"A Long Day's Journey into Night" Character Analysis

Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical play, "A long Day's Journey into Night", depicts the Tyrone family: a textbook family of dysfunction. More so than a standard family, they have painful hardships that they have to constantly endure. This story represents one small piece of their whole lives--one long day's journey into night. To begin with, Edmund Tyrone is critically ill, Jamie Tyrone is idle and worthless, James Tyrone is stingy and miserly, and to top it all …

…they fade in and out of blame and denial. Even when they accept that they have problems, they're unwilling to admit that it is their own fault and they dig themselves in deeper, never really finding happiness. If instead of looking at each other in accusation or looking away in denial, they had looked to each other for support, they would have had what they had been looking for all along--comfort within a functional family.