Abstract
This review of Eugene O'Neil's "Long Day's Journey Into Night", describes how the characters use denial as a temporary escape from their problems. Whether it be denying personal qualities, such as stinginess, a bad decision, or an unhealthy addiction, their denial only makes their problems worse. O'Neill uses the Tyrone family and their denial to show how avoiding issues is not going to solve or make them disappear. Though denial may be a temporary escape from a problem, in the long run it is futile.

From the Paper
"It is common knowledge that "The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem." Unfortunately, in Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night", many of the characters find the first step to be the hardest. Instead of facing reality, James Tyrone, Edmund, Jamie, and Mary continue to deny their problems in hopes that they will go away. Each of the characters uses denial as a temporary escape from their problems and the reality of the world rather than facing their problems and solving them."

Tags:addiction, Eugene, O'Neil, dysfuntional, families

Abstract
This paper briefly examines Eugene O'Neill's use of various types of realism in several of his plays. The paper points out that, in general, O'Neill did not deal with the preoccupations of the external world but rather with his own preoccupations, which were derived not from these personal demons but from his religious treatment of them. The paper then relates that the realism in "Desire under the Elms" involves aspects of Freudian psychology, as seen in the character Eben's Oedipal complex. The author concludes that the realism of the setting and of the speech patterns of the play makes the action seem all the more universal and a mirror of human psychology more than anything separate and unique to the characters in the play.

From the Paper
"As O'Neill became more famous in his early years as a playwright, he also became increasingly conscious of his public position and increasingly articulate about his ideals and hopes for American drama. As often happens, after his initial success he achieved notoriety as critics questioned some of his work, such as "All God's Chillun" for its racial theme or "Desire Under the Elms" for its supposed immorality. His reputation then reached new heights with the production of "Strange Interlude" in 1928, a play that took more than five hours to present."

Tags:greeks immoral, oedipal complex, farmhouse deep-seated

Abstract
This paper begins by providing an overview of the life of Eugene O'Neill and looks at the literary trends during his time. It then compares and contrasts works from his two distinct career phases, showing how when the author came out of the influence of European thinkers and writers, he managed to write some of his best plays. The plays that are compared are "The Emperor Jones" and "A Long Day's Journey into Night".

From the Paper
"In this play, the author illustrates the one man's journey into the heart of darkness where he meets his fears in form of apparition and finally comes to accept his humanity. The Emperor in this case is Jones who has been controlling an island ruthlessly; robbing the natives of their wealth and making them believe he was an invincible god-like being. When he learns of a revolt brewing, he runs into the forest and loses his way. This journey is the most important part of the play as it reveals the inner struggle that every man goes through when choosing between right and wrong, good and evil. Doris Falk explains: "The progress of Jones is progress in self understanding; it is the stripping off of the masks of self, layer by layer, just s bit by his emperor's uniform is ripped from his destiny, himself in nakedness." (67) Jones is stripped of the front that he had put on for so long. It is when that identity is gone, that Jones is forced to question and accept his own limitations. He is a human being with all the same desires, urges and fears that every man experiences and it is when he realizes how helpless he is without his fake identity that he becomes more human and humble. Expressionist plays have a different rather subjective way of dealing with real problems and issues. For example, fears in this case have been projected as apparitions or ghosts that haunt Jones and remind him of his weaknesses. "They are black, shapeless, only their glittering little eyes can be seen. If they have any describable form at all it is that of a grub worm about the size of a creeping child. They move noiselessly, but with deliberate, painful effort, striving to raise themselves on end, failing and sinking prone again." (Scene II, 28)
Some other important issues have also been raised in the play especially race and racism. Threading it with the issue of identity, the author explains that Jones' belief that he had the same powers, as a white man was a faulty one since it negated the significance of his own black race. Because he denied his race and shunned it and since he was certainly not white, the man lost his identity completely and was lurking in the dark, looking for an identity and a sense of belonging. While reminiscing about his criminal past, the protagonist thinks about Jeff, the white man he had murdered."

Tags:long, day, journey, night, emporor, jones

Abstract
This paper analyzes, compares and contrasts the theme's seen in Eugene O'Neill's "Iceman Cometh" and Richard Wright's "Native Son". The paper explains that both works contain a theme about radical politics even though the conclusions arrived at in each piece is different.

From the Paper
"O'Neill mentions The Movement very early to let readers know that this play is not only about individuals, but also political action groups, that have not successfully reached their goals in life. In act 1, Parritt says: "I hung around pool rooms and gambling joints and hooker shops, where they'd never look for a Wobblie, pretending I was a sport." Later in the same act, Harry Hope berates Slade: "Crazy is right! Yah! The old wise guy! Wise, hell! A damned old fool Anarchist I-Won't-Worker!" Later in act 1, Hope says again to Slade: "You bughouse I-Won't-Work harp, who asked you to shove in an oar?" Here again he is identifying and making fun of Slade's IWW past."

