Long Day’s Journey into Night
by Eugene O’Neill

Long Day’s Journey into Night: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

Long Day's Journey into Night is part of a genre in theater called Realism. This is not, it should be said, the same as literary Realism. In theater, Realism was a long movement beginning in the 1870s and continuing through the 20th century. It is more of a method than a literary movement: in realist theater, people speak and act as they would in real life, using unadorned, prose language. The goal is to create a facsimile of reality, and the conflict in the realist theater is usually psychological. In literature, on the other hand, Realism is a more specific movement from the second half of the 19th century in Europe and the United States. A reaction to Romanticism, Realism had a particular focus on urban life, industrialism, poverty, and the working class.