No
Happy Ending
In Eugene O’Neil’s
tragic play Long Day’s Journey Into Night,
he writes about a family that is torn apart by lies and secrets. In Sarah
Kane’s grotesque play Blasted, she
presents three characters that are distant from reality. Both tragedies are
very similar in that they show the downfall of the characters and also give a
glimpse of the unrealistic world they live in. Both O’Neil and Kane explore the
theme of violence, drugs, and alcohol in cyclical settings to emphasize the
loss of rational human beings.
In Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the
Tyrone family can be seen as dysfunctional because each family member has a
problem. James Tyrone, the father, is
stingy and greedy with his money and stresses the importance to be ambitious.
Mary, the fragile mother, has a secret addiction to morphine, ever since her
husband did not want to pay for professional medical service. Jamie Tyrone, the
eldest son, dislikes the qualities of his father and acts in careless ways,
such as wasting money on alcohol and women. Edmund Tyrone, the youngest son, is
also an alcoholic and is diagnosed with consumption. All these flaws in each
family member cause them to be distant and secretive from one another. In
effect, they drift away from reality and avoid their problems.
Mary often talks
about her dreams of becoming a nun or a famous pianist. She is sensitive and has
an “unaffected charm of a shy convent-girl youthfulness she never lost,”
(O’Neil 13) that seems to prevent her to forget about the past and move on. She
lives in a fantasy world. As for the men in the family, they are affected by
Mary’s drug addiction and Edmund’s consumption problem, but do not communicate
the problems directly to Mary. The men keep things from Mary and allow her to
“go on kidding herself” (O’Neil 30), which increases her distant from reality. The
more morphine Mary takes, the more she cannot forget the past. She cannot seem
to focus on the present because she has many regrets. Similarly, Cate from Blasted is naïve and innocent to
understand the issues that surround her. She looks at things positively and plays
around with Ian about shooting her without realizing the horrors outside of the
hotel. Furthermore, her optimism makes her vulnerable to please Ian; when Ian
asks Cate why she came to the hotel, she replied that “You (Ian) sounded
unhappy” (Kane 23) and would listen to Ian when she leaves him sexually in pain.
This shows that Cate forgets about what she believes in or says and just
listens to Ian to make him happy.
Besides Mary’s
drug addiction and being oblivious to family issues, the men also have an
addiction to alcohol. The men go out and get drunk while Mary is alone at home
most of the time, which leaves her to do drugs.
It shows that alcohol is more important than staying home with their
lonely mother. In Act III, Tyrone seems to care more about his whiskey than
confronting or helping Mary with her addiction. He “drinks his drink…scowls at
his wife” (O’Neil 118) and ignores her complaint and rants about the past. As for
Edmund, he gets drunk for it allows him to avoid family problems. Also, he sees
alcohol like getting lost in the fog and by the ocean. He gets drunk for it reminds
him of “wanting to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue
and life can hide from itself” (O’Neil 133). This explains that Edmund has does
not want to face or accept the truth about his dysfunctional family. He spends
his time at sea alone or gets drunk for it takes him to a world free of
worries. As for Kane’s play, Ian drinks gin and smokes cigarettes to feel
better about himself, and to release anxiety. He drinks excessively for it “won’t
make any difference” (Kane 11) because he is going to die soon. With alcohol
and drugs, Ian is able to suppress the fact that he is dying slowly. Ironically,
he seems careless about dying, but in the end of the play, he becomes scared of
dying and asks Cate to not leave him. Kane shows the effect of how alcohol causes
the mind to act foolishly when Ian takes his health for granted. As for the
soldier, the murder of his girlfriend, Col, leads him to commit atrocious acts.
He has been traumatized by the murder and violence that he does not feel any
sympathy when murdering children and women. He has become obsessed with vengeance
that he does not act rationally.
In addition, the settings
of both plays do not change. The plot of O’Neil’s play only takes place in the Tyrone’s
home. O’Neil develops repetitive problems and arguments by having the family
come together in one setting. This technique also explains the unresolved
issues among the family, making the play a tragedy. As for the setting of Blasted, it is taken place in the hotel
room. The unchanging of the play emphasizes the character’s avoidance of
reality outside of the hotel. They hide from what’s happening outside. Both static settings serve as a place of
action and unsettled disputes or problems.
