Long Day’s Journey Into Night

In Eugene O’Neill’s play A Long Day’s Journey into Night, the main protagonist, Mary Tyrone, functions as an instrument of suffering of others. Her sons Jamie and Edmund both suffer internal tragedies that could easily be blamed on her. Like her sons, her husband Tyrone faces his own internal conflicts, some of which are because of Mary. Mary Tyrone is a “recovering” addict who has an extremely hard time admitting her problem and is sometimes in denial about her problem. Her denial is a huge factor in the suffering that her sons and husband have.

Jamie, Mary’s eldest son, is an alcoholic that undermines his brother. In the earlier half of the play the reader learns from Tyrone that Jamie hates Edmund and is extremely jealous and angry towards him. This becomes evident later on the in the play when Jamie tells Edmund how he feels using terms such as “Mama’s baby and Papa’s pet…” (167), showing the reader his envious feelings. Jamie is jealous towards Edmund and resents the fact that he was ever born. Because all of Jamie’s jealousy is due to Edmund’s birth, the true blame and jealousy is toward Mary for giving birth to Edmund.

Jamie knows, as well as Mary, knows that the reason for Edmund’s birth was due to the loss of her second son Eugene. After Eugene died Mary felt lost and empty and decided to give birth to a third child, Edmund, in hopes of helping her cope with the loss of her second son. Knowing this adds to Jamie’s jealousy towards Edmund and his bitterness towards his mother. Not only is Jamie angry at his mother for having Edmund, he is angry at her for being in denial of her problem.

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He knows that his mother is a morphine addict but cannot accept the fact that she won’t admit she is back into her habit. Her addiction causes his addiction. Jamie’s anger towards his mother’s obsession causes him to drink. The more Mary denies her action the more Jamie drinks. Although he is aware of her addiction, he tries cover for her by making up little excuses to her whereabouts and or her physical appearance. Edmund, like Jamie, is also aware of his mother’s morphine addiction but makes excuses of Mary’s actions and appearances to his brother and father.

Both Edmund and Jamie hope that by covering for their addicted mother, they will be able to salvage what is left of their broken family. During the play Edmund learns that he has consumption or tuberculosis. This means that he will have to spend up to one year in a sanitarium. After it is learned that Edmund got consumption when he went to foreign lands earlier in life to escape the troubles of his family, it is easy to blame Mary Tyrone for his illness. There would have been no reason for Edmund to escape his family if his mother was not addicted to morphine.

If Mary wasn’t an addict than it is highly probable that Tyrone and Jamie would not be alcoholics and Edmund would not be ill and an alcoholic-in-training. After Edmund is diagnosed with consumption, the family must decide on which sanitarium to send him to. Mary and Jamie try to say that Edmund’s consumption is due to the previous sanitariums that Edmund’s cheap father Tyrone decided upon. However, Tyrone’s being cheap is not to blame for Edmund’s illness, his mother is.

Mary Tyrone brings about the suffering of her sons and husband through her own morphine addiction. Her addiction contributes immensely to Tyrone’s and Jamie’s alcoholism as well as Edmund’s illness. Their sufferings allow for this play to be a tragedy and for the reader to establish the theme that family-dynamics can hold us back if someone cannot take personal responsibility and move on. Mary Tyrone is a tragic figure in the tragedy A Long Day’s Journey into Night who functions as an instrument of the suffering of others.

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