Eugene O'Neill - -Long Day's Journey into Night- page 1340.
Eugene O'Neill was the nation's first major playwright and the first to explore serious themes in theatre and to experiment with theatrical conventions. .
His father James O'Neill was an actor and made a fortune playing the lead role in "The Count of Monte Cristo-, which was performed on tour many times. His mother Ella Quinlan was the daughter of a successful Irish businessman. She hated the backstage life she lived for many years and became addicted to morphine. Eugene had an older brother, James Jr., who was always away at various boarding schools but as an adult "Jamie- became an actor and an alcoholic. .
During Eugene's childhood the family toured for part of every year and lived in hotels but always spent their summers in their home in New London, Connecticut. He dropped out of college and went sailing, where he started to drink. In 1912 tuberculosis (=consumption) nearly killed him and he decided to stay sober and write plays. After a few years his plays were moved uptown from the Village to Broadway, which made O'Neill both famous and financially secure. He experimented with techniques to convey inner emotions without openly expressing it. He did not care about standard play divisions of scenes and acts and the expected length of plays. .
O'Neill got married twice. His father died in 1920, his mother in 1921 and his brother in 1923. In the 30s he began to suffer from a rare disease of the nervous system and lived in a relative seclusion for the last thirty years of his life. .
The play "Long Day's Journey into Night- is clearly an autobiography, which is based on his own life.
"Long Day's Journey into Night- .
There are 4 characters in the play. The Tyrones is a family and consists of the father James, the mother Mary and the two sons Jamie and Edmund.
James Tyrone: James is 65 years old but looks 10 years younger. He is handsome, healthy looking and has a fine voice.
