For Educational Purpose

1. Significance of the
appearance of Fog in
'Long Day's Journey into
Night’

2. Prepared by Gayatri Nimavat
Roll no. : 6
M.A semester 2 Batch : 2022-24
Paper 108: The American Literature
Email id: gayatrinimavat128@gmail.com
Enrollment no. : 4069206420220019
Submitted to Department of English,MKBU

3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
About Author
01 Introduction 03 Significance of the
Fog in “Long Day’s
Journey into Night’
Significance of Fog in
Literature
1.”Bleak House”
2.”Heart of Darkness”
02
Theory of Symbols -
Northrop Frye
Work Cited
04 Conclusion

4. Fog in Literature is often mysterious, unpredictable, and a little scary. It
comes out of nowhere without much of a warning and moves on leaving
the characters of a piece of writing in awe as they wonder where it is
going next. There are in fact many things related to the characters
which are wrapped up in the fog. Fog in the play ‘Long Day’s Journey
into Night’ is used as an important symbol.
According to Northrop Frye, symbol is used to mean “any unit of any
literary structure that can be isolated for critical attention” (Frye) This
includes everything from the letters a writer uses to spell his words to
the poem itself as a symbol reflecting the entire poetic universe.
(Denham)
Introduction

5. Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was born in October
16, 1888 at New York, New York, U.S. and died
in November 27, 1953 at Boston, Massachusetts.
He was a foremost American dramatist and
winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936.
His masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey into Night
(produced posthumously 1956), is at the apex of
a long string of great plays, including Beyond the
Horizon (1920), Anna Christie (1922), Strange
Interlude (1928), Ah! Wilderness (1933), and The
Iceman Cometh (1946).(Gelb)
About Author

6. –Northrop Frye
“simultaneous development of
several different schools of
modern criticism, each
making a distinctive choice of
symbols in its analysis”

7. The use of the word “symbol”, which means any unit of any
literary structure that can be isolated for critical attention. A
word, aphrase, or an image used with some kind of special
references are all symbols when they are distinguishable
elements in critical analysis. Even the letters a writer spells his
words with form part of his symbolism in this sense; they would
be isolated only in special cases, such as alliteration or dialect
spellings, but we are still aware that they symbolize sounds.
Criticism as a whole, in terms of this definition, would begin with,
and largely consist of, the systematizing of literary symbolism. It
follows that other words must be used to classify the different
types of symbolism. (Frye)
Theory of Symbols - Northrop Frye

8. Frye observes that the function of signs also
depends on conventional associations. But
the difference between signs and
archetypes is that the latter are complex
variables, which means that a given
archetype may symbolize a variety of
objects, ideas, or emotions. (Denham)
“Green,” for example, “may symbolize hope
or vegetable nature or a go sign in traffic or
Irish patriotism as easily as jealousy, but the
word green as a verbal sign always refers to
a certain color” (Frye)
(Denham)

9. Symbolic meaning of Fog in
Literature
1. Illusion vs Reality 2. Uncertainty 3. Mystery
4. Confusion 5. Dreams 6. Depression

10. Fog in Charles Dickens’s ‘Bleak House’
Right from the start, we are introduced to a world where fog
impairs vision. If we come to this introduction already
understanding that injustice involves a failure to see and
respond, we realize immediately the power of Dickens's
use of fog to image the utterly pervasive and damaging
force of injustice.
Dickens depicts a city where vision is unavoidably
impaired, for fog by definition obscures vision, and this fog
is everywhere. Moreover, this fog has an aggressive
character. It is both ubiquitous and traveling, groping and
seeping into every nook and cranny of London. It also has
a destructive character. It taints the lives of the London
dwellers, sneaking into their eyes and down their throats.
(MaClure)

11. Fog in Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’
Imagery of fog and mist is pervasive in Conrad's stories and in his
thinking about the nature of "art", described in his Preface to The
Nigger of the Narcissus (1897).
Heart of Darkness, underlining the ways in which not only Marlow
and the tale's narrator, but the writer of the tale himself, are alike
protagonists in its particular descent into, and attempted conquest
of, darkness. Conrad was aware of obscurities in this novel;
"brave attempt to grapple with the fogginess of Heart of Darkness,
to explain what I myself tried to shape blindfold". He began the
story not with "an abstract notion", but with "definite images",
relying on their "truth" to convey the novel's "idea".5 Interpretation
of these images has produced wide disagreement about the
novel's "idea" however, and varying views of its achievement.
Marlow’s steamer is caught in the fog, meaning that he has no
idea where he’s going and no idea whether peril or open water
lies ahead. (Gribble)

12. Significance of the appearing of Fog in ‘Long Day's Journey
into Night’
O’Neill employs a literal image of fog in two plays: ‘Fog’,
published in 1914; and his ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’,
published in 1956, three years after his death. The image of
fog never stands alone as literal: O’Neill always places
metaphoric meaning behind it. On the literal level, the image
of fog is what readers expect: a weather condition that yields
fuzzy vision and poor awareness of surroundings. On the
metaphorical level, fog represents his characters’ clouded
states of mind and their search for a sense of meaning and
truth in an otherwise chaotic life.Fog evolves from a symbol
for inner conflict and animosity towards his family, to a symbol
for tolerance and acknowledgement of the irreversible state of
all of their flaws. (Shewbridge)

