Quest For Belonging In Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night

Long Day’s Journey into Night plays a special place in the dramatic career of EugeneGladstone O’Neill (1888-1953) as an autobiographical tragedy. Quest for belonging is asignificant theme demonstrating the majority of O’Neill’s plays, it epitomizes in this lastmasterpiece. This thesis probes into the play to reveal the playwright’s discontents withmodern civilization in dramatizing the tragic quest for belonging in the case of the Tyrones. Itfirst argues Mary Tyrone’s desperate quest for belonging under faith crisis embodies O’Neill’sdisappointments in the loss of faith. As a prisoner of marriage in the modern alienated society,Mary has to abandon her previous religious faith and dreams. Being lost and depressed, shecan only feel fulfilled in her past life and unrealized dream in fantasy. That Mary eventuallyslips into insanity is only a symbol of the consequences of loss of faith. The thesis thendiscusses modern man’s frustrated longing for belonging from emotional injury representedby the Tyrone boys. Tortued by the absence of their mother’s love, Jamie and Edmund searchblindly for their emotional consolation in alcoholism, voyages, and even prostitution. Lastly,the thesis contends the patriarch James Tyrone’s materialist quest for belonging. He is adegenerative man who searches for social recognition in pursuing the American Dreamdefined by material success and wealth accumulation. In a word, the Tyrones’ tragic quest forbelonging demonstrates O’Neill’s concern of modern man’s helpless struggle in adversity. Itbespeaks his reflection on the meaning and value of human life and appeal to humanity forself salvation in the modern wasteland.