First Draft to Published

The picture is a statue of a young Eugene O'Neil. Avoiding one’s problems never leads to a good thing and Eugene O’Neil demonstrates in the play Long Day’s Journey into Night that by leaving problems unresolved they become bigger problems. The characters each have their own set of problems including addiction, sickness, loose and miserly behavior. Each Tyrone is a victim of their own circumstance which they helped to create and now are unable to escape their invisible cages. They are also the oppressor for the next Tyrone. O’Neil designed the play as a series of encounters each character is placed with one, two or three of the others until every combination is worked through. It seems as if each character is at the mercy of their past. Throughout the play the characters dwell on the “What If scenario,” those who influenced them, their dreams, ambitions and their disappointments. Avoidance has worsened the problems of the Tyrone’s because it has torn apart a family that could have b...