13. At the opening of the play, Mary rises to look out the window and comment on the
absence of the fog. This “absent” fog returns and closes in throughout the play as a
sign both of Mary’s clouded consciousness and of her desire to disappear from the
sight of the others. (McDonald)
The image of fog also becomes a metaphor for the ways in which Mary and Edmund
choose to endure and escape their traumas. The first mention of fog comes from Mary
in Act I, who notices the day is sunny and bright as she remarks, (Shewbridge)
“Thank heavens, the fog is gone” (O’Neill).
The dialogue between the family members reflects this sunny day as humor and
joking fun fill the scene. However, even in tones of playful banter, O’Neill hints at their
troubles from the very beginning. Mary and James Tyrone, or mother and father,
playfully argue about Tyrone’s snoring habits: (Shewbridge)
MARY: I do feel out of sorts this morning. I wasn’t able to get much sleep with that
awful foghorn going all night long. (O’Neill).
Immediately, Mary’s comment attaches a feeling of anxiety to the fog, which signifies
its imminence, if not its dangerous connotation. As the play progresses, the fog
returns and grows thicker, and both Mary and Edmund become increasingly aware of
their traumas. (Shewbridge)

14. Tyrone and James Tyrone Jr., O’Neill’s father and older brother respectively, are
not as perceptive of the fog and its depth; Mary and Edmund are more critically
aware of its presence and power. (Shewbridge)
Literal fog appears for the first time as a soft, looming presence in Act II:
“Outside the day is still fine but increasingly sultry, with a faint haziness in the air
which softens the glare of the sun” (O’Neill)
As the fog begins to creep into the setting, traumas lurk closer to Mary and
Edmund.
Act III begins with: “Dusk is gathering in the living room, an early dusk due to the
fog which has rolled in from the Sound and is like a white curtain drawn down
outside the windows” (O’Neill)
The fog reduces visibility but still allows light to shine through.
However, by Act IV, the fog has completely engulfed the Tyrone family in the
darkness of the night: (Shewbridge)
“It is around midnight... In the living room only the reading lamp on the table is
lighted. Outside the windows the wall of fog appears denser than ever” (O’Neill)

15. O’Neill creates a shifting image from light to dark, and evokes a tone that shifts
from cheerful to somber, even suffocating. The literal fog does not remain as a
simple prop for the setting; for O’Neill, the image of fog also represents the
psychological journey of him and his family members over the course of one day,
exemplifying a shift from simplicity to complexity in dealing with their traumas. As
the day grows into night and the fog begins to brood over everything, Mary and
Edmund become increasingly aware of their impending confrontations with the
psychological suffering they endure. (Shewbridge)
By the end of the play, it is nighttime and the literal fog surrounds and smothers
them in complete darkness: “Outside the windows the wall of fog appears denser
than ever” (O’Neill).
Likewise, Mary and Edmund are also utterly lost in the depth and complexity of
their psychological affairs. Adrift in the her oppressive addiction, Mary cannot
reverse her state of tragedy, while Edmund uses fog as a false means of escape
clinging to a “hopeless hope” – and comes to realize he must accept his family in
their calamitous state. (Shewbridge)

16. Conclusion
It can be concluded that fog in this play is much
multifaceted and its variable effects on different
characters and at different times in the dramatic action
are what distinguishes it from a potent dramaturgical
device. Fog clearly indicates “weather progression” in
this play. Proceeding from “fine morning” to “sunshine
dims,” this progression culminates in the “dense fog-
dark early” and the “dense fog, black night” as the play
moves forward towards its end.

17. Works Cited
Denham, Robert D. “The Educated Imagination.” Northrop Frye and Critical Method: Theory of Symbols,
macblog.mcmaster.ca/fryeblog/critical-method/theory-of-symbols.html. Accessed 13 March 2023.
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Edited by David Damrosch, Princeton University
Press, 2020. Accessed 13 March 2023.
Gelb, Arthur and Gelb, Barbara. "Eugene O’Neill". Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Feb. 2023,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eugene-ONeill. Accessed 8 March 2023.
Gribble, Jennifer. “The Fogginess of 'Heart of Darkness' | Sydney Studies in English.” Sydney Open
Journals, 12 October 2008, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/SSE/article/view/417.
Accessed 13 March 2023.

18. McClure, Joyce Kloc. “Seeing through the Fog: Love and Injustice in ‘Bleak House.’” The Journal of
Religious Ethics, vol. 31, no. 1, 2003, pp. 23–44. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40018201.
Accessed 8 Mar. 2023.
McDonald, David. “The Phenomenology of the Glance in ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night.’” Theatre
Journal, vol. 31, no. 3, 1979, pp. 343–56. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3219339. Accessed 12
Mar. 2023.
O'Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journey Into Night. Yale University Press, 2002. Accessed 13 March 2023.
Shewbridge, Kelsey B. “A LIFETIME OF SUFFERING AND SURVIVAL: EUGENE O'NEILL AND THE
PROGRESSIVE SYMBOL OF FOG.” Carroll Collected,
https://collected.jcu.edu/mastersessays/86. Accessed 13 March 2023.

19. Thank You