Tags:characters, failure, labor, union, socialism, failed, perfect, solution, hope, dream, past

Abstract
This paper discusses Eugene O'Neill's plays, "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "The Iceman Cometh", in terms of their common themes dealing with how the inevitable tragedies of life can trigger self-destructive behavior in people, and whether human happiness depends on denial and consoling lies or confrontation with reality.

Abstract
The paper posits that Eugene O'Neill's play, "Beyond the Horizon", is a naturalist expression, while his play, "The Hairy Ape", is much more expressionistic, though each has elements of the other. The paper examines both works in order to demonstrate O'Neill's use of both naturalism and expressionism.

From the Paper
"Naturalism is considered an artistic movement that seeks to represent an ordinary, every day reality to convey an artistic or universal thematic message. In theater, this refered to the illusion of reality as represented through detailled sets fuelled by the grandiose imagery of the dialogue itself and the unpoetic effusive literary style which also gives rise to expressionism. In this sense, reality gives way to heightened reality and this represents the transitionary phase and the distinction between naturalism and expressionisim, a distinction best revealed through specific study of the literary works of O'Neill that contain elements of both. Whereas naturalism is a faithful and detailled representation of reality, expressionism becomes the overstated and heightened state of reality that would evoke the most poweful human response."

Tags:reality, environment, nature, characters

Abstract
The paper begins by looking at the characters who are similar to the Greek characters, but have differences as well. According to the writer, the plot differs from the Greek myth, but captures many of the same archetypal premises set forth by the story of Hippolytus and Phaedra.

From the Paper
"O'Neill's play is set in rural New England during the 1850's. The main characters are Ephraim Cabot, his son Eben Cabot, and his two brothers Simeon and Peter. The Cabots work a farm and Simeon and Peter grow wary of laboring through the stone-plodded fields of New England. Eben, the youngest of the three has vowed to himself that he will one day take back the land that once belonged to his mother, who is dead. Eben believes that his father intently overworked his mother, creating her death so he could have say so over who will be heir to the farm. When Ephraim goes out of town for a spell, Eben offers Simeon and Peter three hundred dollars a piece to leave town. The elder brothers decide to take the money and run to California to work in the gold mines. Half of Eben's equation is solved, but Ephraim returns home married for the third time to a lady named Abbie."

Tags:plot, character, theme, archetype

From the Paper
"The decline of the family is a primary theme in both Eugene O'Neill's drama Long Day's Journey into Night and William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury, and in each case the theme is linked to a general decline in society at large. For Faulkner, this decline is inextricably linked with the fact of slavery in the South and its aftermath, while for O'Neill the decline is bound with the failure of the Irish-Catholicism of New England. The Compson family was once a proud and patrician southern landholding family which has deteriorated now into madness, moral decay, and greed, while the Tyrone family similarly exhibits the worst of modern civilization. In both stories, money has become the new god of society, to the detriment of the ties of family.


In the beginning of Long Day's Journey into Night, we find..."

Abstract
This paper examines how shame and forgiveness operate in family dynamics in Eugene O'Neill's drama "A Touch of the Poet." The paper further explores references to contemporary psychological analysis.

From the Paper
"The principal action of 'A Touch of the Poet' set in rural Boston concerns Ireland-born innkeeper Con Melody's pretensions to English nobility because of his father's wealth in trade. His personal claim to fame is serving as an officer under Wellington against Napoleon. But Con, a rowdy lad who got a servant girl pregnant and had to decamp to America with family in tow after the war to avoid embarrassing his father, has long since fallen on hard times and has solace only in his proud..."

Tags:Touch of the Poet, Eugene O'Neill, familiy dynamics

Abstract
This paper reviews the "The Iceman Cometh", a play by Eugene O'Neill that experiments with the painful side of emotional life about the different dreams that people aspire to achieve. It looks at how the play is rather simple and tells the stories about a group of men who are rather depressed with what life has to offer them. They sit around at the bar and live with the hope of making their dreams come true one day. The paper also provides a brief biography of Eugene O'Neill.

From the Paper
"The story is about how and why people manage to live in self denial and how one character called Hickey is challenged to drive them away from this noxious poison and bring them back to reality. The remaining Acts deal with the challenges and struggles that Hickey has to face in order to bring these people out of insanity. This creates suspense in the play too as each Act concludes with bringing that Act to a climax and ending it there. Each revelation in each Act tells us what Hickey plans to do with the harmony he wants to bring to everybody."

Tags:dreams, life, depression, bar