Student Question
What's the significance of a dollar's value in Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill?
Quick answer:
The "value of a dollar" in Eugene O'Neill's play is significant as it highlights James Tyrone's frugality, stemming from his impoverished upbringing in Ireland. Despite his wealth, Tyrone's stinginess affects his family's well-being, as seen in Mary's morphine addiction and Edmund's inadequate tuberculosis care. His penny-pinching ways create tension and resentment, as his family accuses him of prioritizing money over their happiness and needs.
In Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night , the “value of a dollar” is significant because James Tyrone is accused by his family of being a miser with his money. Although Tyrone has made a small fortune by playing the lead role in the Count of Monte Cristo, and he also owns property, he is stingy with his money when it comes to his family. He says he learned the value of a dollar by growing up in poverty in Ireland, and that childhood taught him to hold on to his wealth. His family, however, suffers from his miserly ways. Mary claims that she would not be addicted to morphine had Tyrone hadn’t paid a “quack” doctor to look after her after Edmond was born. Tyrone’s sons also accuse him of being cheap when considering a sanitorium for Edmond’s tuberculosis care. He tells Edmond he can go to...
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any hospital he likes, but then quickly adds, “within reason,” proving that he remains focused on the value of a dollar throughout.
In *Long Day's Journey Into Night*, what does "the value of a dollar" signify?
The meaning of the thematic element "value of a dollar" in Long Day's
Journey into the Night by Eugene O'Neil rests in James Tyrone's background.
Abandoned by his father at a young age, he and his mother lived in poverty with
poverty's unrelenting demands of labor. It was here that James learned the
value of a dollar, an idiom meaning that he knows the importance of being
frugal and saving money through only spending what's necessary.
The significance of this phrase is that James's wife and sons believe that the
family is suffering and failing because James carried frugality too far and
became miserly, putting the value of a dollar ahead of the value of his wife
and children and their happiness. This is profoundly illustrated in Edmund's
illness: Instead of saying "As long as I have it, nothing is too good for my
beloved son," James says that a second rate doctor is good enough.