This play is a stage drama focusing on the conflicts plaguing
one family, the Tyrones. Even if no one dies at the end, the
play is a tragedy: it documents the downfall of the House of
Tyrone. In most tragedies the hero has a fatal flaw or makes
some error in judgment. Each of the Tyrones has at least one
tragic flaw with which they're slowly destroying themselves.
James is miserly and an alcoholic, Jamie is a gambler and an
alcoholic, Edmund has consumption and is an alcoholic, and Mary
is addicted to morphine. Often times, Greek tragic heroes are
victims of fate. Take Oedipus for example. He was doomed from
birth to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Unknowingly,
he does just that. A comparison can be made to the Greek notion
of fate and the idea of the past controlling the future. We
learn over the course of Long Day's Journey into Night how
events in each character's past made them into who they are.
Though the Tyrones aren't powerless in the hands of the gods
(like many Greek tragic heroes), they