Eugene O'Neill

1888-1953

Life

Family

His father, James O'Neill, played title role in The Count of Monte Cristo for years and became identified with the role; a woman named Nettie Walsh sued him three months after his marriage to Ellen and claimed to be married to him.
His mother, Ellen Quinlan O'Neill, became addicted to morphine during her recovery after Eugene's birth; she blamed her addiction on her husband, who she said did not spend the money to get her a good doctor.
His brother Jamie O'Neill gave measles to his other brother, Edmund, who died in infancy.
His brother Edmund O'Neill died in infancy of measles contracted from Jamie.

Home

New York, New York
Provincetown, Massachusetts
France

Religion

raised in Catholic family
attended Catholic schools

Chronology

1888: born in New York City
1906-1907: attends Princeton University in New Jersey
1909: marries Kathleen Jenkins
1910: becomes a sailor, but leaves the ship in Buenos Aires and becomes a beggar
1911: sails back to New York, where he lives in poverty
1911: overdoses on Veronal in an attempt to kill himself
1912: divorced from Kathleen Jenkins
1912-1913: spends six months at Gaylord Farm Sanitorium, where he receives treatment for tuberculosis
1914-1915: studies playwriting under George Pierce Baker at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts
c.1916: moves to Provincetown, Massachusetts
1916: Bound East for Cardiff produced by Provincetown Players
1920: Beyond the Horizon produced at Morosco Theatre in New York City
1918: marries Agnes Boulton
1920-1939
1921: Anna Christie
1920: The Emperor Jones
1922: The Hairy Ape produced in New York City
1924: All God's Chillun Got Wings produced in New York City
1924: Desire Under the Elms produced in New York City
1926: The Great God Brown produced in New York City
1928: Lazarus Laughed produced in Pasadena, California
1928: Strange Interlude achieves huge success
1929: marries Carlotta Monterey
1931: Mourning Becomes Electra produced in New York City
1933: Ah, Wilderness! produced in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York City
c.1940: suffers from a hereditary nervous disease
1940-1941: writes and revises Long Day's Journey Into Night, but asks that it not be performed until 25 years after his death
1946: The Iceman Cometh produced in New York City
1947: Moon for the Misbegotten produced in Columbus, Ohio
1953: dies in Boston, Massachusetts
1956: Long Day's Journey Into Night performed a few years after his death with his widow's permission despite O'Neill's wish that it not be produced until 25 years after this death
1958: A Touch of the Poet produced in New York City

Issues and themes

Dramatic innovations

Break from melodrama: "His career, so tied to this generation of theatrical personnel, should be judged within its historical context, as a reaction against melodrama and a search for a theatrical aesthetic to replace it" (Jensen 139).
"Supernaturalism": "In The Web O'Neill explored realism; in Thirst, written in fall 1913 and produced in summer 1916, he explored, as he would in The Hairy Ape, what he would later refer to as supernaturalism, which to O'Neill meant going beyond realism by using sybolism in a basically realistic play" (Jensen 143).
Expressionism: ". . . the yielding up of the realistic and naturalistic method of verisimilitude in order to use external objects not as representational but as transmitters of the internal impressions and moods" (Holman 187); "The Emperor Jones was the first American play to adapt expressionistic techniques" (Jensen 151)
Miscellaneous innovations include spoken thoughts (Strange Interlude), masks (The Great God Brown), chorus (Lazarus Laughed), lighting, and set

