Estrangement and Isolation: A Critical Study of Mary Tyron as an Alienated Character in Long Day’s Journey into Night

Abstract

This study examines the psychological and existential elements of estrangement in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night with a particular focus on Mary Tyrone. The study looks at how Mary's inner world represents detachment from self, family, and society. Researcher uses Melvin Seeman's Theory of Alienation, which specifies five elements such as helplessness, normlessness, meaninglessness, isolation, and self-estrangement. Mary's actual and figurative detachment from reality is symbolized by O'Neill's depiction of her addiction, disillusionment, and retreat into the fog. The goal of the study is to determine how Mary's psychological tension, fractured identity, and incapacity to relate to those around her are explained by Seeman's theoretical framework. This study emphasizes the psychological cost of unmet aspirations, shame, and emotional repression in a patriarchal home structure as well as the larger subject of existential despair within the contemporary family by examining Mary's alienation using Seeman's model. The significance of this study is to demonstrate how alienation affects members of our society by the actions of others, leading to their isolation and estrangement from themselves.