Prompt 01
Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill
In Long Day's Journey Into Night, Eugene O'Neill portrays the Tyrone family as a household ensnared in cycles of blame, denial, and mutual destruction. Write a well-structured essay arguing how O'Neill employs the motif of the past — through characters' repeated confessions, accusations, and rationalizations — to serve as both a prison and a coping mechanism for the Tyrone family. In your argument, examine how the relationships of at least two characters with the past reveal a central theme about guilt, identity, or the inability to escape. Support your claims with specific evidence from the text.