Introduction
Several people believe that love is present in their lives and expressed through the words and actions of people around them. Not many people, however, may distinguish between different types of love, four types discussed in the Bible, to be more exact. These are eros, storge, phileo, and agape love, which are all different.
However, These types of love are present in every person’s life, though not everybody can duly appreciate them or sometimes even notice them. This can be perfectly illustrated in Eugene O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey into Night. At first glance, love seems not to be present in the play at all because its characters constantly argue and blame each other; a more thorough consideration, however, allows realizing that the whole play is filled with all four types of love, some of which are more tangible, while the other are less. Four types of love, eros, storge, phileo, and agape love, can be found in O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, of which storge love can be distinguished best of all, while eros is almost completely hidden, and phileo and agape are practically absent.
Main body
To begin with, eros love can be found in the play only if one attentively reads or watches it. Eros love, in general, means physical passion that takes place between a man and a woman within their marriage. The play does not directly present the scenes or even hints to the scenes in which this type of love is displayed by Mary and James Tyrone, but there are occasions when the old passion between them breaks out. One of such scenes is at the beginning of the play when Mary returns from the sanatorium where she gained some weight after she has been treated from morphine addiction. Tyrone gives his wife a playful hug saying: “You’re a fine armful now, Mary, with those twenty pounds you’ve gained” (O’Neill, p. 14). This points to the fact that passion between them has once been stronger, but, under the burden of circumstances and due to their age (James is 65 and Mary is 54) eros love has gradually vanished from their lives.
Storge love, however, replaces all other kinds of love in the family presented in the play. Unlike eros love, storge love is a natural bond that is not so easy to destroy; this is a bond between a mother and a child, a father and children, as well as between children themselves. Though the Tyrones constantly reproach each other (for instance, children reproach Tyrone Sr. for stinginess, Mary is reproached for her drug addiction, James Jr. and Edmund for their unwillingness to work harder, etc), they still display warmth and care for each other. For example, Mary is worried about her younger son’s health, “He needs to eat to keep up his strength” (O’Neill, p. 16), while Tyrone Sr. is more worried about her health, “…don’t let yourself get worried” (O’Neill 16), and Mary herself does not want the others to be filled with her problems and health, “I’m not upset. What makes you think I’m upset?” (O’Neill, p. 16). This and a number of similar situations prove that storge love is quite strong in this family, even though its members might not wish to admit this.
In contrast, phileo love can rarely be observed in Tyrone’s family. This type of love is based on affection and warm feelings between different people. It is more characteristic for romantic relations, but they are almost absent in the play. Something resembling phileo love can be observed between Cathleen and Edmund who are still young and can sometimes flirt with each other; this can be seen from the scene where Cathleen enters the room with a tray of drinks and “Edmund pretends to be so absorbed in his book that he does not notice her, but she ignores this” (O’Neill, p. 53) and engages him into a conversation. In this way, phileo love can be found in some aspects of the Tyrones’ lives.
And lastly, agape love seems to be absolutely absent from the life of this family, but it is still there, though thoroughly hidden. Agape love is the highest form of love and those who feel it are ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of somebody else. Though all the Tyrones seem tough sometimes, they all display agape love towards each other. Mary, for instance, could readily give her life for her son’s health, while Edmund was already doing this for he was neglecting his disease for his mother and family members not to feel worried about him. Tyrone Sr. and Tyrone Jr., in their turn, cared much about Mary’s addiction and did everything possible to prevent her from taking drugs. Therefore, agape love indeed was present in this family.
Conclusion
In sum, four types of love can be found in O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, a play for which love seems to be not typical. Nevertheless, eros, storge, phileo, and agape can be found in the play. Of these four types, storge love is the easiest to trace, while agape is hidden deep inside the soul of every family member presented in the play.