Assignment
Name : Latta J. Baraiya
Roll no : 11
Paper : The American Literature
Semester : M.A sem 2
Topic : Long Day's Journey into Night as Tragedy or Modern Tragedy
Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English MKBU
Introduction
Long Day’s Journey into Night is a semi - autobiographical play by Eugene O’Neill, centered around a family dealing with addiction and their own downfalls. Eugene O'Neill's Long Day’s Journey into Night won him brilliance and glory. This tragedy has neither grand scenes nor noble characters, nor complicated and touching plot in it. But it has won the recognition and celebration of the drama circle as well as world literature. The important reason is that O’Neil shows the audience and the reader a tragic story of an ordinary family which reveals the difficult living circumstances of every modern man. For O’Neil, it is a,
“play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood,”
as he described when dedicating it to his wife, Carlotta. The tragedy moves or even shocks greatly the modern people of the whole world. Why ? I think the tragic fate which possesses both Greek tradition and O’Neil’s own modern explanation is a significant point of this play. The Nobel prize commission addressed he won the prize
“for the
power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of
tragedy” (2006, 188).
Many critics have argued whether Long Day’s Journey into Night is a tragedy or not. While it has arguments for both. But before understanding the play is tragedy or not we have to understand what is tragedy ?
Tragedy, branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual. By extension the term may be applied to other literary works, such as the novel and play. Here are the definitions of tragedy,
"an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe."
•For example : "a tragedy that killed 95 people"
"a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character."
•For example : "Shakespeare's tragedies"
But here the tragedy is not referring to this definition and characteristics, but it defines the elements of Aristotelian Tragedy. According to Aristotle,
“Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious complete, and of a certain magnitude; in the language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear affecting the proper purgation-catharsis of these and similar emotion”
Aristotle defines tragedy according to seven characteristics :
It is mimetic,
It is serious,
It tells a full story of an appropriate length,
It contains rhythm and harmony,
Rhythm and harmony occur in different combinations in different parts of the tragedy,
It is performed rather than narrated, and
It arouses feelings of pity and fear and then purges these feelings through catharsis.
A tragedy consists of six component parts, which are listed here in order from most important to least important: plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle.
Now we can understand what tragedy is. And What is a Modern Tragedy ? So, let's see if there is tragedy in this play or not. Modern drama refers to tragedies that were written and performed from the twentieth century, it is modern tragedy. So the basic idea is clear now in our mind. So let's talk about the play and discuss from where O'Neil got Inspiration for the characters of the play.
∆ Inspirations for the Characters of Long Day’s Journey into Night :-
O’Neill had an unhappy childhood and unsatisfying relationships with his parents and older brother. His family, the inspirations for the characters of Long Day’s Journey into Night, had their own demons that persisted through their lives. Not only is O’Neill writing about the characters in a tragic family situation, he lived in one. Another theme that O’Neill frequently featured in his plays was the idea that the characters are wearing masks. The masks are the guard that the characters put up in order to hide their true emotions or motivations from the other characters. In his thesis, scholar Roger Curtiss Rasco writes that although the theme of masks dwindled later in O’Neill’s career, the influence shows in Long Day’s Journey into Night because,
“the mask was and is an effective method of indicating the presence of both truth and falsehood at the same time” (Rasco, 104).
So, let's talk about the play; as a tragedy or modern tragedy.
To understand any tragedy we have to understand their elements also. Hamartia and error of judgement are very important elements of tragedies. So let's see what hamartia is.
∆ Hamartia in Long Day's Journey into Night :-
Aristotle used this concept of hamartia to describe tragedy. Aristotle said that hamartia is the fall of a nobleman caused by some excess or mistake in behavior, not because of a willful violation of God's laws. He also says that the protagonist should fall through some "error or frailty." From this statement is derived the notion of the protagonist's culpability. Though the concept of fate may play a significant role in the life of the tragic protagonist, he himself must ultimately accept the responsibility for his fall. Citing Agamemnon as a victim of Clytemnestra and Othello as being "undone by his own will," Oscar Mandel further develops
Aristotle's theory by maintaining that tragic protagonists should come to defeat not simply as victims but partly through their own doing, presumably because of some hamartia.
James's hamartia is his miserliness. As a young man he has the potential to become one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of his day. Because of his poverty-stricken childhood, however, he cannot resist the opportunity to guarantee himself a steady income. Thus he purchases the production rights to a certain romantic melodrama, an action which ruins his career. The public continues to identify him with that one role, and his talent diminishes, until the reader sees him as he is in 1912 a broken man trying to earn a living with real estate investments that somehow never works out the way he plans. A more complete discussion of other manifestations of James's hamartia and of their effects on the Tyrones' lives will appear later.
Linked to the hamartia is the concept of the recognition scene, the change "from ignorance to knowledge," and the effects wrought by this change. Maxwell Anderson, using many elements from Aristotle's theory, says that
"the essence of a tragedy is the spiritual awakening, or regeneration of his [the playwright's] hero"
Krock expands this theory by adding that if self-knowledge on the part of the tragic protagonist is not present, it is the audience who receives the knowledge. James's hamartia arises from the fattern of ambivalence which is present in the drama. Though James sees the ambivalences in the others, he does not at first realize that he, too, shares in the pattern. Because of this lack of recognition, he also fails to realize the extent to which the others suffer. Throughout the day on which the play occurs, James is repeatedly bombarded with the proof of his errors in judgment. These events - Mary's increasing drug use, Jamie's alcoholism, Edmund's consumption - inevitably force James, during his recognition scene, to realize that his miserliness has caused the others' ambivalences.
