Symbols and Symbolism in Long Day's Journey into Night

Symbolism is used throughout O¹Neill¹s Long Day¹s Journey into Night, a portrayal of the author¹s life. The three prominent symbols, the fog, the foghorn, and Mary¹s glasses,

represent the characters¹ isolation from reality. The symbols in ³Long Day¹s Journey into Night² are used to substitute illusion for reality. Although Mary is the character

directly associated with living in illusion, all characters in the play try to hide from

the truth in their own ways. At the beginning of the second act, O'Neill notes a change in

setting which has taken place since the play opened. No sunlight comes into the room now and there is a faint haziness in the air. This haziness or fog obscures one¹s perception of the world, and it parallels the attempts of each member of the family to obscure or hide

reality. Tyrone, for example, drinks whiskey to escape his son¹s criticism of how cheap he

is. The reference to fog always has a double meaning in this play, referring both to the

atmosphere and to the family. Much of the activity carried on by the Tyrone family is

under-handed and sneaky, they are always attempting to put something over on somebody and

obscure the truth. This brings us to the second symbol, the foghorn. Mary says she loves

the fog because "it hides you from the world and the world from you," but she hates the

foghorns because they warn you and call you back². This escape is similiar to the morphine

she takes, and the foghorns are the family¹s warnings against her addictions. When they

discuss the mother, Edmund resents Jamie's hinting that she might have gone back to her old

habit; and Jamie is angry with Edmund for not staying with her all morning. Although they

both think that she has started using dope again, they don't want to have to admit it.

Because the men in the family all try so hard to deny the truth and to blame each other or

the mother for her affliction, it appears that they all feel some guilt and some

responsibility for what has happened to her , and to themselves. Even when confronted with

the truth (that the mother is using drugs), they all still try to act as if everything were

all right, to deny the reality and live in illusion. Mary¹s glasses symbolize her inability

to see things clearly. She frequently misplaces them, and really doesn¹t want to find them