o'neill's technique of expressionism - DSpace@INFLIBNET Home

229The ‘fog ’ has always been something mystifying and supernatural. Itsymbolises the inner nature of the characters. In Fog , the businessman treatsit as no more than a threat to life as he cannot see beyond the surfacereality. The poet, on his part, correlates it with a meaning in life. Thesymbol of fog may have originated from O ’Neill ’s personal life history.With Eugene ’s birth, his mother’s habit of taking morphine begins.Morphine a nd fog , in Long Day ’s Journey into Night , are identic al, one forthe other.Long Day ’s Journey into Night is also kno wn for its expressionisticeconomy. It is unique for its sheer power and concentration. O’Neill hastelescope d the events of months into a single day. It is a four -hour play withsuch inner concentration that is seldom conscious of time. One reason forthi s is its style. The past has permeated the consciousness of the characterand the speech reflects this consciousness faithfully. The world outside isreal enough to heighten the pain of Tyrone family with door; otherwise ithas no function in the action. T here is no plot, no story, no anecdote. Weconcentrate on the four members of Tyrone family.Long Day ’s Journey into Night is highly subjective – a leading featureof the Expressionistic drama. It is an honest and moving play. Clearly muchof its emotion is due to the intimate biographical material it explores, and toO’Neill courage in facing the deep pain of such an exploration. It concernsthe attempts of O ’Neill ’s own family, here called the Tyrone, to livetogether. Based on the dramatist ’s early life , it describes the emotionaldifficulties of the author (Edmund), his brother (James Tyrone, Jr.), hismother (Mary), and his father (Tyrone, Sr.). The Tyrones in theircheerlesshome near new London , Conn. are unmistakable the O ’Neill ’s, strippednaked to the soul. Never before has a playwright laid bare the skeleton ofhis past with such deadly details. The family first names are taken strictlyfrom life except for those of Eugene and his mother. James Tyrone iswealthy, retired matinee idol from whose pe nury and blinding vanity stemthe individual disasters of his family. His wife, Mary, has become ahopeless morphine addict who long ago has lost her faith in her religion andher hope. Edmund (the Youth Eugene O ’Neill) has returned from the sea