∆"Long Day's Journey into Night" is Tragedy or Not ?
'Long Day's Journey into Night' would have to be considered a tragedy because of the characters and the ending. Those two aspects of the play make it a tragedy. However, it cannot be considered a tragedy in the classic sense of the word. Taking into consideration the characteristics of tragedy, this play features many elements that would be typical of a tragedy; a family that has a lot to lose, tragic characters with fatal flaws, moments of realization, and a tragic ending. One could argue that Long Day’s Journey into Night is missing a crucial element of any theatrical or literary work; a protagonist. The entire Tyrone family could be considered protagonists, if the only criteria was that the protagonist be the main character or characters. However, a protagonist also needs to be a champion for change. None of the characters in this play fit that standard. In the end, all of the characters have an emotional breakdown but none of them seem to be heading for any change in their lifestyle.
The one element lacking is a genuine "tragic ending." In fact, the ending is ambiguous in that we don't know what will eventually become of Edmund and the others. The climax is his announcement to his mother that he has consumption, but we're left to wonder what the consequences of it will be for him. The real-life Edmund Eugene O'Neill himself recovered from the illness. But the ending shows the family still submerged in hopelessness, with Tyrone saying "Pass me that bottle," continuing to drown himself in liquor because he sees no way out for the wreckage his family has become.
∆ Long Day’s Journey into Night is a Modern Tragedy or Not ?
Long Day’s Journey into Night is a modern tragedy because it has four tragic characters struggling with their fatal flaw, which will ultimately be their downfall, and the ending does not give a hint as to what the resolution for the characters might be.
The play is "modern" in the sense that it is a "middle-class" drama in which a domestic dynamic is laid bare and honestly examined, following in the direct line of nineteenth-century dramas by the European playwrights Hebbel, Ibsen, Strindberg and others. But the substance-abuse theme is especially contemporary and even shocking in the manner in which it is portrayed. Altogether, as with O'Neill's work as a whole, the play was a seminal achievement in modern drama.
Belief breaking is the realistic cultural context of his tragic consciousness. God has passed away, so belief breaking becomes a mental dilemma of the epoch. Each member of the play has his own ideal, but modern psychology and despair over the human situation lead the ideal to betray man, that’s also an inevitable tragic fate of modern human beings.
∆Tragic Flaw in the Characters :-
1.Mary is one of the characters of the play. She couldn’t face the reality; she always exaggerates two dreams in her girlhood to become a pianist or a nun. Concerning the first dream, O’Neil depicted her crippled hand, her discordant piano playing at the end of the play. We know that she is incapable of becoming a pianist. As for the second dream, she betrays religion and it is the cause of her lifelong anguish and misery. First, she gives up her devotion to God, in her word, to become a nun to marry the handsome actor James Tyrone. Her spiritual faith in God gives way to her pursuit of happiness in marriage life which eventually leads to her loss of faith in God and life. For Mary, God had been dead from her marriage. When she lost her second child Eugene and injected drugs, it marked the total break with religion. Louis Sheaffer comments that “Mary evidently shuns idea of another child serious of bought on abortions Did this mark beginning of break with religion which was to leave her eventually entirely without solace?” Mary’s tragic fate is led by loss of religious belief as well as the inner core of existence.
2. Jamie, the first son of the family is not regarded as an addiction by the family but only as a factor of his lifestyle. Jamie started drinking very early in his life, he got rejected from school and obviously his drinking was one of the reasons:
“Even after he had begun to drink and they had to expel him, they wrote to us how sorry they were, because he was so likable and such a brilliant student”.
Although Jamie seems to take the news of his mother’s relapse quite well, he definitely tries to forget about the family’s problems by driving to town and getting drunk. Throughout the play, Jamie, unlike the other characters, does not give a reason for his drinking. Jamie could be using his alcoholism to take away the attention from his mother’s addiction and to take away the burden of being in the center of refusal from her.
3. The son Edmund’s escape from life is seeking solace from his sea experiences. Lying down on deck at night under moonlight, listening to the sound of the water and looking up at the white sails, he felt he was completely in harmony with nature. More than that, he seemed to lose himself altogether. He
“dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim starred sky!”
The experience was of peace, unity and joy, as if there were no past and no future; he was living in the eternal moment of now. Edmund also says that he experienced this spiritual ecstasy again, also when he was at sea. He describes it as “the end of the quest, the last harbor,” so far beyond the pettiness of all the usual human hopes, fears and dreams. The same experience had come to him several other times in his life, when he was swimming or lying on a beach. It came only when he was in the presence of nature, and always when he was alone, with nobody in sight.
4. James Tyrone, the father of the family, used to be a very famous actor who was often touring through the country. Out of Mary’s memories one learns that Tyrone always used to drink:
“Always a bottle on the bureau in the cheap hotel rooms!”
It is evident that with Tyrone, drinking had at the time of his young actor life, when he was just married to Mary, a social function. He used to go out with his “barroom friends” as Mary calls them and to return drunk to find his way to the “ugly hotel rooms” by himself.
The play is all the more tragic because it leaves little hope for the future; indeed, the future for the Tyrones can only be seen as one long cycle of a repeated past bound in by alcohol and morphine.
The four characters' tragedies are caused by loss of faith, artistic faith, meaning of life and psychological pillar. They resorted to different means to alleviate pains, but their attempts are futile efforts.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, we can see O’Neil makes much use of the excellent Greek tragedies and also inserted the current problems of his days into the inner world of the characters. In this way, he fully represented the spiritual crisis and predicament of human beings through fine description of psychology and sufferings.
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