Long Days Journey Into Night Quotes

“I suppose life has made him like that, and he can’t help it”

• Mary in reference to Jamie’s cynicism - Act Two, Scene One

• Links to the theme of Fatalism which works to entrap Mary in her addiction

"None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realise it, and once they're done, they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to be, and you've lost your true self forever".

• Said by Mary - Act Two, Scene Two

• Demonstrating her fatalistic attitudes and simultaneously omitting any kind of ability and therefore removing all blame from herself.

“That’s what makes it so hard - for all of us - we can’t forget.”

• Said by Mary - Act One

• The pasts inescapable burdens

"Some day, when the blessed Virgin Mary forgives me and gives me back the faith in Her love and pity I used to have in my convent days, and I can pray to her again."

• Mary - Act Three

• This is an example of Mary’s fatalistic mindset. She never considers seeking out faith herself, rather she expects the divine to find her 

• This mindset facilitates her addiction and allows her to omit any kind of responsibility for herself and her actions.

"The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future too. We all try to lie out of that but life won't let us."

• Said by Mary - Act Two, Scene Two

• inescapability of the past

“the kid is damned sick”

• Jamie about Edmund - Act One

“Stammering is the native eloquence for us fog people”

• Edmund - Act Four

•  Shows Edmunds deep thinking .

• Here he argues that the world is far less stressful and confusing than how we perceive it.

• It speaks to the ineffectiveness of language throughout the play and how each family member struggles to express themselves in a way the other will understand.

“We’ve been more than brothers. You’re the only pal i’ve ever had. I love your guts. I’d do anything for you.”

• Jamie to Edmund - Act Four

“He’s always snaring at someone else, always looking for the worst weakness in everyone.”

• Tyrone about Jamie - Act One

“Was wise ten years or more”

• Jamie to Edmund - Act Two, Scene One

• About when Jamie found out about Mary’s morphine addiction.

“Oh for god’s sake, do you think you can fool me, mama? I’m not blind.”

• Jamie to Mary - Act Two, Scene One

• Here Jamie shows his blunt and confrontational nature in confronting Mary about her relapse despite her insistent denial.

“Yes forget! Forget everything and face nothing! It’s a convenient philosophy if you have no ambition in life expect to-”

• Said by Tyrone to Jamie - Act One

• Highlights the strained relationship between Tyrone and Jamie who he see’s as lazy.

"Jamie knows after one probing look at her that his suspicions are justified. His eyes fall to stare at the floor; his face sets in an expression of embittered, defensive cynicism."

• Stage Directions - Act Two, Scene One

• This quote demonstrates both Jamie’s disappointment and shows that his cynical attitudes are a defense mechanism.

"That God-damned play I bought for a song and made such a great success in - a great money success - it ruined me with it's promise of an easy fortune."

• James Tyrone - Act Four

• This is Jame's confession or admission at the end of the play, revealing his regret for his miserliness, which he defended wholeheartedly throughout the play, as it cost him his artistry.

"He's worked hard all his life. He made his way up from ignorance and poverty to the top of his profession! Everyone else admires him and you should be the last one to sneer"

• Mary about Tyrone to Jamie, Act Two, Scene One

“Bundle of nerves”

• Stage Directions about Mary - Act One'

• Shows her discomfort while sober and builds suspense

“everything was done in the cheapest way”

• Mary about the summer house - Act One 

• she deems the house as an inadequate replacement for a real stable home

• works to demonstrates Tyrone’s miserliness

“Money spent on a home is money wasted”

• Mary about Tyrone’s philosophy on the concept of home and spending

"Something I need terribly. I remember when I had it I was never lonely nor afraid. I can't have lost it forever, I would die if I thought that. Because then there would be no hope."

• Mary

• What Mary has lost remains ambiguous (however this could be the emotional connection and security with her family)

• what is clear it Mary's conflicting relationship with her memory. She wants desperately to erase a part of it while simultaneously viewing other aspects of it as the most valuable in the world.

• highlights her deep struggle with loneliness and her fear of having lost this state of being forever, as her life is now dominated by morphine

"I hate doctor's! They'll do anything - anything to keep you coming to them. They'll sell their souls! What's worse, they'll sell yours, and you never know till one day you end up in hell!"

• Mary - Act Two, Scene Two

• aids suspense and rouses suspicion in the audience. It hints at the origin of her addiction and demonstrates it's impact.

"She hasn’t denied her faith, but she's forgotten it, until now there's no strength of the spirit left in her to fight against her curse."

• Tyrone, Act Two, Scene Two

• hypocritical of him considering that James fails to acknowledge that he has had a hand in shaking that faith in God by taking her from the convent. Like Mary, James consistently underestimates the role his own activities have on the disasters facing the family.

"I hope, sometime, without meaning it, I will take an overdose. I never could do it deliberately. The blessed virgin would never forgive me then."

• Mary - Act Three

• Catholic upbringing, effect of addiction, reminder of her suicide attempt which underpins the families dysfunction.

"I'm so sick and tired of pretending this is a home."

• Mary - Act one

• Shares her dissatisfaction with the summer home and Tyrone’s cheap efforts.

“kisses him tenderly” - “she puts a pillow behind his back”

• Stage Directions about Mary’s actions with Edmund

• Demonstrates the close bond between them.

“What is a lie?”

