Long Day's Journey Into Night

One of my favorite works that we have studied this year has been Long Day's Journey Into Night. Although not everybody read it, the basic idea of the play can be described in a few words: A two-act play describing a day in the life of a family of four with a mother relapsing into a morphine addiction, a stingy father who like his two sons battles alcoholism, and how the pending news of a a son's illness will bring them all down.

The part of the play that is the most aggravating, as a reader and therefore audience member, is the knowledge that all of this is happening and knowing that the family sees it too but fears that if they talk about it then it is true. They continue to tiptoe around each others issues while in front of them, gossip about the problems with each other, and act like there is nothing wrong at the end of the day.

This is frustrating because just in reading, and I would assume watching, the family is not functioning very well together and that could all be solved if they were not so scared to admit it. This idea of admitting that there is something wrong on the inside is very difficult for a lot of families and every member is affected individually as well. Take young Edward for example, the youngest of the family suffering from what is assumed to be consumption, but is afraid to see a doctor for fear that it will enhance his mothers abuse of Morphine. Meanwhile, the whole family is walking around acting as if there is nothing wrong with the mother's addiction. How is Edward supposed to deal with this sickness if he cannot even tell his family what is going on. There is no support which makes growing impossible and seems to if anything cause a regression in behavior for all family members.

This is more of a family that is dysfunctional, but because of the lack of inner thought, it is difficult to really get emotions out of who they feel they are. However, because there is less inner thought, there is a lot more interaction and dialogue which is a needed contrast between reading plays versus prose or poetry.