Past
Pipe dreams

Work

Long Day's Journey Into Night

Act One

What is the significance of the books in the Tyrones' library? How do you interpret O'Neill's note that the books "have the look of having been read and reread"? Who do you suppose has been reading them?
Why is it significant that Tyrone is an actor?
Analyze the tone of the play. Pay particular attention to the fluctuations in it. Is there a general tone?
How do you feel toward the Tyrones? Sympathetic? Angry? Frustrated? Why?
Interpret the various characters' appearances. Why do the other characters return again and again to Mary's size? What is significant about Jamie's appearance and bearing?
What is the nature of Mary and James' relationship? Consider her comments about his snoring and his reaction.
What is the nature of James' relationship with Jamie? How has it come to be this way?
What are James' politics?
All of the characters continually seek explanations for their situations. What explanations do they find? Which ones do they not consider?
O'Neill often notes that a character is "Stung." What does he mean? Why are the characters so often "Stung"?
How do James and Jamie react Mary's unusual behavior during the night? Why? What does this reaction suggest about their personalities?
How might the fog be a metaphor. Consider Mary's lines: "I mean, take advantage of the sunshine before the fog comes back" and "Because I know it will."
Describe Mary Tyrone. What does she want? What does she miss?
Look carefully at the lines Mary delivers from a daze, such as "That's what makes it so hard-for all of us. We can't forget." How do these lines function in the play?
How do the characters, particularly James Tyrone, react to accusations made toward them? What is significant about these reactions?
"This family is so confused that they can't go two minutes without giving each other harsh insults. Before you know it, they're apologizing and professing their love for each other again. The Tyrones never established a basis for family or for the love a family is supposed to be made of, so they are left to wander around in the fog that they have created for themselves" (Kimmel 11/13/96).
Mary's "nervousness comes out rather obviously by her frequent fidgeting. For instance, her self-conscious nature is show when she constantly messes with her hair when someone is staring at her. Also, her nervousness stops her from being able to control her hands. They are never still, which draws attention to them" (Smith 11/12/96).

Act Two

Jamie warns Edmund that he should quit drinking because of his illness, and Edmund responds: "Oh, I'm going to after he hands me the bad news this afternoon. A few before then won't make any difference" (55). How do you interpret this line?
What is the definition of the word "cynicism"? Is Jamie more or less cynical than he should be? See his speech on page 57, particularly the lines: "Listen, Kid, I know you think I'm a cynical bastard, but remember I've seen a lot more of this game than you have."
Why does Mary take drugs? Support your answer.
In one of her many soliloquies, Mary says: "None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realize it, and once they're done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to be, and you've lost your true self forever" (61). Do you agree? Why or why not? Are the Tyrones trapped by their past? What aspects of their past have helped to shape their lives?
What is Edmund's outlook on life? Consider his response to Tyrone's toast of "Well, here's health and happiness!": "That's a joke!" (66).
Analyze the part of the scene on pages 66-68. How is this section rich with information about the entire play's themes and characterizations?
Read the final line of Act Two, Scene One. Why do you think O'Neill chose to end the scene on this line?
Analyze O'Neill's descriptions of characters' facial expressions, such as his description of Tyrone at the beginning of Act Two, Scene Two. How do these descriptions help to convey O'Neill's themes?
Read Jamie's line on page 76: "I was merely putting bluntly what we all know, and have to live with now, again." What is the significance of the word "again" here?
We can learn a great deal about these characters' struggles from the exchange on pages 87-88. Analyze this passage from the play.
"[Mary's] husband, Tyrone, and also Jamie drink too much alcohol. They do this to escape from the reality of Mary having a drug addiction. They, too, are putting themselves in a fog, to hide from the reality of their family life" (Barham 11/12/96).

Act Three

Interpret Mary's line at the beginning of this act: "It will soon be night, thank goodness" (102).
Analyze Mary's idealistic memories of the past, particularly her description of her introduction to James before their marriage (112). How do these passages function in the play?
What is the significance of the words that both Mary and James use in proclaiming their love for each other: ". . . in spite of everything" (112)?
Analyze the way the Tyrones deal with reality. Consider the references to lies, such as Edmund's description of the revelation of his mother's illness: "I remember, all right. It was right after that Papa and Jamie decided they couldn't hide it from me any more. Jamie told me. I called him a liar! I tried to punch him in the nose. But I knew he wasn't lying" (118). Also, pay attention to the references to the fog, including Edmund's description of his walk in the fog (131).
Analyze the emotions that the Tyrones experience in this play. In particular, consider the exchange between Edmund and Mary on pages 118-120.
How do the Tyrones drag one another down? Consider the exchange between Edmund and Mary on page 120.

