Plot+Analysis+of+A+Long+Day's+Journey+into+Night

A Long Day's Journey into Night is a tragic play about a family, the play is done mostly during their meals as it’s basically the only time they are together. The story unfolds by revealing Tyrone and Mary conversation, Mary a timid and easily flustered fifty four year old woman suffering from Rheumatism which has warped her hands into ugly long fingers. Mary is visibly worried about Edmund's conditions which she ignorantly or blissfully calls a cold which is later confirmed to be consumption (Tuberculosis) by Doc Hardy a second rate doctor who charged one dollar a check-up while most charged five.

Plagued by James Tyrone's stinginess the whole family blames him on the illness that has befallen both Mary and Edmund, Mary for her morphine addiction that the hotel's doctor had remedied for her, the pains of her warped hands being unbearable and because of Edmund receiving second rate care his consumption was quickly diagnosed. Mary also blames James Tyrone Jr. the oldest brother laziness because of James Tyrone.

Mary contracted rheumatism after giving birth to Edmund who was the third son born to Tyrone, Eugene the second son died from measles which he got thanks to Jamie (James Tyrone Jr.) who while Mary and Tyrone went from play to play stayed with a caretaker... a second rate caretaker. because of rheumatism she took morphine to ease the pain unknowingly succumbing to addiction and by the end of the story suffers from disillusionment as her who life flashes before her eyes.

Edmund grows through the entire play more so than the others as he learns that all is not as it seems, Tyrone's stinginess has a valuable reason and his obsession with his money and buying useless properties comes from his insecurities. Seen periodically getting drunk even though he suffers from Tb he tends to be the most down to earth of the bunch, and the one that everyone believs will rise to success.

Jamie is the problem child, the cause of Eugene's death and the reason that Edmund was the way he was, he fumbles through life by going from brothel to bar scared of a commitment and the troubles it causes. A failure of an actor and student, he was kicked out of colleges for his alcoholism yet he was always said how bright he was. Riding on his father's spotlight he tends to look at the family with a cynical eyes, his mother is definitely wrong and Edmund is definitely not suffering from a common cold.

Tyrone is seen as the villain for his stinginess has caused nothing but heartache, nothing to call a home as they moved sporadically from hotel to hotel. Once a great Broadway actor he conformed to a play that had kept paying fabulous wealth, $30,000 a year I believe. He is a man who treasures Shakespeare as a great play writer and looks at the best in life.

The whole family avoids talking about their problems, most notably Mary's morphine addiction especially in front of her. Mary keep's herself locked away from the outside world and loves the fog, which symbolically says that she is lost. The past shows up sporadically throughout the play which sadly cannot be forgotten Mary's aspirations of being a concert pianist or a nun, Tyrone's hopes of having successful sons and the families problems tearing the family's once close knit family into outright hostility as it portrays more prominently at the end.

The family is ultimately in a war amongst themselves and doom to failure as they tend to be withdrawn and inclined to get mad rather quickly.

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