Eugene O´Neill´s 'Long Day´s Journey into Night': The Destruction of the Family through Guilt and Failure

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Tubingen (Englisches Seminar), course: PS I: Introduction to Literary Studies, language: English, abstract: 'At the final curtain, there they still are, trapped within each other by the past, each guilty and at the same time innocent, scorning, loving, pitying each other, understanding, and yet not understanding at all, forgiving but still doomed never to be able to forget.' (Hinden 36) In this citation written into a letter to a friend, Long Day´s Journey into Night- author Eugene O´Neill gives an insight into his own interpretation of the ending of the play (cf. Hinden 36). There, O´Neill mentions the four protagonists of this play, the members of the family Tyrone, and their imprisonment into a circle of guilt, scorn, and misunderstanding. Nevertheless, there is also the influence of positive emotions like love, understanding, and forgiveness. This term paper will be about one of these terms, namely the term guilt, by which each family member is affected, and the notion of failure in Long Day´s Journey into Night. In order to discuss these two key terminologies, guilt and failure, there will be a closer look at the family Tyrone, which consists of the father, James Tyrone, the mother, Mary Cavan Tyrone, Jamie, the elder son, and Edmund, the younger son. Finally, there will be the question how the life of each family member is affected by guilt and failure, and how relationships within the family are destroyed by it.