Broadway Performance Based on a Classic, Research Paper Example

I am a person who has a deep appreciation for the arts.  I feel a wonderful sensation when something of artistic merit touches my soul. I am in love with beauty, however it is expressed. It can be expressed through artistic mediums such as literary works or through the still image depicted in a photograph. I look for beauty everywhere. I also enjoy creating beauty with the medium of the written word. At the same, I also appreciate the beauty of Broadway plays.

Although I live in Virginia Beach, VA, in March of 2003 I went to visit a close friend in New York City. He took me to a very moving Broadway play, so moving that it is still vivid in my memory to this day. It was entitled, “The Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”  This was a performance was at the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway and was based on Eugene O’Neill’s play under the same title. I can still vividly recall be astounded upon arriving there knowing that indeed I was in The Big Apple with all its lights and glitter. I imagined myself one day being a star there. After all, I am in the greatest country in the world, The United States of America where anything thing is possible.

To give a brief background, this was a play about a dysfunctional family. It is necessary to give a brief analysis of the play in order to fully appreciate it.  Eugene O’Neill’s play, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” depicts a family in crisis. This is a highly dysfunctional group of people. The family consists of the father, James Tyrone, the mother, Mary Tyrone, and two sons, descending in age, James and Edmund. All of these characters find themselves in pain due to their problems. Mary Tyrone’s pain is mainly caused by her religious fanaticism. She feels guilty due to choosing a love of a man over a love for the Virgin Mary. Mary Tyrone mistakenly believes that her son Edmund’s illness is really her punishment for trespassing against the Virgin Mary and thus her fault. Edmund, Mary’s son, is in pain as well. Edmund’s pain stems from his guilt of being born and, in his opinion, contributing to his mother’s addiction. What all these characters have in common is that, instead of trying to solve their problems, they avoid them by turning to drugs. Their philosophy is that, if problems cannot be solved, escapism through drugs is the next best option. The logic is that, if the body is a conductor of physical sensations, getting rid of the body, through the help of drugs, is getting rid of mental pain. Metaphorically, this means becoming a spirit, which also can be seen as dying, thus leaving the body behind.  To the two characters, Mary Tyrone, the mother, and her son, Edmund Tyrone, being in a fog is like being a spirit. To Edmund, being in a fog is like being on the ‘other side’. As he says himself, he has died, “drowned”, and looks at himself as a spirit “walking on the bottom of the sea”. He imagines being “on the bottom of the sea” because, due to the fog, he is soaking wet.(Act  Thus, the sea symbolizes the ‘other side’ while the land symbolizes the physical world. In the play, being in a fog is like being in a spirit world or what is called the ‘other side’. Both Mary and Edmund Tyrone would rather be dead than alive.

The character I recall most vividly from the play is Mary Tyrone, the wife of James Tyrone. She is a religious fanatic. She aspires to be the exact copy of the Virgin Mary because she attempts to be as pure as the Virgin Mary, which is unrealistic. After her return from the convent, she acts like any other human being by succumbing to the temptations of the flesh. She finds James Tyrone very attractive. Mary Tyrone is an example of a deeply religious woman who needlessly tortures herself with guilt for choosing marriage over the Virgin Mary. She sees that choice as a sin. It is no wonder that she sees Edmund’s illness as a punishment for committing that sin. She is in denial because she does not want to think of herself as a traitor of the VirginMary. She does not think that she deserves the Virgin’s love because she has chosen the path in life that is, in her opinion, immoral. If Edmund would become healthy again, that would be a sign of forgiveness from the Virgin Mary. It would be then that Mary could feel like a Virgin Mary’s child again. Mary believes in conditional love: only good and pure people deserve love and help during tough times.  It is also important to mention that Mary Tyrone’s guilt caused by choosing marriage over religion leads her to turn to morphine for relief. When she is under the influence of morphine, she feels no pain. She sees her morphine injections as a pleasurable experience. This kind of experience can be seen as getting rid of the body and being a spirit. To Mary, hiding in a fog is like hiding in her drug. It means getting rid of her body.

What I remember most about this particular play is great acting and being so close to talented and hard working actors. Up until then, I have never actually been so close to talented actors. Observing great acting in the movies was certainly not the same experience. During the performance, I noticed and deeply appreciated the great acting. Thanks to the acting, I could feel the emotions of the characters. The acting only brought me emotionally closer to the characters. It also helped me feel their pain as if it was my own. I could have very well have simply read the play but it certainly would not have been the same thing. Watching the play on stage was an enlightening experience for me. As I looked around, I have noticed that the audience was filled with mostly upper middle class people. When I first sat down and was anxious to start watching the performance, I have noticed that other people in the audience were also eager to discover what was in store.

In conclusion, going to a Broadway play was one of the most important events of my life. Being among people who had an equally deep appreciation for the Arts gave me a sense of belonging. I was also impressed with the performance of the actors. Seeing the play performed on stage encouraged me to read the play. I have written a couple of pieces on the play since then. In addition,seeing the dysfunctional family on stage certainly made me feel better about my own family.  I felt a sense of bonding with the suffering family members on stage.

Works Cited

Retrieved from http://www.englistika.info/podatki/1_letnik/uvod_v_lit_teorijo_oneill_journey_summary.pdf

Retrieved from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/longdays/summary.html

Eugene O’Neill. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”.