Long Days journey into One Night

Thinking Activity on Long days journey into One Night

Hello reader, there is a blog in response to my teacher on the Long Day's journey into One Night. I am giving the details of the novel theme of Addiction. 

By 1912, responsible physicians had stopped the indiscriminate use of morphine as a pain killer and treatment for depression. New laws required pharmacists to dispense it only by authorized prescription, ending its unrestricted use. However, for many Americans like Mary Tyrone, the damage had already been done. Morphine and laudanum, another opium derivative, had left thousands addicted, and many faced the social stigma and disgrace that drug addiction finally involved.

The excessive use of alcohol was more widely tolerated, at least in men. The saloon was an established American institution by the end of the nineteenth century. It served as a working man’s social club where males could imbibe, discuss the day’s events, and wager on cards and billiards. Some of the saloons were also haunts for prostitutes, while others were outright bordellos; most, like their English pub counterparts, did not admit ladies.

Many saloon patrons, like Jamie Tyrone, were problem drinkers and gamblers, prone to violence, sexual promiscuity, or insolvency. Their excesses fueled the temperance reform movement, led and supported by a growing legion of women who wanted to protect families from “demon rum” and improve the nation’s moral character and health. The movement would finally win a legal victory in 1919 with the passage and ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment. But the victory proved hollow. The ban on alcohol gave rise to illegal bootlegging, bathtub gin, and the infamous speakeasy, a Jazz Age substitute for the old saloon. Unlike the saloon, the speakeasies were patronized by men and the new generation of liberated “flappers,” setting the model for the bars and nightclubs that went into legal operation when prohibition ended.

The plot of Long Day’s Journey into Night focuses on a dysfunctional family trying to come to grips with its ambivalent emotions in the face of serious familial problems, including drug addiction, moral degradation, deep-rooted fear and guilt, and life-threatening illness.

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In Long Day's Journey Into Night, the Tyrone family's past and present have been so dire that normal coping mechanisms (family love, togetherness, etc.) can't keep up. So what do they turn to for relief? Alcohol and drugs. These forms of retreat might numb the pain, but they also bring their own problems – Mary's constant zoning out and Jamie's inability to hold down a job, to name two examples. There's also a vicious cycle involved in all of this: Mary takes drugs and the Tyrone men drink to escape, but they also feel bad about doing so, leading them to snipe at one another even more maliciously.

Mary's morphine addiction is balanced by the men's alcoholism. Although the morphine is perhaps a more destructive drug, alcohol does its fair share of damage to the Tyrone men. It is Tyrone's great vice, and it has contributed to Mary's unhappiness. Drunkenness has been Jamie's response to life, and it is part of why he has failed so miserably. And Edmund's alcohol use has probably contributed to ruining his health.

The Tyrones don't just drink any alcohol; they drink bonded bourbon. Bonded means the bourbon is really good (aged four years and distilled by one brewer for a season at a distillery) and, thus, more expensive. This is some seriously high quality bourbon, and it's another hint – along with all those real estate deals – that James is willing to spend extra money, so long as he is the primary beneficiary. It's also a social class symbol – poor people don't drink bonded bourbon.

Bourbon is also an important choice because bourbon is basically the American alcohol. This stuff is classic Americana, a whiskey made from corn and named after the county in Kentucky where it was invented.

So here's our question: why Jim Beam instead of Jameson's? Let's not forget that James is all about Irish patriotism, yet he doesn't drink Irish whiskey. While there may be a significant difference in flavor between bourbon and Irish whiskey, Ireland obviously has its own illustrious history of whiskey brewing. We don't want to push this too hard, because there may be issues of price and availability, but with all of his posturing about his roots and his defense of all things Irish, it's surprising that James only ever drinks the American stuff.

This is short video I am act or speak one dialogue by Tyrone this is also given by my teacher.