A Long Days Journey Into Night
Professor Anderson
English 103
April 23, 2014
Journal #3 In the play Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’neil, the character Mary Tyrone the mother of and wife of the Tyrone family is considered to be a tragic figure. Mary is portrayed to be a tragic character because she has been born of a father who was an addict. She mentions in the play how she remembers seeing him drink and the readers are able to understand the pain she had gone through because of how she mentions it. Most people say that when a child is born in a home with addict that the child either grows up to be addicted to something themselves or they or the exact opposite of the person that was an addict in their home. It is kind of ironic because Mary ends up being addicted to morphine herself. Some may think that because she has the memories and the knowledge of her father being an addict that she should know better and not want to become addicted to anything. It is very unfortunate that Mary has this addiction and struggles with it constantly. Mary does have heroic qualities because she does overcome her addiction multiple times. She does have the strength to stop, but she also becomes weak and beings to use again. Mary seems to relapse whenever she spends more and more time with her family. It seems as though the stress of her son dying and her husband always picking fights makes her too stressed out and makes her want to use again. Another way Mary embodies heroic qualities is how much she cares for her son. She continues to want to take care of him throughout the whole day. Even though Mary is having her inner struggles she continues to try and put her son first. Yes, there are a lot of times when Mary is struggling more with her addiction and her oldest son constantly being skeptical of her. Mary wants the best for her son Edmund yet she does state that she wishes she did not have him, not for the sake of her but for the sake of him so he would not have to be going
English 103
April 23, 2014
Journal #3 In the play Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’neil, the character Mary Tyrone the mother of and wife of the Tyrone family is considered to be a tragic figure. Mary is portrayed to be a tragic character because she has been born of a father who was an addict. She mentions in the play how she remembers seeing him drink and the readers are able to understand the pain she had gone through because of how she mentions it. Most people say that when a child is born in a home with addict that the child either grows up to be addicted to something themselves or they or the exact opposite of the person that was an addict in their home. It is kind of ironic because Mary ends up being addicted to morphine herself. Some may think that because she has the memories and the knowledge of her father being an addict that she should know better and not want to become addicted to anything. It is very unfortunate that Mary has this addiction and struggles with it constantly. Mary does have heroic qualities because she does overcome her addiction multiple times. She does have the strength to stop, but she also becomes weak and beings to use again. Mary seems to relapse whenever she spends more and more time with her family. It seems as though the stress of her son dying and her husband always picking fights makes her too stressed out and makes her want to use again. Another way Mary embodies heroic qualities is how much she cares for her son. She continues to want to take care of him throughout the whole day. Even though Mary is having her inner struggles she continues to try and put her son first. Yes, there are a lot of times when Mary is struggling more with her addiction and her oldest son constantly being skeptical of her. Mary wants the best for her son Edmund yet she does state that she wishes she did not have him, not for the sake of her but for the sake of him so he would not have to be going