Abstract:As one of the important dramatists in the American drama history, Eugene O'Neil revealed the power of tragedy through his outstanding works as well as his life experiences. When appreciating the plays of him, we can notice some special power that surpasses the plot itself and gets into our deep heart, which is the combination of reality and art. Looking back on the rough life of Eugene O'Neil, it’s not difficult to find that his life experience was exactly a tragedy. And the twists and turns in life of Eugene O'Neil had great impact on his literature creation, which can find expression in that the works in different stages were always closely interwoven with his real experiences, thus forming the semi-real heart portrayal of him. Long Day’s Journey into Night, as a representative works of later period was a semi-biographical work interwoven with love and hate and has attracted many scholars’ interests. The author is going to start the paper with the traumatic memory and creation experience of Eugene O'Neil to dig out the background behind the work. And based on the Long Day’s Journey into Night, the author mainly focuses on the exploration of the conflicting psychological state and living state of characters with the help of the traumatic theory. Then in view of the tragedy and struggle of the small family, the author naturally extends the topic to the struggle or tragedy of modern people. 

Key words: Long Day’s Journey into Night family tragedy traumatic memory living predicament 

Content

摘要：

Abstract:

Introduction-5

1 Background of the Play-8

1.1The Connection between Traumatic Memory and Literature Creation-8

1.2 The Traumatic Family Life of Eugene O’Neil-9

1.3 The Traumatic Memories in Eugene O’Neil’s Writing-12

2 Tragedies in the Play-14

2.1 Traumatic Memories of the Family Members-14

2.1.1 Innocent and Morphine Addicted Mother-14

2.1.2 Rootless and Money-Obsessed Father-16

2.1.3 Inner Conflicting Sons-18

2.2 Conflicts in the Family and the Reasons for Family Tragedy-19

2.2.2 Exploration for the Dysfunctional Family-21

3 Tragedy of Modern People-22

3.1 The Tragedy of Modern People-22

3.2 Solutions for Living Predicament of Modern People-25

Conclusion-26

Bibliography-27

Acknowledgement-28