Eugene O'Neill is a playwright that stands out in a crowd during his time period and after his duration. His plays are dark, pessimistic stories in which the characters all end up suffering in the end. The fact that all of his characters end up suffering in the end is not too far-fetched from his own life. O'Neill's prime example of this is in his play "Long Days Journey Into Night,"" which is as biographical as you can get. The play centers on the dysfunctional Tyrone family. They suffer from addictions, haunted pasts, and dead end futures. Each one hurts the other more then they help, but help themselves only by divulging in alcohol, morphine, and loose women. The map work of this play follows the same map work of O'Neill's family. Eugene and his brother Jamie both lived their lives around bars and women, being numbed for only an occasion. The O'Neill's and the Tyrone's take pleasure in forgetting their pain and tearing each other down, both families only know that kind of life. There is no hope, no tomorrow, only drugs and alcohol to take the pain away. .
Towards the end of Eugene O'Neill's life, his plays became darker and darker. They were becoming much more autobiographical, going into O'Neill's suffering past and more so into the O'Neill family story. "Long Days Journey Into Night,"" was one of his later plays, that was not to be produced or published until all close relatives had passed away. The reason for this was so that the Tyrone story, which mirrored the O'Neill's, would hurt no one. Arthur Gelb of the Chicago Sun-Times says that his widow, Carlotta, wisely broke the taboo, partly because she believed the play should be known and partly because it was meant to be her nest egg and she needed the money. .
"Long Days Journey Into Night,"" is one day in the life of the Tyrone's. By the end of the play you feel as though this day will be no different from any other day.