Act Four

What can we learn about the Tyrones from their choice of reading?
What is the significance of Mary's dream of being a nun? Why do you suppose this dream is still so active in her mind?
Edmund says to his father: "We don't seem to be able to avoid unpleasant topics, do we?" Why do you think the Tyrones continually return to "unpleasant topics"? Why do even their shows of affection give way to explosive expressions of anger, bitterness, and hatred?
All four members of the family are under the influence of either drugs or alcohol in this act. What are the consequences, particularly in terms of the themes of the play? Tyrone repeatedly explains Mary's complaints and accusations by saying that "it's the poison talking." Do you agree? How do the various "poisons" affect the Tyrones and their words?
Who is Edwin Booth, and how does the allusion to him on page 150 function in the play?
After his father's long confession, Edmund says: "I'm glad you've told me this, Papa. I know you a lot better now." What is the significance of this line?
How is Edmund's description of his life on a ship Emersonian? How is it Naturalistic? How is it Existential?
"As it is," Edmund tells his father, "I will always be a stranger who never feels at home, who does not really want and is not really wanted, who can never belong, who must always be a little in love with death." Why is home so important to Edmund and Mary? Why do they believe they have never had one?
"What a bastard to have for a father!" Jamie says to Edmund in Act Four. "Christ, if you put him in a book, no one would believe it!" (157). What is the significance of this line?
Explaining that their father has agreed to send him to any sanatorium, Edmund adds: "Within reason, of course" (158). Why do you think that he says this "without resentment"?
Why, according to Jamie, is he so devastated by his mother's return to morphine?
Analyze the characters' motivations. Why, for example, did Jamie provide such a bad example for Edmund?
Analyze the final moments of Long Day's Journey Into Night. Consider Mary's words, the characters' actions, the position of the characters, and other elements that help to shape our final impression of the play.
Review the notes of Eugene O'Neill's life. What parallels do you see in this play? Why do you think O'Neill depicted his family's life in this way? Why do you suppose he used the name of his dead brother for himself?
What is the "Long Day's Journey Into Night"?
In Act Four of Long Day's Journey Into Night, Eugene O'Neill opens up at the end of the play. One characteristic of this work is that the reader doesn't really know what happens in the past. The reader is given brief bits and pieces of their pasts, but it's not until everyone is either drunk or high on morphine that the truth really comes out. Edmund talks of his trip out to sea and how hard work didn't pay and how he thought James was too cheap" (Aron 11/13/96).
"I'm not one for abrupt endings, so that's why I didn't like it. It made me leave the script feeling uneasy about what was going to happen to the characters, which was probably O'Neill's goal. Maybe he wanted the audience to go home and create their own endings, but this simply bothers me" (Smith 11/14/96).
"A lot transpires in Act Four of the play, though nothing ever really seems to be resolved. One thing of importance is that it is within Act Four that every member of the family is drugged up in some way or another. It is also the portion of the play when everyone is the most honest with each other. This reminds me of a quote, 'A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts.' I think that this quote is very pertinent to this family. For example, Jamie tells Edmund that he did purposely try to ruin him and that he was very jealous of him, and so forth and so on" (Plonk 11/14/96).
"This scene made me feel as though [Mary] did not follow her actual calling in life and that she never should have gotten married. But I also got the feeling that she was idealizing the life in the nunnery. She never experienced that life, so it is easy for her to imagine it as wonderful. She probably would have ended up wondering what it would be like to be married had she become a nun. I think this because she was apparently happy at one point with her lifewith Tyrone. Just as this happiness faded, so would her happiness in the nunnery" (Plonk 11/14/96).
Edmund "refuses to let Tyrone send him to a cheap sanitarium. After being confronted, Tyrone gives in. This, along with the light-bulbs, are the only examples of Tyrone compromising his frugality. Both of these occur as a result of Edmund's confrontation, suggesting that only Edmund has the ability to get through to Tyrone" (Lasher 11/14/96).
"It is evident that some type of symbolism is associated with the light, as if the bulbs represent shedding light on the true nature of the characters" (Lasher 11/14/96).
"We could tell that the Tyrones lived in a haze and desperately wanted to live in the past or anything that detached them from the reality of now. I guess that Mary is happy in several ways then. First, she seems totally aloof and almost unconscious of the goings-on around her. Secondly, she is having fanciful visions of the past. To her dismay, however, her little dream ends with meeting Tyrone and falling not only in love but also falling in the reality of now" (Edwards 10/17/96).
Tyrone and Jamie "begin bickering back and forth, and then Tyrone finally turns all of the lights on. I think this is symbolic because everything seems brought out into the open, or, rather, the characters seem able to face the horrible reality of their situations" (Catt 11/12/96).

