Long Day's Journey into Night

Hello readers! This blog is assigned to us by Yesha Bhatt ma’am. This blog deals with the novel Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’ Neill. In this blog I am explaining the theme Addiction from the Long Day’s journey into a night novel.

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

About Author:

Eugene Gladstone O’ Neill was born on 6 October 1888 in the United states. He was an American playwright and Nobel Laureate in Literature. He was awarded the Nobel prize "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy , in 1937. He is best known for his masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night (produced posthumously 1956), is at the apex of a long string of great plays, including Beyond the Horizon (1920), Anna Christie (1922), Strange Interlude (1928), Ah! Wilderness (1933), and The Iceman Cometh (1946). His aim was telling a story with shocking themes and seeing what the reaction would be. O'Neill introduced psychological and social realism to the American stage.

About Novel:

Long Day's Journey into Night is a play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O’ Neill in 1939–41, first published posthumously in 1956. The play is widely considered to be his magnum Opus. O'Neill posthumously received the 1957 Pulitzer prize for drama for Long Day's Journey into Night. The work concerns the Tyrone family, consisting of parents James and Mary and their sons Edmund and Jamie. The "Long Day" refers to the setting of the play, which takes place during one day. The play is autobiographical. The play takes place on a single day in August 1912, from around 8:30 a.m. to midnight. The play portrays a family struggling to grapple with the realities and consequences of the failings of other family members in relation to their own. The Plot of Long Day's Journey into Night focuses on a dysfunctional family trying to come to grips with its ambivalent emotions in the face of serious familial problems, including drug addiction, moral degradation, deep-rooted fear and guilt, and life-threatening illness.

Character's in the play are:

1) Mary Tyrone (Mother)

2) James Tyrone (Father)

3) Jamie Tyrone (Elder son)

4) Edmund Tyrone (younger son)

5) Cathleen (maid)

Themes dealt in play:

1)Alienation and Loneliness

2)Lies and Deception

3) The Destructive power of Addiction

4) Guilt and innocence

5) Search for self

6) Fate and free will

7) The haunting presence of past

8) Wealth and poverty

ADDICTION

In this blog we will discuss Theme of addiction - Long Day’s Journey into Night

Addiction:

An addiction is a chronic dysfunction of the brain system that involves reward, motivation, and memory. It’s about the way your body craves a substance or behavior, especially if it causes a compulsive or obsessive pursuit of “reward” and lack of concern over consequences

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The addicted person be unable stay away from the substance or stop the addictive behavior, displays a lack of self-control, have an increased desire for the substance or behavior, dismiss how their behavior may be causing problems and lack an emotional response

As we are reading 20th century American literature, drugs and alcohol is a salient theme of this literature and Eugene O'Neill who always depicts social concerns in his plays is bringing his own personal experience on drugs and alcohol in Long Day's Journey into Night. In the play Long Day's journey into night the most addicted is Mary Tyrone who is not at all ready to control or stop her addiction and all the above signs of an addicted person is clearly seen in her. Mary Tyrone, a woman who abuses prescription painkillers and relapses into full-blown morphine addiction. It is also the story of how Mary's addiction rips her family apart, as her morphine use slowly becomes apparent to her husband and two sons. It is widely believed that Long Day's Journey into Night is an autobiographical play, and that the troubled characters in it are based on members of O'Neill's own family, including his mother, Ella, who struggled with morphine addiction for most of her life. In his dedication of the play to his wife Carlotta, O'Neill states that it is a "play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood," and that he wrote it "with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all the four haunted Tyrone's." O'Neill wrote the play for personal reasons, and the Addiction Performance Project presented the plays to diverse audiences to elicit personal responses and candid discussion about addiction.

The question also arises why Mary is addicted to morphine. It seems that Tyrone is the reason for her addiction; he refused to pay for a good doctor to treat Mary’s pain after Edmund’s birth. Which led Mary to use alcohol to reduce her pain and slowly she became addicted. She has been addicted for two decades yet she refuses for her addiction. She has also been sent to sanatorium but she yet resumes to the morphine.

Due to this addiction of the female protagonist, Mary Tyrone; Tyrone family which was hopeful for happy family lost their all hope and the novel which started with optimistic tone ended with a pessimist tone.

If we look at the theme of addiction connecting with the present time we do in the people who are addicted to morphine, drugs or drinking alcohol. But in this digital era the addiction which is rising in the young generation is addiction to mobile phones and games. Addiction of mobile phones have resulted to be worse than the addiction of drugs and alcohol. Today's various news comes about the children spending lakhs of money in buying +games or arms in games. This addiction ends up with insomnia in children, it affects the mental health of children. psychology , thinking patterns, sleep cycles, and behavior which also affects their studies, attention span and potential.

Smartphones, computers, tablets are hugely productive tools. But people spend more time on social media than real people and keep on checking text, messages etc. Such smartphone addiction is known as NOMOPHOBIA.

Recently there was a game in the market, Blue Whale. Which used to give a suicide challenge according to various sources. In this game players were given tasks and they needed to complete in 50 days and many news came up of children suiciding playing this game. Blue Whale", also known as the "Blue Whale Challenge", is a social network phenomenon dating from 2016 that is claimed to exist in several countries. It is a "game" reportedly consisting of a series of tasks assigned to players by administrators over a 50-day period, initially innocuous before introducing elements of self- harm and the final challenge requiring the player to committed suicide.

The Garena free fire game was heavily famous in India which was banned under national security threat with 53 Chinese apps. Youngsters were widely addicted to this game and many cases also came in which they spent lakhs of money in buying various arms and weapons in the game. The money used to get deducted easily from the parents account. This is how addiction ruins life and money.

There was a recent incident of mobile addiction. In the place named ‘chitod’ a boy was playing a game and suddenly his mobile got switched off. In mobile getting off he hyped off or can be said lost his mental stability and started shouting ‘hackers hacked his phone’. The people in the surrounding, had to tie him with rope to control him.

There was also a study done which said smartphone addiction is similar to addiction of alcohol.

The study said that the people who are addicted can be addicted to behavior and that habit. Cell phone users can begin to depend upon their phone in a way that seems quite similar to how people respond to drugs. For example; spending time away from the cellphone makes them feel anxious, they start getting panicked and they keep on getting angry with others. if the phone is on charging or is switched off they keep on creating chaos. People need the cell phone to lift up their moods, they get the same level for enjoyment through mobile phones just as some drug users. it puts a strain on their personal social and professional life the same happen same can happen true for the smartphone addicts.

Which the change of the time the addictions to change intertwined beginning of the 20th century the addiction of alcohol and more pain was considered to be the highest addiction and the worst thing a person can do but intertwined beginning of the 20th century the addiction of alcohol and Morphine was considered to be the highest addiction and the worst thing a person can do but today we find People are changing their ideas are changing along that their addictions are also changing but as usual at the overuse or addiction of anything is harmful to mental and Physical health not only of the user but also of the people who are living with them.

Thank you for visiting. I hope this blog is useful to you.

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