Desires in the Dysfunctional Family： A Psycho—analysis of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night

Gao+Shufang

【Abstract】Eugene ONeils Long Days Journey into Night presents a probing psychological study of a family in crisis. The family finds itself in the midst of a collective trauma：a shared desire for the past. The Tyrones constantly repress and defense their desires， which constitute the familys dysfunctional relationships. With the psychoanalytic theory of Walter Davis， it demonstrates how the Tyrones family traps themselves into an intricate web of conflicts because of the “double” process of desire itself and simultaneously offer solutions according to ONeils own understanding of the family tragedy.

【Key words】desires； repression and defense； dysfunctional family

I. Introduction

Eugene ONeill established his reputation as a milestone in American Theater by his wide-scoped innovative exploration in artistic creation and his deep concern for the tragic predicament of humanity. ONeills autobiographical masterpiece Long Days Journey into Night consummates his artistic style of tragedy with a psychological complexity in his portrayal of a modern family and individual tragedy. This play mainly exposes the conflicted and painful relationships of a family in crisis， telling one day happened among the four calamity-stricken Tyrones. They nostalgically attempt to repress their desires but paradoxically intensify the collective experience of loss and generate a frenzy of defensive interactions between family members.

II. A Collective Desire for the Past

According to Walter Davis theory of the drama of subjectivity， desire， as our first experiential experience in the face of a primary loss we suffer， is the birth of self-awareness and the basis of this relationship：“As the first form of self-consciousness， desire reveals， in a way that knowing could not， the immediacy of consciousness relationship both to itself and to the world”（Davis， 1989：26）. The experience of loss underlies our immediacy of consciousness about the world. And desire defines our dramatic response to our experience of loss.

The Tyrone family in ONeils Long Days Journey into Night has a shared sense of loss so that all of the family members possess a collective desire to arrest their pasts. They project their past into their present family relationships. To start with Mary， she longs for her convert days when she had Mother Elizabeths approval； she desires to obtain the salvation of her present disastrous family relationships through her nostalgia for the Blessed Virgin， her youth hope representing the stability and a state of grace she once attained. She wont let go of her past， so that she tries to leave the present with the degradation into morphine addiction. She pathetically yet tenderly speaks of something she has lost forever， walking into the fog of her past. It illustrates that her relationship to the present involves regret， denial， and loss. Her very inwardness is rooted in her past.endprint

James mourns an “aesthetic” loss. Because of the haunting ill-fated childhood and the responsibility of supporting his poverty-stricken family， James become obsessed with money and keeps accumulating wealth at the cost of his artistic dream. He has prostituted his talent as a classical actor for the illusion of material success. His alcohol addiction perpetuates his regret over his taking a part in a play wherein he became typecast； nevertheless he could have been a great Shakespeare actor. In his life， the absurd appears in the caparison between the actor he might have been and the material success he desires：“That God-damned play I bought for a song and made such a great success in–a great money success–it ruined me with the promise of an easy fortune…What the hell was it I wanted to buy， I wonder， that was worth well， no matter. Its a late day for regrets.” （ONeil， 1955：149） Jamie also drinks to savor his past. As for Jamie， although he never mentions it， the death of Eugene weighs on his conscience because in his deep heart he knows he might do it unconsciously to win his mothers love. However， he doesnt constantly mourn his past or angrily regret it as his mother and father； instead he makes the present the past by denying himself within it. According to Dennis J. Rich， Jamies loss is “psychological” （Rich， 1979：259）. Edmund， also an alcoholic， speaks of recapturing the poetic moment ecstatic freedom， thus idealizing his past as a sailor. He is the sick child of the family whose sickness denies the present. Edmund is the one who experiences the most crisis of the absurd. He realizes that life is “damned crazy” （ONeil， 1955：151）， and at one point he even tries to kill himself. But in the final moments of insight and understanding， he rebels against death and the absurd， and decides to go for that sanatorium for cure. Edmund is the autobiographical figure of Eugene ONeil himself. Although the disaster of the past also hangs on him， he eventually resorts to love and forgiveness to give hopes and wishes to this sympathetic family. All the family members of the Tyrones share a common desire to recreate their pasts. It is important to note that Long Days Journey into Night is not only a journey forward in time， but also a journey back into the past lives of all the characters， who continually dip back into their old lifestyles. What makes it worse is that every family member， instead of freeing their desires， constantly denies and defenses them， which in turn sustains the old ones and creates new ones that exacerbate the family tragedy.endprint

III. Desire as Repression and Defense

Davis theory of dramatic psychoanalytic subject provides a context to understand the complex process of our desires and emphasize the “double” movement of our lived relationship to our desires. He defines the key activities of the “double” movement of desire as repression and defense. Repression is our primary response to our desires， while defenses are the measures we take to sustain our repression. Manifesting itself through our defenses， repression is a way we live a relationship to our desires by denying them. This activity in turn sustains， affirms， and creates desire anew. ONeill captures the double movement of every characters desire by revealing their defenses through specific “realistic” scenes of conflicted interactions and their symbolic fixations. The expressionism of the play is the merging of realistic scenes and symbolic states.

3.1 Conflicted Interactions

The primary way to depict a characters desires and repressions is through conflicted interactions. Characters are thrust into situations thick with the conflicts of their past defensive interactions， and their defenses in turn give birth to more complex conflicts and denials.

