Long Day's Journey into Night Literary Analysis Essay

Long Day’s Journey into Night written by Eugene O’Neill reveals the family issues within the Tyrone household. Mary wife of James has been battling her dependence on morphine whereas the men, James, and two brothers, Jamie and Edmund possess a drinking problem. Throughout this play, there is a difference in how addiction is viewed when it comes to males and females that sheds more light on Mary than the Tyrone men. The Tyrone men are focused more on Mary when it comes to her addiction to morphine more than their addiction to alcohol even though all addictions are equal.

Character Mary Troyne has shown to be struggling with her addiction to morphine throughout the play. There has been a lot of evidence presented in the play that can give the reader some inside into how the men treat her to make her feel like her addiction is the most important. Mary is under constant watch and expresses she feels like the men don’t trust her. She exclaims, “It makes it so much harder, living in this atmosphere of constant suspicion, knowing everyone is spying on me, and none of you believe in me, or trust me” (O’Neill). The men in the household never take accountability for their problems but always shine the light on Mary.  Addicting when looking at the women the men look down on it and think that they need to be constantly watched. Marys addiction to morphine is something that is an immense deal but the men shouldn’t only be looking at her as they are all falling apart with their addiction too.

The male characters James, Jamie, and Edmund are shown to be struggling with an alcoholic dependency throughout the play. The men spend their life away by getting drunk at bars, with different women, and deteriorating their health with the addiction to alcohol. Mary is constantly telling them to stop or take a break but they never listen. They expect Mary to listen when they don’t and are still harming their bodies too. Mary even states, “I would never have married you if I’d known you drank so much” as she is talking to her husband, James (O’Neill). This shows the reader that he is constantly drinking. The two boys Edumud and Jamies are just as bad as James is. They use alcohol to cope when they are faced with a life issue such as Edumud’s sickness he says, “Well, what’s wrong with being drunk? It’s what we’re after, isn’t it?” (O’Neill). The men have no care in the world for their own health and look at it as a normal thing to be drunk all the time. Jamie has been found saying “I wish I’d grabbed another drink” a lot throughout the play (O’Neill). They don’t see how this is wrong. The men have a ragging addiction to alcohol but they think is fine and deflecting on Mary.  

Throughout the play, it is very apparent that the Tyrone men are struggling with an alcohol addiction but have no plan to fix it and are only paying attention to Mary. Within the first two paragraphs, it is apparent that the men don’t care about their health but will be the first to make Mary feel bad about herself. One addiction shouldn’t be valued less or more than another. All addictions are equal and can harm your health. One of the many quotes that prove that they care more about Mary and her health than their own is when Edmund says to Mary, “You take care of yourself. That’s all that counts” (O’Neill). Mary isn’t the only one that is struggling with addiction and the men need tremendous help. They need take to take responsibility for their drunkness and stop constantly avoiding it. The men should focus on their health and addiction problems. 

As illustrated through the play the Tyrone men are far more invested in Mary’s recovery than their own struggles with alcohol. They are constantly watching her, telling her to be careful, and never aware that their alcohol addiction is detrimental to their health just as Mary’s morphine addiction is.