Existential Nihilism in Forging The Fate: O’ Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night
| Author |
| Pangeijam Sanjeev |
| Date of Publication: June, 2026 |
| Volume: XXIII |
| DOI:10.65734/tgi.ssei.avp.ijcsss.ti.23.3 |
| Abstract |
| Existential nihilism itself is rather a critical terminology that has a certain inherent ambiguousness about it. Generally, it refers to such notions as life has no intrinsic meaning, value or purpose but rather a despairing, sorrowful and catastrophic condition. If it is confined to such technical or general definition, there can be no other interpretation for it outside and beyond the above said points. But a modern aesthetics of existential nihilism has evolved through the passionate involvement of metaphysical and cosmic anguish. O’ Neill, the playwright who lived the tragedy he wrote projects the concept of existential nihilism in thematic effort in his play, Long Day’s Journey into Night. Thematically, he was drawn towards his preoccupation with humanitarianism. His humanitarianism is the outcome of the blood and tears of his life. The absence of love and loss of faith in the inscrutable force within the dramatic personae of Long Day’s Journey into Night highlights the imbibed existential nihilism of his self. This play has exposed the tragic core of the Tyrones by disclosing the existential forces which crush the faith. It reveals the backdrop of the death wish of the Tyrones which is more than a justification for the fate of the modern man are forged by the embodiment of existential nihilism. |
| View Full Article |