• Mary - Act two, Scene One

• Mary says this in response to Edmund crying out that "It's a lie". This initial outburst stems from Jamie's accusation that Mary relapsed. - Denial

"I don't know what you're talking about"

• Mary - at the end of Act Two, Scene One

• This comes just after Mary's poignant outburst about how hard she has tried to stay sober. This is said to Tyrone and demonstrates the cycle of denial permeating the family's dysfunction.

"I blame only myself. I swore after Eugene died I wound never have another baby. I was to blame for his death. If I hadn't left him with my mother to join you on the road…"

• Act Two, Scene Two

• Mary, for the first time in the play takes accountability but very shorty after contradicting herself and deflecting blame onto Tyrone and Jamie.

"I've always believed Jamie did it on purpose. He was jealous of the baby. He hated him"

• Mary - Act Two, Scene Two

• blames Jamies for baby Eugene’s death as he went to visit the baby with measles

• Jamie as the scapegoat of the family

• demonstrates the resentment Mary and Tyrone hold for Jamie, underpinning the family’s dysfunction and failed emotional regulation.

"Right after I returned from the sanitorium, you began to be ill. The doctor there had warned me  I must have peace at home with nothing to upset me, and all I've done is worry about you."

• Mary - Act Two, Scene Two

• Here Mary blames Edmund for her relapse, over circumstances that he cannot control, therefore once again omitting any accountability.

"You're to blame James. How could you let him? Do you want him to die? […] Forgive me for scaling you James, one small drink won't hurt Edmund."

• Mary regarding Edmunds drinking - Act Two, Scene One

• shows the cycle of blame and denial as well as the cycle of attack. accuse, defence and apology

"There's absolutely no reason to talk as if you expected something dreadful!"

• Mary to Edmund - Act One

• denying the possibility of relapse as a result of Edmund's suspected consumption.

"They were once beautiful hands, with long, tapering fingers, but rheumatism has knotted the joints and warped the fingers, so that now they have an ugly crippled look."

• Stage Directions about Mary - Act One

"In a real home one is never lonely. You forget I know from experience what a real home is like. I have up one to Mary you - my father's home."

• Mary to Tyrone - Act Two, Scene Two

• Mary’s feelings of dissatisfaction with the summer home - romaniticisation of the past.

Tyrone - "Mary, can’t you forget-?"

Mary - "[with detached pity] No dear. But I forgive. I always forgive you. So don’t look so guilty"

• Dialogue between Mary and James

• Although Mary insists that she forgives Tyrone, it is evident that she still holds a lot of resentment towards him. Therefore, Jame's plea for her to forget is a plea for her to let go of the resentment.

Tyrone - "Mary! Oh for God's sake, forget the past!"

Mary - "[With strange objective calm] Why? How can I? The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future too. We all try to lie out of that but life won't let us."

• Dialogue between Tyrone and Mary

• Again, Tyrone begs Mary to let go of the pent up resentment significantly contributing to the family's dysfunction.

• Mary responds showing the effect of the past trauma's on the family and connecting to the play's wider theme of the past's inescabability.

"James" I tried so hard! I tried so hard! Please believe-"

• Mary to James - Act Two, Scene One

"Another shot in the arm"

• Jamie to Tyrone and Edmund about Mary going to take more morphine

• Blunt speech

"I'd begun to hope, if she'd beaten the game, I could, too".

• Jamie - Act Four

• Acknowledgement of his alcoholism - generational impact of addiction

"I never dreamed before that any women but whores took dope"

• Jamie about Mary’s addiction

"moving around in the spare room" - "Lying down in the spare room with her eyes wide open"

• Arouses suspicion in Edmund - Act Two, Scene One

"For the love of God, why couldn't you have the strength to keep on"

• Tyrone to Mary - Act Two, Scene Two

• About Mary’s will power - shows Tyrones devastation.

"What's wrong with being drunk? It's what we're after isn't it? Lets not kid each other papa, not

tonight. We know what we're trying to forget."

• Edmund - Act Four

• Shows male alcoholism as a crutch in the play

"[Mary] has hidden deeper within herself…found release in a dream where present reality is but an appearance to be accepted and dismissed unfeelingly."

• Stage Directions - Act Three opening

•  Shows both the effect and the reason behind Mary's use of Morphine.

"It's the foghorn I hate. It won't let you alone. It keeps reminding you, and warning you, and calling you back [she smiles strangely] but it can't tonight. It's just an ugly sound. It doesn't remind me of anything."

• Mary - Act Three

• Mary = foghorn represents the call back to a harsh reality while the fog represents the haze of the morphine. This works to demonstrate the extent of her high by Act Three and her addiction in general.

"I don't blame you. How could you believe me - when I cant believe myself? I've become such a liar. I never lied about anything once upon a time. Now I have to lie, especially to myself. I never understood anything about it, expect that one day long ago I could no longer call my soul my own.

• Mary - Act Two, Scene Two

• Mary reveals explicitly to the audience that everything she says is suspect and also shows the impacts of her addiction on her sense of identity and relationships with her family

"I hate doctor's! They'll do anything - anything to keep you coming to them. They'll sell their souls! What's worse, they'll sell yours, and you never know till one day you end up in hell!"

• Mary - Act Two, Scene Two

• aids suspense and rouses suspicion in the audience. It hints at the origin of her addiction and demonstrates it's impact.