In
the play Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Eugene O’Neill stages the gradual
deterioration of familial ties and relationships through the means of drugs and
alcohol. Similarly, in the play Blasted, Sarah Kane enacts the deterioration
of a relationship through violence and alcohol. Both plays utilize a plot and
setting that represent the entrapment and destructive nature of human
interaction. Through the characters’ ignorance and avoidance of reality, both
plays also demonstrate the characters’ attempts to beautify reality. In other
words, O’Neill and Kane illustrate an individual’s strong desire to mask
subconscious negative emotions with the delusions of perfection and fantasy.
As
the title suggests, Long Day’s Journey Into Night stages a dysfunctional
family infected with drug abuse and alcoholism. Due to James Tyrone’s stingy living style, the family
suffers years and years of poor quality medical care. As a result, Edmund, the youngest son diagnosed with
consumption, is unable to receive the proper care to recover. Jamie, the
eldest, unable to accept his father’s cheap behavior and jealous of Edmund,
wastes his life away in bars and with women. Furthermore, Jamie, James and Edmund use alcohol as a medium to avoid having to confront or acknowledge Mary’s addiction or the dysfunctional family dynamic. In addition, Mary, the mother,
becomes addicted to morphine due to the painkillers initially prescribed for
post childbirth pain. She keeps reverting back to her drug abuse even after rehab as a way to avoid dealing with her much regretted life. At one point, in a soliloquy Mary has wished that she could overdose on morphine accidentally to be freed of this situation. To illustrate the intent of drug abuse and alcoholism, O’Neill
uses the fog to symbolize the desire of the family to overlook the disastrous
situation in the household. In act
three, Mary is found looking out of the window telling her maid, Cathleen, that
“[She] really love[s] fog. It hides you from the world and the world from you.
You feel that everything has changed, and nothing is what it seemed to
be.”(O’Neill 98) In this line, O’Neill demonstrates the longing to rid of the
cruel reality in an individual. Mary strongly desires to run away from the
current situation she is facing. She wishes to delude herself from everything
and “hide from the world.” In this case, the fog represents the veil that Mary
chooses to cover in front of her to view reality. This symbolism is further
extended through Edmund in act four when he comes back from a walk near the summerhouse
to talk to his father. He told James Tyrone that he wanted to be alone by
“[him]self in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from
itself.” (O’Neill 131) Edmund also said that the fog blended with the sea and compared
himself as “the ghost belonging to the fog.” Once again, through Edmund’s
poetic description, O’Neill presents the strong desire to walk away from
reality and to rid of worries. The fog blurs the boundaries between reality and
fantasy. Edmund’s desire to be submerged in an environment in which “truth is
untrue” unveils his motives to avoid confronting the current situation. His
metaphor of becoming a ghost further strengthens this desire to want to
disappear from the world he is suffering in.
In
Blasted, Kane utilizes oblivion, setting and alcohol to illustrate the
unwillingness to face reality. Cate’s innocence allows her to be oblivious to
her surroundings and believe the best in everyone. Her naiveté permits her to
ignore all the pain in the world. In fact, she refuses to see the blurred
boundaries of right and wrong. Cate even mentions the “[she doesn’t]
believe in killing.” (Kane 32) In this case, Cate refuses to recognize the reality of inequality that happens in this world. On the other hand, Kane limits the
setting of the play in a small hotel room away from the on going war to
demonstrate Ian’s fear for his own safety. Furthermore, the audience constantly
sees Ian warn Cate that “It’s too dangerous” to go home and pleads for Cate to stay by his side because he is scared. (Kane 28) Similarly to the Long Day's Journey Into Night, alcohol is a clear symbolism of the escape from reality. Ian also
drinks gin and smokes incessantly through out the play to calm his temper and
anxiety. He seems to want to die earlier by intensifying his alcohol and cigarette use just as how Mary wishes that she would one day overdose on morphine. In
addition to Ian’s drinking, Cate is found drinking towards the very end of the
play. Cate sacrifices her body in search for food. In the end, Cate washes down
the food with gin and feeds Ian. In this ending, Cate still maintains her
naiveté because she is still willing to take care of Ian. However, to get over
the shock of the on going war and what she went through to survive, Cate
finally drinks alcohol in the last scene. This suggests that human beings
employ many other ways to avert their negative feelings elsewhere and escape
from reality.
Both
Eugene O’Neill and Sarah Kane demonstrated the strong desire to escape reality.
Although, the plays used different plots, they both represented an individual’s
avoidance and ignorance of depressing situations. Instead of confrontation,
human beings tend to flee from the horrible situation at hand and create
delusions of a more perfected world.
References
O'Neill, Eugene. Long Da'ys Journey Into Night. corrected. Binghamton: Vail-Ballou Press,Inc, 1955. Print.
Kane, Sarah. Blasted. London: Methuen Drama, 1995.
