Long Day's Journey Into Night Analysis

Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill was wrote this autobiographical drama before he died in 1953, this play highlights a family, The Tyrone’s, as the mother’s addiction becomes more noticeable as the play progresses. However, this play was not produced until 1956, three years after his death. O’Neill technique for this drama was influenced by Sigmund Freud’s ideas, especially Freud’s idea that family is a locus of intense and irresolvable conflicting feelings (Levine, 388). Next, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller was wrote in 1949, this play showcases the Loman’s, and the father’s struggle of who is as a salesman, and ultimately a father. Miller also explored the concept of Freud’s ideas into his writings. Miller and O’Neill wrote back and forth with letters, which explains why the reader can see similarities in their writings (Isaac, 124). O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night and Miller’s Death of a Salesman portray the theme of identity with the play’s characters and setting. The characters in these two plays aid to the portrayal of the identity theme that are Mary and Willy. Mary and Willy are the main protagonist in each of their respective works, these characters are also the main individuals attempting to find their identity by living in the past and by being the main focus of their family struggle. First, in O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, Mary begins to regress and starts to recall the past, as if it was happening in that moment. An