Compare/Contrast the plays' Long Day's Journey into Night and Candida - Essay Example

This paper is thus an analysis on these plays and talks about what sets them apart from each other as well as brings the plays in tandem with one another at the same time. ‘Long Day’s Journey Into The Night’ talks about a dysfunctional family consisting of two brothers and their parents and how they cope with the effects of alcoholism and addiction towards morphine. Substance abuse has caused a great deal of trouble in the lies of these four people and the play helps to give a clear picture of a single day in the life of this family.

Many say that it is also based on the life of the writer himself, and has helped him to vent out a large amount of his feelings with respect to the kind of trouble and trauma that he was subjected to during the course of his childhood. (O’Neill, Eugene) ‘Candida’ on the other hand is about a woman by the same name as the title of the book who is the wife of a clergyman by the name of Morell. She continues on a very mundane lifestyle day after day, being married to someone who makes her feel incomplete with respect to life and living vibrantly.

She soon embarked on a journey with a poet and found out about the exciting things that she was missing out on because of being bound by her husband. However, with time, she realizes that she does not want to choose the poet over her husband because that would mean taking the easy way out. Thus, she tries to work out her issues and help her spouse understand what needs to be done in order to make their marriage better. (Shaw, George Bernard) Both plays thus talk about human emotions and feelings very deeply.

The one thing that they have in common is the kind of pain that the characters in both plays go through; in O’Neill’s work, the men of the family continue blaming and resenting each other because of their addiction towards alcohol. They fail to understand each other and scream and shout all the time. This leads to the younger boys also becoming uncivil and causes a lot of pain on the inside for everyone. They are not able to voice their opinions properly, and thus are subject to verbal violence.

In Shaw’s work as well, Candida is unhappy with the way her life has been proceeding and wants a change and thus turns hostile towards the complacency that she received from her husband. This further helps her fall in love with another man; however she soon realizes her mistake and amends her way. In both books, the women have been given pure importance; this can be seen as in O’Neill’s play, the mother of the boys is not into drinking or morphine and thus is the only pillar that helps to keep the family together.

Through many a dialogue, one can see that she is trying her best, despite the unhappiness that she is being caused, to try and make the men see reason and fall into line. Much the same way, Candida also tries finally to see reason and helps herself as well as the men in her life understand the kind of hardships that she has been going through. O’Neill has tried to write a semi-autobiography through his play whereas Shaw’s work is of pure fiction and talks about an emotion known to many women across the world.

O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into The Night does not really talk of a happy ending where everyone sees eye to eye and the matter within the household is resolved. It is just an account of a day’s events that take place within the household on a gradual and probable daily basis. Shaw, contrary to this, helps Candida comprehend a solution for her in