EDMUND KEY SUPPORTING QUOTES Flashcards
(13 cards)
Summarise how Edmund is represented throughout the play?
- Figure of rebellion, existential and romanticism.
- Self-destructive and indulgent
- Ocilliates between stark realism and optimistic denial.
- Victim under the weight of familal dysfunction
Figure of rebellion, romantic and existentialism (supporting quotes)
‘The fog and the sea seemed part of each other. It was like walking on the bottom of the sea. As if I had drowned long ago
‘‘O Satan, patron of my pain’
‘I’d like to see anyone influence Edmund more than he wants to be’
The fog and the sea seemed…
..part of each other. It was like walking on the bottom of the sea. As if I had drowned long ago.
Haunting metaphor for Edmund detachment from reality. The symbolic blending of the fog and sea symbolizes the blurred boundaries between clarity and obscurity, life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness.
‘O Satan….
‘…patron of my pain’
The Flowers of Evil (Baudelaire)
The invocation of Satan (“O Satan, patron of my pain”) suggests a fascination with suffering as a source of artistic inspiration. Edmund, like Baudelaire, sees beauty in darkness—his tuberculosis, his family’s dysfunction, even his own drunkenness are sources of both agony and poetic insight.
Self-destructiveness and indulgence (supporting quotes)
‘To hell with Dr Hardy! One drink isn’t going to kill me. I feel–all in Papa.’
‘Be drunken. Nothing else matters. Druken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue as you will.
‘To hell with Dr Hardy! One drink…
Isn’t going to kill me. I feel—all in Papa
Be always drunken …?
Nothing else matters. Drunk with what? With wine, with poetry, with virtue, as you will’
Be Drunken (Bauderlaire)
The message of the poem is that to be drunk and escape the crushing weight of time is via external pleasures and joys, thus Edmund quoting this becomes a cry for transcendence. Edmund seeks to sublimate pain—through poetry, sea voyages, and drink (Freud’s escapism through sublimation)
Oscilliates between stark realims and optimistic denial
‘Mama..its bad for you to forget. The right way is to remeber’
Highlights Edmund’s pragmatism, Mary seeks to retreat into oblivion to avoid the painful truths about her life, Edmund understands that acknowledging and confronting these issues is necessary for any sort of resolution.
Suffers the weight of his families dysfunction
‘It’s pretty hard to take at times, having a dope fiend for a mother’
‘(with sudden nervous nervous exasperation.
Oh, for God’s sake, Papa! If you’re starting that stuff again, I’ll beat it)
(bursting with rage.. I won’t go to any damned state farm..(just so you can save) a few lousy dollars…You stinking old miser!
‘I’ve tried to make allowances. Christ, you have to make allowances in this damned family or you’ll go nuts’
With sudden nervous exasperation..
Oh, for God’s sake, Papa! If you’re starting that stuff again, I’ll beat it
“I’ll beat it” (slang for leaving) shows his desire to escape the cyclical arguments—a recurring theme in the play.
‘its pretty hard to take…
at times having a dope fiend for a mother
His bluntness reveals pent-up anger but also profound hurt—he loves her but is devastated by her inability to stay sober. This aligns with his role as the family’s reluctant truth-teller, even when it’s painful. O’Neill’s own mother struggled with morphine addiction, and this line channels his helpless rage at watching a parent self-destruct.
Bursting with rage…I won’t go..
to any damned state farm (just so you can) save a few lousy dollars. you stinking old miser!
Edmund’s fury hides terror of dying (TB was often fatal in 1912). His father’s frugality feels like a death sentence. . O’Neill’s father sent him to a cheap sanatorium, which he resented bitterly. This line channels that lifelong betrayal.
I’ve tried to make allowances. Christ…
, you have to make allowances in this damned
family or go nuts!
The Tyrones are bound by love and loathing. Edmund admits that forgiveness is survival, but it’s destroying him.