General

"O'Neill utilizes the fact that this is a play by allowing readers to realize that the character's lives are already planned out for them, limiting their ability to grow and change" (Baldwin 10/7/96).
"Soliloquies and asides function together in this novel chiefly as a way to provide the audience with information that may not be common knowledge to them. The asides and soliloquies of Mary Tyrone expose her personal depression over her past, reasons for her drug use, and the past actions and beliefs of her husband and two sons. By combining all of the information provided in her soliloquuies and asides, a greater knowledge and understanding of the play and its characters can be achieved" (Brooks 11/12/96).
"Through his use of a single set, O'Neill seems to be hinting at the isolation that the family has from the outside world and the way that they cannot escape from their web of guilt, lies, and addiction" (Butler 11/12/96).
"Through the long conversation between Edmund and Tyrone, it becomes apparent that one of the problems that the family has had has been their lack of understanding of each other, which stems from their unwillingness to openly and honestly speak the truth. In this act, Edmund, who is by far the most sympathetic character, finally confronts his father about his miserly attitude and philosophy, and Tyrone responds with guilt, rage, and the truth about why he is the way he is. From Tyrone's response, Edmund develops a deeper understanding of his father, and he loses a portion of the bitterness he has felt toward him for all the many years for being cheap" (Butler 11/14/96).
"Frequently, O'Neill asks for the characters to stare or look away from the speaker. This is important because knowing where one looks allows us to infer how they are feeling. For example, the boys have trouble looking at their mother when they know she has been taking morphine again. When they refuse to look at her, we can infer they are both angry and hurt" (Plonk 11/12/96).
"Another important dramatic [device] is the use of countless emotional directions. The characters are given directions such as 'resentfully,' 'bitterly,' caustically,' 'blankly,' 'strickenly,' 'pleadingly,' 'dully,' 'hopelessly,' 'indifferently,' 'excitedly,' 'cynically,' 'defiantly,' 'miserably,' 'furiously,' 'vaguely,' 'injuredly,' 'resentfully,' 'violently,' 'dryly,' and 'persuasively,' to name but a few. It is clear that O'Neill felt that emotion was a critical element in the portrayal of these characters. In fact, since the characters never actually do anything, their emotions are all that we have" (Lasher 11/13/96).
"Everyone idealizes his or her past, which is no way to live a life. It isn't healthy to always be wishing you were back somewhere else" (Ryan 11/15/96).
Review of production starring Katharine Hepburn: "Another thing I noticed was how the cameras were always above eye level when showing the characters, . . . looking down on them as they spoke, which may be a way of subconsciously conveying the pitifulness of this family to the audience" (Ryan 11/18/96).
"Mary is a very fidgety person. This could symbolize the nervousness and defensiveness of the entire family. Her moves are jerky and quick, much as the family is quick to lay blame, be defensive, and hastily switch from one topic to another before too much information is revealed" (Hundley 11/11/96).
"[Mary] reminds me of a small child who is carrying around a security blanket. I believe that the only sense of security that Mary has comes from her idealized version of the past" (Hundley 11/13/96).
"The final aspect I found interesting is the card game between Edmund and Tyrone. They kept forgetting whose turn it was. This reminded me of the way in which the family continually argues, forgetting what the central issue is or dancing around the central issue. The card game is the central issue, but they keep getting distracted by their conversation. This is much like the present is the central issue, but the family is distracted by the past, due to Mary's constant obsession with it" (Hundley 11/13/96).
"Unlike his wife, Mary, James's past is not the center of a personal depression and hatred of life. Instead, the past stands mainly as a shaper of his personal ideals and actions" (Brooks 5).
"James naturally expects the most out of his kids as a result of the high expectations that have always surrounded him" (Brooks 6).
Review of production starring Jack Lemmon: "The play that we watched on TV helped further my image of the disfunctional family and the stubbornness that each character had towards the others. This was especially evident in their arguments, when each person tried to talk over the others in order to get his/her point across. Because of this, it seemed like none of the [characters] ever really listened or paid attention to the others" (Daugherty 11/24/96).
"The act opens with Tyrone alone, playing cards mechanically. Edmund enters, and their ensuing conversation sets the tone for the climactic act. This episode is typical of the exchanges in this family. It moves from affection ('You're a wonder, Papa . . .') to condescension ('You have a poet in you but it's a damned morbid one!') to denial ('Lies! He's a liar . . .')" (Premakumar 11/14/96).
"I . . . think the fact that it is the 'living' room is ironic. It is in this room that the men drink to escape life" (Wallen 11/7/96).
"It also seems like this play is a cycle that could continue day in and day out. It would be interesting if O'Neill is making the characters so drunk at these times that they do not remember what they talked about in the morning; their memory would be foggy. If so, the play becomes one that will never come to a happy ending. If the only time they make progress with each other is when they are so drunk they do not remember it later, they have not really made any progress at all" (Wallen 11/12/96).
Review of film production starring Jack Lemmon: "In the movie adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night with Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey, one of the most striking characteristics of the production is the setting in which the action overwhelmingly finds its place. The characters all interact within a tight and confined space that leaves them little room to hide from either each other or themselves. When reading the play, my mind's eyes envisioned a larger and more hollowed house that contained and hid the many underlying subplots and internal decay of the characters. The film offered a much smaller and more cluttered space for the actors to work with, ensuring that collision between them was inevitable and unavoidable. Apparently, the purpose of this particular type of setting was to take the focus away from the surroundings and place it firmly on the conflicts between the characters. The story itself suggests that the Tyrone family continually meets up together despite their constant bickering, and this environment creates not only the perfect stage but also the perfect atmosphere in which the collisions can be acted out. The setting is a subtle mechanism to reinforce and heighten the turmoil within the Tyrone family" (Daigneault 12/1/96).
Review of production starring Jack Lemmon: "Tyrone . . . becomes less refined as it gets later into the movie. He complains constantly throughout the movie, but the more he drinks, the more he loses his class" (Smith 11/19/96).
Review of production starring Jack Lemmon: The "many bare wooden walls and lack of curtains" show that "the house is merely a house, not a home" (Gregory 12/96).

