Monday, May 05, 2008
A Long Day's Journey Into Night
Eugene O'Neill
1942/1956
This is a play about a family falling apart.
I guess Eugene O'Neill wrote this to be sort of autobiographical, or as some sort of a message to his wife. It took him twelve years to write and when he finally finished it in 1942 he sealed and it wasn't performed until 1956, four years after he died. It is extremely personal. I'm not sure what parts are autobiographical, but he seems to be trying to atone for being difficult to his family. I could Wikipedia all this, but I'd rather not. Some parts of the play are heart wrenching. It takes place in four acts, over one day, in the same room. The family members come and go from the room, arguing and wobbling between guilt and resentment towards each other. They slowly reveal a past of mental illness, and are endlessly exposing and then recovering old wounds coming from past anger, neglect, selfishness and self-loathing. The mother is going crazy, and has frequent episodes of anxious paranoia. The father, in his pride and stubbornness is driving his sons away. The sons are wrecks, totally incapable of functioning on their own. They older one is a self-destructive cynic, the younger one is dying. They talk about so much, but underlying it all are the real problems that they refuse to talk about. They're tragic, but pathetic, and have only themselves to blame. It's an incredible play.
Eugene O'Neill
1942/1956
This is a play about a family falling apart.
I guess Eugene O'Neill wrote this to be sort of autobiographical, or as some sort of a message to his wife. It took him twelve years to write and when he finally finished it in 1942 he sealed and it wasn't performed until 1956, four years after he died. It is extremely personal. I'm not sure what parts are autobiographical, but he seems to be trying to atone for being difficult to his family. I could Wikipedia all this, but I'd rather not. Some parts of the play are heart wrenching. It takes place in four acts, over one day, in the same room. The family members come and go from the room, arguing and wobbling between guilt and resentment towards each other. They slowly reveal a past of mental illness, and are endlessly exposing and then recovering old wounds coming from past anger, neglect, selfishness and self-loathing. The mother is going crazy, and has frequent episodes of anxious paranoia. The father, in his pride and stubbornness is driving his sons away. The sons are wrecks, totally incapable of functioning on their own. They older one is a self-destructive cynic, the younger one is dying. They talk about so much, but underlying it all are the real problems that they refuse to talk about. They're tragic, but pathetic, and have only themselves to blame. It's an incredible play.
# posted by mz @ 6:34 PM 
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I love Eugene Oneill. He is so talented, which is probably why he won so many pulitzers. I haven't read much of his stuff, but what I did read of Long Days Journey into Night was good.
The Iceman Cometh but Eugene Oneill is also pretty good, but I had a hard time undertsanding some of it.
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