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Harry Savill
Long Day’s Journey into Night and Death of a Salesman – the modern tragedy

INTRODUCTION


The synchronicity between the four members of the Tyrone family and the Loman household is
striking



The arena of family life has been increasingly used as a setting for the modern tragedy –
Strindberg and Ibsen also advocators of the personal tragedy arising from family tensions
...




Both plays follow a similar dynamic—presenting us with a family who initially appear to be
coping, but increasingly evident undercurrents introduce mysteries we have to solve to
understand more fully the pressures that are, in fact, inevitably tearing these families apart
...


HIDING FROM THE TRUTH


In both plays, the principle characters (Mary in LDJ and Willy in DOAS), though noticeably
troubled by insecurities, are unable to accept full responsibility for their actions, and carry a
false exterior to effectively distance themselves from any sort of immoral behaviour
...
Nevertheless, she aptly describes the side-effects of
guilt: ‘the past is the present, isn't it? It's the future too
...
And this Ibsenian estimation is very much applicable to the works of both Arthur Miller
and Eugene O’Neill
...
However, clearly it was not an ill-fated destiny that drove Willy to take
his own life; it was his distorted set of values
...
So, both
characters hold false ideals which disallow the eminence of modesty over pride
...


THE FAMILY PARALLELS


The spouses’ roles in accentuating their partners’ weaknesses
...
Again, it was his refusal to pay for a good doctor that
brought about Mary's addiction, and, if he sends Edmund to the state sanatorium instead of the
private one, it might bring about Edmund's death
...
Guerin Bliquez views her a ‘failure as a wife and mother’
(1968) is her husband’s protector; she is described as having an ‘overwhelming capacity for love’
which actually is to the detriment of Willie’s welfare
...




Biff and Jamie as tragic products of their fathers’ failings – they both ruin their own lives trying
to escape from under his shadow, being drawn to alcohol, loose women, and, in Biff’s case,
even crime
...

Both, also, simultaneously love and hate their father—wanting his approval, yet despising his
self-involvement and high self-opinion
...


IDENTITY


DOAS: The Loman men and their belief that identity should be founded on what others think
of you
...
For
example, Willy’s central tenet – ‘the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell’,
originally coined by Charley - reverberates not only the overlap between work and family life,
but also his moral deficiencies; he values image over substance, conformity over individuality,
materialism over devotion
...
In light of this
idealistic advice, both sons struggle to maturate any sort of discipline, and end up failing to do
well in any job they attempt
...

Robert Corrigan argues that Miller’s ‘sympathies are for the most part directed toward those
ordinary little men who never discovered who they really were’ (Robert Corrigan, 2000)
...

The Salesman profession demands a behaviour that is unnatural, artificial and performative
...
Trying to make a living as a salesman, Willy finds
that he ‘must develop a personality that is at odds with his true self’ (Arthur Miller, 1984)
...
- His life is a falsehood (Christopher Bigsby, 2005)



LDJ: The American Dream and its corruptive qualities
Tyrone is a practitioner of the “American Dream”, and this is perhaps his greatest flaw
...
And Tyrone’s decision to give up the chance of
becoming a great Shakespearean actor in order to instead take a profitable but artistically
unrewarding part in a popular melodrama shows how American values have ultimately been
distorted by the materialistic pursuit of capital gain
...

Tyrone measures all human relations based on the notion of "productiveness" or "use value"
...
Tyrone's soul is destroyed by possessiveness and greed
...


Both are men with grand ambition, and an over-blown sense of self-worth, who poison those
around them with their deceits and expectations
...
Both love
their wives, but are over-dependent on them for admiration to feed their fragile egos, and they
sadly neglect them
...


DRAMATIC METHODS


Both playwrights have a strong command of the mimetic artform which only serves to
intensify the characters’ suffering
...
And this serves to intensify the realism of his
plays
...


-

REPETITION In Long Day’s Journey, the repetitive probing of the same themes: the wounds
felt by Mary, the frugality of James Tyrone and the alcoholism of the three males all serve to
drive a rhythmic pattern of constant suffering
...
Mary is unable to escape the impenetrable guilt
that she feels, and therefore the audience find themselves ‘wrenched, again and again, into
the past’ (Chris Westgate, 2008); it is a distressing and tiring atmosphere for the audience
and is merely a dramatic reflection of the character’s emotions
...




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