REVIEW: CLASSICS - "A Long Day's Journey Into Night" by Eugene O'Neill, the first American Playwright and Nobel Prize Winner

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Long Day’s Journey into Night

Eugene O’Neill, “the first major American playwright” (Baym 2065), was apparently the first to explore serious themes in his work. His brilliance enabled him to address issues which were just beginning to evolve within homes around America. In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize—one for A Long Day’s Journey into Night--and the Nobel Prize in 1936, he would also be “the first and so far only American dramatist to do so” (2068). The play was made into a screenplay, directed by Sidney Lumet, and would receive several award nominations and wins. Katherine Hepburn’s portrayal of Mary Tyrone was a masterpiece, as well as the performances by Dean Stockwell, Jason Robards, and Ralph Richardson (Lumet).

The 1962 film is 174 minutes long and follows O’Neill’s impeccable stage direction down to the last detail. Hepburn becomes addict Mary, displaying all of the characteristics that a classic addict displays. A viewer may not realize just how deeply he or she is drawn in to experience the tragic realism conveyed by Katherine in this remarkable film. During the scene where Katherine/Mary is talking with their Irish housekeeper, which is also after Mary has been to town to renew her morphine prescription, Hepburn immerses herself in the almost childlike behavior of a morphine addict. Watching her as she talks about the time she first fell in love with James, the viewer notices her slipping deeper into euphoria. Seeing Katherine Hepburn crawl and writhe on the floor masterfully exhibited the lack of awareness that a morphine addict would have-especially a female during those times (Lumet).

Perhaps the plot was personal for O’Neill, as his own mother, Ella Quinlan, was his inspiration for Mary’s character. Quinlan was the daughter “of a successful Irish immigrant businessman in Cincinnati, hated backstage life and became addicted to morphine” (2065-66). His father, actor James O’Neill, “made a fortune playing the lead role in Alexander Dumas’s…Count of Monte Cristo, which he performed more than five thousand times” (2065). O’Neill had a brother by the name of James, Jr., who resembled the character of Jamie in his play. In addition, O’Neill had found out that his own birth may have precipitated his mother’s addiction to morphine.

If the character of Eugene Tyrone bears any resemblance to Eugene O’Neill, then the viewer may be receiving a glimpse of the type of gentle, poetic, brilliant, sensitive soul he possessed. His art was a gift to the world, and A Long Day’s Journey into Night was truly a work of art.


Works Cited

Baym, Nina, ed. “Eugene O’Neill: 1888-1953.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. New York: Norton, 2008. 2065-2068.

A Long Day’s Journey into Night. Dir. Sidney Lumet. Perf. Katherine Hepburn, Dean Stockwell, Jason Robards, and Ralph Richardson. Turner Classic Movies.