Bibliography

Life

Gelb, Arthur, and Barbara Gelb. O'Neill. New York: Harper, 1962.
Jensen, George H. "Eugene O'Neill." Dictionary of Literary Biography. Volume 7.
Scheaffer, Louis. O'Neill: Son and Playwright. Boston: Little, Brown, 1968.
-. O'Neill: Son and Artist. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973.

Issues and themes

Bogard, Travis. Contour in Time: The Plays of Eugene O'Neill, 1988.
Holman, C. Hugh, and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. Sixth Edition. New York: Macmillan, 1992.
Jensen, George H. "Eugene O'Neill." Dictionary of Literary Biography. Volume 7.
Winther, S.K. Eugene O'Neill, a Critical Study, 1934.

Interpretation of work

Aron, Chad. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 13, 1996.
Baldwin, Kara. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. October 7, 1996.
Barham, Susan. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 12, 1996.
Brooks, Robbie. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 12, 1996.
---. "The Past: A Model for Human Existence and Interaction: Eugene O'Neill's Recognition of the Past and Its Importance in Long Day's Journey Into Night. English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fall 1996.
Butler, Chris. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 12, 1996.
---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 14, 1996.
Catt, Cynthia. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 12, 1996.
Daigneault, Ralph. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. December 1, 1996.
Daugherty, Walt. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 24, 1996.
Edwards, Wesley. Journal of English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. October 17, 1996.
Gregory, Andy. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. December 1996.
Hundley, Ann. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 11, 1996.
---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 13, 1996.
Kimmel, Jeremy. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 13, 1996.
Lasher, Todd. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 13, 1996.
---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 14, 1996.
Plonk, Sara. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 12, 1996.
Premakumar, Raj. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 14, 1996.
Ryan, Cory. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 15, 1996.
---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 18, 1996.
Smith, Jenny. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 12, 1996.
---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 19, 1996.
---. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 14, 1996.
Wallen, Stephanie. Journal for English 28. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. November 7, 1996.

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