Long Day's Journey Into Night Lies and Deceit Quotes Page 1

It's interesting that this attack should be directed at Jamie, since throughout the first act, he's the only character in the play who won't forget or back down from Edmund or Mary's problems. True, in Jamie's own life he tries to forget anything inconvenient, but he's passionate about making sure no one forgets his mother's addiction or the severity of his brother's illness.

Here's the first comment that we know is a straight-up lie. When Jamie asks Mary to take care of herself, he obviously means not to turn back to morphine, and she responds with an oath on her sacred word of honor – which she has no intention of abiding by. Those are awfully strong words that make it impossible to trust Mary as the play goes on.

Here Mary makes the connection between memory, the past, and deceit explicit. A life spent trying to battle against the constraints of the past is a life spent lying, according to Mary. We have to remember the context, though, since Mary is high on morphine in this scene. When she isn't on morphine, she wants to move forward and forget about the nasty parts of the past. But which is right? Just because Mary's high, doesn't mean that she's inherently wrong.