Long days critics

Christopher W. E. Bigsby on language and fear

His characters pile up words against the silence they fear, creating a barricade of language.

Stephen A. Black on the paradox of tragedy

The hope we feel for Edmund is essential to our hunch that the play is tragic. Here is the great paradox of tragedy.

Travis Bogard on Edmund

He is no more than an emitted adolescent.

Kenneth Peacock Tynan on the influence of the past

The pressures and recriminations of the past will not let the present live.

Christopher W. E. Bigsby on borrowed language

Rather than speak their own lives they hide in the language of others.

Frederic I. Carpenter on James Tyrone

The father embodies the qualities of a petty dictator but remains human and understandable.

Nasrullah Mambrol on Mary’s facade

Mary has a façade of girlish innocence.

Nasrullah Mambrol on the fog

The fog enhances the tragic sense of unity, enclosure and isolation for the Tyrones.