The movement of the characters collective desires to arrest the past underlies their patterns of communication. The Tyrones are especially adept at blaming each other about the events that reveal their defensive relationship to their desires. Blaming displaces desire while collectively keeping it alive in disguised forms. Thus， it reveals their defensive connections and prevents intimate communications. Keeping the dance of the guilt alive within the family， the Tyrones incessant blaming embodies their defensive relationship to the past. Paradoxically， blaming shields intimate connection while creating an incestuous pattern of communication. The mechanism of defense becomes their “typical common ways of misconstruing and misperceiving”（Simon， 1988：212）. Ambiguous communication generates destructive misunderstandings. Stammering is the symptom of their broken communication arising from the familys collective denial and repression throughout the play. It is the way everyone in the family speaks， whether they literally stammer in a drunken stupor like Jamie or begin to confess something about themselves and abruptly stop like Mary. Stammering is manifested in Marys continual defensive denial of her relapse， and her stammering indicated the possibility of honest and genuine communication， completely and hostilely denies the entire interaction.endprint

3.2 Symbolic Fixations

The second way the Tyrones inflict their particular defensive relationship to their desires onto one another is through a series of symbolic fixations which keep them tied to their pasts. Their fixations manifest themselves primarily in two forms within the family：idealization and resentment. Idealization and resentment represent two dramatic stances the characters have and reveal their fight from their present conflict and desires.

As the Tyrones attempt to conquer their desired objects， they remain trapped within their symbolic fixations and inflict them on each other. Their problems arise when they begin to experience the anxiety and guilt over their aggressive impulses toward the object. Instead of “working through” their mourning over the loss of the object they can never appropriate， the Tyrones transfer from the desired object to other symbolic fixations. The transformed aggression toward the object manifests itself in self-punishment which， in turn， breeds more aggression in disguised forms， especially through their resentments and idealization. Their symbolic fixations become a paralyzing force rather than a reparative one and represent their refusal to work the losses they suffer.

The Tyrones illustrate that symbol formations， while projects the true desires within the individual， complicating the individuals reparative processes. ONeill explores the symbolic fixations that form the basis of each characters inwardness within a dramatic structure that dramatizes the double movements of the characters fixations. The various members fixations reflect the familys denial of their desires in present interfamilial relationships. All in all， the symbolic fixations of every character are the psychic payoff of their repressed desires. The greater the degree to which the character represses， the more one fixates on symbols of the past. The Tyrones inflict their fixations on each other through their defensive interactions， unaware of their complicity in the family dysfunction. Through a series of symbolic fixations that each family member projects onto the family， every one remains faithful to his or her own defenses and sustain the dysfunctional patterns.

IV. A Long Days Journey into Love

Despite the dark vision in the drama， it is important to see that it does end offering some shreds of hope for the future if the characters can change their defensive relationship to the desires and have a face-to-face confession.endprint

If the play ends on a note of resolution， that resolution comes from the full confession of desires in an attempt to better the future. Of course， some problems are still left open， particularly Marys morphine addiction， which we see at its worst in this act. Jamie， however， warns his brother to watch out his bad influence for his jealousy and the squandering of his own life， and before that， Tyrone acknowledges his own stinginess and agrees to send Edmund to a high-class sanatorium in the hope of curing him， and Edmund also understand and forgive his brother and father. Thus， two of the major family conflicts are at least partially resolved by the end of the play.

Just as the moment before down is the darkest， Long days journey into night is actually a journey into light， into future， into love. In a family torn by mass destruction and conflicts， ONeil doesnt surrender to pessimism. He has faith in mans ability not to kill the desires within， but to talk out ones own loss and desires and to understand and forgive others loss and desires with deepest love.

V. Conclusion

The Tyrone family always exacerbates and complicates their desires. Through its fulcrum of denial， repression underlines the conflict relationship the self has to desire. Thus， it creates defense to keep conflicted desires out of awareness. The Tyrones collectively repress their desires through defensive actions and interactions which in turn actually sustain their dysfunctional relationships. Just as repression always creates defenses while it distorts desire – and thereby actually gives desire greater sway. The deepest truth the Tyrones reveal is that dysfunctional relationships， exacerbated and created within the family， may be rooted in the “double” process of desire itself：the force that struggles against itself in its manic attempt to appropriate its creator–loss. Because of their repressed desires for the past， they transfer their desires into grotesque fixations. Eugene also eventually allows a face-to-face confession to free the depressed desires of the Tyrone family and resorts to mutual forgiveness and understanding guiding the long days journey into love.

References：

[1]Davis，Walter A.Inwardness and Existence：Subjectivity in/and Hegel，Heidegger，Marx，and Freud.Madison：University of Wisconsin，1989.

[2]ONeil，Eugene.A Long Days Journey into Night.New Heaven：Yale University Press，1955.

[3]Rich，Dennis J.“Exile Without Remedy/the Late plays of Eugene ONeil.” Eugene ONeil/A World View.Ed.Virginia Floyd.New York：Frederick Ungar Publishing Co，1979.

[4]Simon，Bennett.Tragic Drama and the Family：Psychoanalytic Studies from Aeschylus to Beckett.New Heaven：Yale University Press，1988.

作者簡(jiǎn)介：高淑芳（1990-），女，畢業(yè)于暨南大學(xué)外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院研究生院，攻讀英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言文學(xué)專業(yè)碩士學(xué)位，研究方向?yàn)橛⒚牢膶W(xué)。endprint