real life was a girl that has talent to be a pianist after studied in a convent school
Mary Quinlan O’Neill Mary Cavan Tyrone
In O’Neill’s biography, it is stated that Mary was a daughter of Irish
immigrants that born in Connecticut, 1857. She moved with her family to
Ohio where her father became a successful storeowner. She attended St.
Mary’s Academy. Convent school in Notre Dame, Indiana, studied piano,
and married James O’Neill in 1877 Christopersen, 1988:1063.
In the play, Mary states that she loves and used to play piano before married
to James Tyrone, as in: Mary: ...they were a musician’s
hands. I used to love piano.... I might have gone – if I hadn’t fallen in love
with Mr. Tyrone. Or I might have become a nun. I had two dreams, to
be a nun that was the more beautiful one. To become a concert pianist that
was the other
Act III, p 776, 777 line 37-40, 1-8
In the play Jamie Tyrone is Edmund’s elder brother. In Eugene O’Neill’s real, James Jamie., Jr. is his elder brother. Both Jamie O’Neill’s and Jamie Tyrone an
alcoholic.
Jamie O’Neill Jamie Tyrone
In O’Neill’s biography, his elder brother James “Jamie” O’Neill ever
suffered severe alcoholic and relapsed in January 1922. In June 1923 Jamie
Edmund Tyrone’s brother in Long Day’s Journey into Night also an
alcoholic. Jamie Tyrone is a dissolute alcoholic,
was committed to sanatorium after suffering acute alcoholic breakdown.
Christopersen, 1988:1071 Tyrone: ... That loafer He caught the
last car,bad luck to it. Get him to bed, Edmund. I’ll go out on the porch. He
has a tongue like an adder when he’s drunk. I’d only lose my temper
Act IV p.813 line 6-9
Besides addicted to alcohol, Jamie Tyrone in the play and Jamie O’Neill in Eugene O’Neill’s real life is a man who incurably from prostitutes. Both Jamie
O’Neill and Jamie Tyrone has are incurably from prostitutes.
Jamie O’Neill Jamie Tyrone
In Encyclopedia of World Drama Volume 3 L-R it is said that O’Neill was under the
influence of his cynical brother, Jamie, he spent weekends in the barrooms and Hotels
in New York. Incurably romantic, O’Neill was convinced from the first that the
prostitutes and other characters he encountered with his brother all had hearts
of gold-an impression that was often to be incorporated in his writing 1972:349.
O’Neill’s play Anna Christie is was inspired by his experience with his brother
in the brothels Jamie Tyrone is described as a
young man that find the comfortness outside from the
women who work as a slut. It can be seen when Edmund asks Jamie
where did he go Edmund: What? Did you go uptown
tonight? Go to Marnie Burns? Jamie: sure thing. Where else I
could find suitable feminine companionship and love. Don’t
forget love. What is a man without a good-woman’s love? A God-
damned hollow shell Act IV p.815 line 20-25
Tyrone:.. You’ve never known the value of a dollar and never will
You’ve never saved a dollar in your life At the end of each season
you’re penniless You’ve thrown your slary away every week on
whores and whiskey Act I p. 730 line 23-27
Those analyses about Eugene O’Neill’s family and how he portrayed them in Long Day’s Journey into Night can prove that this play has the immense
of autobiographical content. This play presents how Eugene O’Neill remembered his father, mother and his elder brother. This play reflects his family problems,
their habitual and the moment that they have been trough. O’Neill used the scene, the Tyrone’s family living-room, to reveal that this play is about his family. All
the conversation among the characters in the play unfolds their past. All of them seemed trapped in their present and tend to blame their past. Just like Mary says
when Edmund and Jamie starts to quarrel: Mary: stop this at once. Do you hear me? How dare you use
such language before me? It’s wrong to blame your brother. He can’t help being what the past has made him. Any more than
your father can. Or you. Or I. Act II p. 752 line 7-12
Mary realizes what the past has already made for all of them. Mary also says that no one can change that. The death, poverty, addiction, sadness that they
have to bear in their present is the past’s given to them. She would not addict with morphine if she didn’t born Edmund. Here, we know that Eugene O’Neill himself
probably thought that he was the cause of his mother’s addiction. James Tyrone also much affected by his past as one of immigrants that
creates him become a father that afraid of losing job and money. Having much money is worthier than having a home. Spends money on treating friends on
barrooms is better that lighting a bulb in the living room. His fear is come from his experience during his childhood. James always think about the safest way to save
his money. He believes that buy land and property is the safest way to spend on his money. Although he is a famous actor, he never provides his family with a home.
Edmund Tyrone that reflects Eugene O’Neill himself described as a man that loves his mother and likes to share with his brother. James Tyrone, Mary and
Jamie worry about his health, yet he never thinks about it. This play reveals O’Neill’s experience when his age around thirties. O’Neill revealed himself was a
sailor and a writer of poems as well. Jamie Tyrone reflects Jamie O’Neill in O’Neill’s real life. Jamie never
wants to have brother or sister. He always wants himself as the centre of attention in the family. That is why he hates Edmund and never treats him well. His past
makes him become a lazy man that never takes anything seriously.
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
