Long Day’s Journey into the Night
Eugene O’Neill Context:
- Father of american theatre
- 1888-1953
- Realist school → introduced realism to the US
- Often wrote about americans living in desperate conditions → wrote about regular
people
- Writes about characters going through/facing impossible odds
- Emotionally honest plays through an exploration of the human psyche
- Play won Pulitzer Prize → LDJIN is O’Neill’s magnum opus, posthumously published
(1956)
- Only American playwright ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Contemporaries he drew inspiration from: August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, and
Henrik Ibsen
- His father was a famous travelling actor who made his living playing the lead role in
the melodramatic play, The Count of Monte Cristo. He didn’t respect his dad’s
profession, as he favoured economics over artistic integrity → disillusioned with the
light, comedic plays he took place in → O’Neill disliked popular plays that went for
cheap laughs and portrayed shallow emotions
- Eugene O’Neill was born in a hotel in New York City to Irish immigrants.
- O’Neill attended a Catholic boarding school.
- His father was an alcoholic and his mother was addicted to morphine
- As a young man, he began working on ships and became involved with unions and
labor movements in the U.S.
- He became ill with tuberculosis in his early twenties, after which he decided to
dedicate himself to writing full-time.
- O’Neill was married three times and had three children. In 1943, after suffering for
most of his life from depression and alcoholism, O’Neill’s hands began to tremble,
and he was mostly unable to write for the last ten years of his life
- Died in a hotel room in Boston
Literary context:
- addiction was—as a concept—still rather mysterious in 1912. Unlike today, doctors
didn’t necessarily treat addiction as a disease, nor did they treat it with a robust
understanding of mental health
- Literary Period: Modernism/Postmodernism
- Morphine banned in US in 1905 - available by prescription
TIME : A day in August, 1912.
PLACE : The Tyrone family’s summer home in New London, Connecticut.
RUNNING TIME: Approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes. There will be one 15 minute
intermission
Eugene O’Neill Context:
- Father of american theatre
- 1888-1953
- Realist school → introduced realism to the US
- Often wrote about americans living in desperate conditions → wrote about regular
people
- Writes about characters going through/facing impossible odds
- Emotionally honest plays through an exploration of the human psyche
- Play won Pulitzer Prize → LDJIN is O’Neill’s magnum opus, posthumously published
(1956)
- Only American playwright ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Contemporaries he drew inspiration from: August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, and
Henrik Ibsen
- His father was a famous travelling actor who made his living playing the lead role in
the melodramatic play, The Count of Monte Cristo. He didn’t respect his dad’s
profession, as he favoured economics over artistic integrity → disillusioned with the
light, comedic plays he took place in → O’Neill disliked popular plays that went for
cheap laughs and portrayed shallow emotions
- Eugene O’Neill was born in a hotel in New York City to Irish immigrants.
- O’Neill attended a Catholic boarding school.
- His father was an alcoholic and his mother was addicted to morphine
- As a young man, he began working on ships and became involved with unions and
labor movements in the U.S.
- He became ill with tuberculosis in his early twenties, after which he decided to
dedicate himself to writing full-time.
- O’Neill was married three times and had three children. In 1943, after suffering for
most of his life from depression and alcoholism, O’Neill’s hands began to tremble,
and he was mostly unable to write for the last ten years of his life
- Died in a hotel room in Boston
Literary context:
- addiction was—as a concept—still rather mysterious in 1912. Unlike today, doctors
didn’t necessarily treat addiction as a disease, nor did they treat it with a robust
understanding of mental health
- Literary Period: Modernism/Postmodernism
- Morphine banned in US in 1905 - available by prescription
TIME : A day in August, 1912.
PLACE : The Tyrone family’s summer home in New London, Connecticut.
RUNNING TIME: Approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes. There will be one 15 minute
intermission
