It has been said that Eugene Oneill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” is a prime example of what many literary critics call a “creative autobiography.” M.H. Abrams defines this term as, “the more-or-less fictional work of art about the development of the artist himself, which is preoccupied with memory, time, and the relations of what is passing to what is eternal, and is punctuated by illuminated moments, or "epiphanies;" turns on a crisis which involves the question of the meaning of the author's life and the purpose of his sufferings.” Through this use of a creative autobiography, Oneill creates a self portrait by allowing his readers to experience his older self returning to reflect upon the discovery and painfulness of his youth in “Long Days Journey into Night” (Mann 1).
The older version of Oneill is portrayed through the author and narrator of the story. Unlike his younger version, this older self is a more mature, compassionate, and forgiving figure. In the dedication of “Long Days Journey into Night,” Oneill says he wrote the play "with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all the four haunted Tyrones." Looking back, Oneill starts to see his family not so much as tormentors, but more as victims of fate. He began to see the role his family played in his evolution as a writer, something his younger self could not recognize. From the misery of his father, he learned he needed to keep his uncompromising artistic standards; from his mother came the insight about human nature that influences his works; and from his brother came his introduction to modern writers (Mann 2).
Works Cited:
Drama Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 20.
1 comment:
Go into more depth in your research and make a sythesis between what you find in the literary criticism and what you find in the play. Allow your quotes to back up what your literary critic says. Ask yourself how the life he lived contributed to his philosophy that he depicted in his art. - elmeer
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