O’Neill did not achieve success as a playwright until his 30th play, Beyond the Horizon, which appeared in 1920.

He won the Pulitzer Prize for four plays, including Long Day's Journey into Night.

His other best known plays are The Iceman Cometh, Mourning Becomes Electra, Ah Wilderness!, Strange

Interlude, and The Hairy Ape. O'Neill was a huge Broadway success during his life.

The early part of his life is the subject of Long Day's Journey into Night, which will forever remain O'Neill's

goodbye to the world - the play that showed America who O'Neill was and where he came from.

For Carlotta, on our 12th Wedding Anniversary

Dearest: I give you the original script of this play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood. A sadly inappropriate gift, it would seem, for a day celebrating happiness. But you will understand. I mean it as a tribute to your love and tenderness which gave me the faith in love that enabled me to face my dead at last and write this play – write it with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all the four haunted Tyrones. 

These twelve years, Beloved One, have been a Journey into Light – into love. You know my gratitude. And my love !

GeneTao HouseJuly 22, 1941

James Tyrone  -  The husband of Mary and the father of Jamie and Edmund, he was once a famous actor. He has a strong work ethic and an appreciation for money that leads to strong financial prudence

Mary Tyrone -  The wife of Tyrone and mother of Jamie and Edmund, she struggles from a morphine addiction. While she has broken the addiction several times, she always resumes her morphine use after spending more time with her family.

Jamie Tyrone  -  The elder Tyrone son, because he spends money on booze and women, he has to rely on his parents for support.

Edmund Tyrone - An intellectual and romantic dreamer, he finds out during the play that he has tuberculosis. Like his brother and father, he is partially alcoholic, and he has a tendency to squander money, although he works harder than Jamie. Mary always holds out hope that he will become a success one day.

The Destructive Power of Addictions.

All of the Tyrones depend on drugs to escape their problems. James, Jamie, and Edmund take refuge in alcohol and Mary in morphine. But instead of alleviating their problems, the drugs exacerbate them. 

The Haunting Presence of the Past. 

Mary continually dwells on the past. She could have been a nun, she says, or a concert pianist, and she ruminates over the circumstances leading to the death of Eugene. She also regrets leaving the good home provided by her father to marry a traveling actor. Jamie, Edmund, and Mary frequently mock penny-pinching James Tyrone for engaging a “quack” who prescribed morphine to alleviate Mary’s pain when she was giving birth to Edmund. Tyrone criticizes Jamie for his ne’er-do-well past and for setting a bad example for Edmund. Meanwhile, Edmund feels guilty about his birth, for it was the indirect cause of his mother’s addiction. Mary sums up the situation with this memorable line:

“The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too.” 

♥ The Title

♥ Fog and Foghorn

♥ The Car

♥ Consumption

♥ The Wedding Dress and Booth’s Praise

Mondea Christiana

Novacean Raluca

XIIB