Long Day’s Journey into Night

Long Day’s Journey into Night is an autobiographical play by the American dramatist Eugene O’Neill. It has been called the greatest tragedy in American theater. O’Neill wrote the work from 1939 to 1941 but it was not staged until 1956, after his death. The play won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

O’Neill called his play a story of “old sorrow written in tears and blood.” The action takes place in 1912 and recounts a day and evening in the daily lives of the Tyrone family, based on O’Neill’s own family. The patriarch of the family is James Tyrone, a miserly and vain retired actor. Mary, his wife, is declining into insanity, partly as the result of an addiction to morphine. The other family characters are the Tyrones’ two adult sons, the bitter and alcoholic Jamie and the younger Edmund, seriously ill from tuberculosis. Edmund represents the playwright as a young man. The only other character in the long four-act play is an Irish serving girl.

The play consists primarily of a series of searing emotional confrontations among the members of the family. A lifetime of frustrations, regrets, and fears finally erupt. They argue, accuse, and complain as their dreams and illusions are stripped away and they face the reality of their blighted lives.

The first Broadway performance of Long Day’s Journey into Night, in 1956, starred Fredric March as James Tyrone, Florence Eldridge as Mary, Jason Robards as Jamie, and Bradford Dillman as Edmund. Jose Quintero, a Panamanian-born director noted for his sensitive interpretations of O’Neill’s work, directed the production. The drama was filmed in 1962, starring Ralph Richardson (James), Katharine Hepburn (Mary), Jason Robards (Jamie), and Dean Stockwell (Edmund).