Marriage represents a complex concept that requires continuous work, the ability to understand, compromise, support, rely on, and respect a person. Without any doubt, more factors and elements exist and influence how marriage is perceived among communities and how different couples view this issue. The plays Waiting for Godot and A Long Day’s Journey into Night indirectly imply the topic of the marriage’s role and how it impacts the individuals. This paper aims to find the aspects of this topic in the two plays mentioned above, support it with examples, and discuss it.
One of the first thoughts that require attention is the presence of affairs in a married couple and how previous experiences or mistakes can affect one’s life partner’s emotional state. In A Long Day’s Journey into Night, it is mentioned that James Tyron had a mistress before getting married to Mary. This fact is still unsettled in Mary’s mind, and she views it as humiliation in the eyes of family and society. Hence, it is the implication of people struggling with their demons and being torn apart by inner contradictions, which is a frequent issue in marriage.
The significant problem in A Long Day’s Journey into Night is Mary’s morphine addiction that keeps growing. One can say that her obsession with drugs has deep roots in her relationships with the husband and other family members. Throughout the events of the play and everything that the main female character says, the viewer can understand that Mary loves James, but she often regrets marrying him. It is as if she is living in a world of dreams and obscure visions of the past, fantasies, and trembling memories. The concept of marriage here is shown from a perspective that often people repentance their choices in life and dive into the thoughts about what could have been.
It is also crucial to mention here that harsh reality, binge drinking of one son, the loss of another, and tuberculosis diagnosis of the third son made Mary lose hope in a bright future. In one of the scenes, she claims that she didn’t manage to build a home with James, which implies that she is unsatisfied with her marriage, and hopes, mistakes, and grudges eat her from the inside. The deeper the viewers plunge into this story, the clearer they realize that each member of the presented family has a multifaceted and ambiguous personality with their dreams, aspirations, vices, weaknesses, losses, and pain. The play portrays one day, which discloses the problems in marriage and reflects the reality, in which many couples live, unable to face the truth and make a difference.
Mary remembers with passion the years that she spent in the monastery and how she wanted to become a nun, or her childhood ability to play the piano. All those imaginings draw her into that stable, full-blooded, and comfortable state of mind. However, those are past emotions, and it represents something that she doesn’t feel and cannot find anymore. A thin implication can be that those considerations and contemplations are the grievances of the inability to maintain this feeling in her marriage. Her husband, James Tyron, had a complicated childhood, and his father left him. It also had an imprint on the type of person that he became with years. Consequently, there is an ocean of mutual claims and wounds among family members, accumulated throughout the years. Everyone has something to regret and repent, which shows the controversial side of marriage and the significance of having the ability to find happiness with what one possesses at the moment.
The play Waiting for Godot does not directly address the role of marriage. It is possible to say that this drama is about God, due to the discussions that the characters have and in which situations they find themselves. Nevertheless, one can claim that the topic of marriage can be translated into the relationships between the main characters Vladimir and Estragon. They represent two people who care about each other and who are going through life together. On the second day, Didi saw Estragon’s shoes, and without an ability to locate his friend, one could feel his frustration and worry. After that, when Estragon showed up, the two men hugged each other, which portrays close connection solicitude. Both men are waiting for Godot, who does not come, and it reveals the essence of marriages, where the partners are calm and, in silence, they can feel that they are not alone.
It is challenging to find the echoes of the issue of marriage in this play, but, through more in-depth insight, one can say that this piece of art portrays a small community having the same goal. The viewer can notice the support that Vladimir and Estragon have. For example, when Gogo claims that the shoes he took off the day before are not the same, Didi supposes that someone just changed and left their shoes. Hence, Didi calmly explains things to Estragon, showing care and encouragement for his friend. It can be related to marriages when one of the partners is frustrated or is getting old and starts losing one’s mind, and the other is mindful and attentive. Sometimes people have an unspoken bond, and it is in their essence to take responsibility for one another.
Another pair of specific relationships in the play is Pozzo and Lucky, in which it seems that Lucky performs anything Pozzo asks. Still, one can say that the fact that Lucky did everything asked, like dancing, or thinking out loud, was to fill Pozzo’s needs and desires. The second act reveals that Pozzo became blind, and Lucky is deaf, which implies how much Pozzo needs his partner in life. The same can be applied to marriage because its role is to fulfill each other and stand by one’s side no matter what happens. Another thought is that in a dramatic and, to a certain extent, hilarious manner, the author portrays married couples’ relationships. Sometimes they have ups and downs or a strong desire to leave, but, eventually, the realization that they need each other overcomes. The representation of inseparability is shown through the attitudes that Pozzo and Lucky have.
Although those are two dramatic plays Waiting for Godot, in contrast to A Long Day’s Journey into Night, represents marriage not as lost hopes and resentments of the past, but as continuous support and habitude. Each of the works raises the issue of relationships between people, which is the undeviating meaning of marriage. Every individual needs love and belonging, and marriage is one of the means to achieve this need.
Works Cited
Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York’s Grove Press, 1954.
O’Neill, Eugene. A Long Day’s Journey into Night. Yale University Press, 1956.