Long Day's Journey Into Night Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

Fog can represent a number of different things (estrangement, retreating into one's self, blindness) in Long Day's Journey, but generally, for all of the characters, fog is dark, isolating, and uns...

The family car makes for an interesting symbol because it is intended to mean one thing but works out to mean another: James buys the thing as proof of how much he cares for Mary. He also wants to...

Alcohol and morphine function (as drugs often do in literature) as symbols of retreat. Basically, no one in the family has anywhere to go – literally or metaphorically – so they have tw...

The cyclical movement of time, as represented by the progress of day to night, is one of the central symbols of Long Day's Journey. The Tyrone family is caught in a similar cycle. They attack each...

Both of the Tyrone parents have a carefully hidden object that they used to look at every once in a while to remind themselves about what they've lost. Mary's wedding dress brings to mind her happi...