For over thirty years (1920 - 1950) the plays of Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) dominated American drama bringing fame and international reputation to their author. Truth and the issues provoked by facing it lie at the heart of the domestic realism of Eugene O'Neill's late plays. The living room inhabited by ordinary people has become the miniature of the world outside. O'Neill discovers that the true drama has significance in its effect on a particular family. Long Day's Journey into Night (1940) - awarded the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published - illustrates the above statement very well. The simple domestic setting is undermined by emotion: the nightmare existence of one Irish American family is both painfully and tragically portrayed as the Tyrones (father, mother and sons) endure a series of crises in their lives during the course of the four-act play.

Overwhelmingly painful, Long Day's Journey into Night depicts the...