The Importance of Family in 20th Century Drama
The Importance of Family in 20th Century DramaThroughout the twentieth century the importance of the institution of the family has been an integral part in American drama. Drama has focused on such family conflicts such as drug addiction, marital problems, and coming to terms with past events. The authors’ diction and the mood of each particular piece of work accentuate these conflicts. The unique combination of familial conflict, language, and mood has produced great pieces of literature such as Eugene O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, and Marsha Norman’s Third and Oak. All three of these plays have one central issue at the heart of each, and that is family conflict. Although the main subject matter is a commonality in each work, their individual details set them apart from one another. In O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night the main crisis in the family is Mary’s morphine addiction and the Tyrone family’s denial of that addiction. Williams’s The Glass Menagerie focuses on Amanda Wingfield’s unwillingness to let go of the past, and Norman’s Third and Oak centers on Deedee’s marital problems and Alberta’s acceptance of her husband’s death. Each play focuses on a different crisis for the families involved, and each one utilizes different diction to suit the crisis at hand.
In O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night the Tyrone family is dealing with the morphine addiction of Mary Tyrone. O’Neill’s diction creates a mood of denial that mirrors the family’s refusal to see Mary’s relapse into drug use. No one in the family is able to fully admit to Mary’s problem until they are confronted with physical changes in Mary that are undeniable. The family’s tendency to deny Mary’s problem leads to another crisis that is prevalent throughout the play: blame. The Tyrone’s deal with their deficiencies by blaming each other for what went wrong with them. Mary even blames her children for the loss of her youth when she says, “It wasn’t until after Edmund was born that I had a single grey hair. Then it began to turn white.” (1311). O’Neill uses this ever-present blame to set off the family’s denial of their problems. As long as the Tyrones can continue to preoccupy themselves by blaming each other, then they do not have to admit to the looming crises at hand. This type of denial pushes the family farther into their problems, and it soon becomes apparent that until the Tyrone’s face their deficiencies they will be caught in a never-ending cycle of misery.
Williams also explores familial conflicts in The Glass Menagerie. In his play Williams focuses on the Wingfield family, but unlike O’Neill, he draws more attention to the individual members’ problems. With The Glass Menagerie Williams calls attention to the fact that if the individuals of a family are...
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