Uzbekistan state world languages university enlish philology faculty

CONTEPMORARY VIEWS OF "LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT"


Eugene O’Neill is one of the most outstanding playwrights of the twentieth century. O’Neil is a tragic artist, whose vision of the life and human soul is fundamentally tragic. His plays are known for their modern tragic beauty and sublimity. In Long Day’s Journey into Night, widely regarded as his last and greatest masterpiece, Eugene O’Neill gambles with his skill as an objective playwright by drawing potentially explosive material from his own life. As a dramatist, his commitment is to the faithful dramatization of human situation. The feeling of isolation which has become the hallmark of the modern age springs from the tragic sense of life. The pangs of isolation are variously described as loss of identity, loneliness, alienation, meaninglessness, loss of faith or values, ruthlessness and anxiety. His works reveal a varied and colourful thematic and structural spectrum.
Frederic I. Carpenter examines several of O’Neill’s plays “in order to trace the idea of the romantic dream and the tragedy of not attaining in it. This romantic dream is significant in that it seem to be almost interchangeable with the idea of home, as is evidenced in the specific versions of home to which Tyrone and Mary cling”( 251). Long Day’s Journey into Night (1941) is a simple naturalistic family drama without any plot contrivance, but is remarkable for its uncommonly moving revelation of characters and human relations. The characters in O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night isolate themselves from each other and the reality of their problems, and consequently they are unable to counter the corrupting influence of their personal demons.
PLOT AND MAIN CHARACTERS OF "LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT"
MAIN CHARACTERS
James Tyrone Sr.
James Tyrone Senior, just called Tyrone throughout the play, is 65 years old and the patriarch of the Tyrone family. Like O′Neill′s actual father, he is a successful actor, and his speech and body language makes this apparent. His notable good looks—particularly his light brown eyes, broad shoulders, and deep chest—work in his favor, making him look about 10 years younger than he actually is.


He comes from a poor family of Irish immigrants and was deserted by his father, which has left him with a crippling fear of poverty. He is obsessed with money and is always looking for ways to save it rather than spend it, even if it′s at his family′s expense. This is hard to tell based on the way he dresses, though, which is rather threadbare and described as being ''the limit of usefulness.'' His wife′s morphine addiction and the way his two sons recklessly spend money have led him to become incredibly angry and resentful.