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1-Page Summary of Night
The play takes place in August 1912 at the Tyrone family’s summer home. We learn that Mary has recently returned from a sanatorium for morphine addiction, and we find out later on that her brother Edmund is coughing very violently and might have tuberculosis. Throughout the course of the play, we slowly find out that Mary still has a drug problem despite being away for treatment.
The play mostly deals with the discovery of two medical tragedies. However, it also focuses on the family’s inability to let go of their past and forgive each other for their mistakes. For example, Mary is constantly blamed for her addiction to morphine after she had given birth because Tyrone refused to pay for a good doctor. On the other hand, Tyrone never admits that he was wrong in his decision not to pay for a better doctor. They all argue over Jamie and Edmund’s failure to become successes as they had hoped they would be when they were growing up. As time passes by, however, things get worse as both men drink more alcohol until they pass out at the end of Act IV.
The play is repetitive. There are numerous arguments between Tyrone and Mary, the main characters of the play. The first argument occurs in Act I; it’s set just before lunchtime and features Mary and Tyrone. Other arguments occur throughout the play as well, including one that occurs after lunch in Act II Scene I. Another argument happens after dinner in Act III Scene I between Jamie (Mary’s son) and his mother, Mary; another one happens right before dinner at Edmund’s house (Jamie’s brother) where he argues with his father about going to see a psychiatrist; finally there is an argument during dinner when Jamie has an outburst over not wanting to go to school anymore because everyone will laugh at him for being stupid or something like that.
The repetition of the same plot shows that this day is not special. Instead, it’s just another ordinary day for the Tyrones. The family fights and argues but also loves each other in a way they can’t express to one another.
Act I, Part One
The play begins in August, 1912. The setting is the living room of the Tyrone family’s summer home. It is 8:30 am and they have just finished breakfast. They are talking about Mary’s weight gain. She says that she feels better even though she has been eating less food lately, but Tyrone tells her that he thinks she should gain more weight because being skinny isn’t healthy for her. He also mentions that he thinks Edmund might be sick with something other than a cold, although Mary disagrees with him on this point and insists there’s nothing to worry about since it is only a cold.
Edmund and Jamie are heard laughing in the next room. Tyrone immediately grows bitter, assuming they’re making fun of him. Edmund and Jamie enter, but when he sees that they’re looking at his mother, Tyrone becomes angry again. The conversation turns nasty as the sons start to make fun of Tyrone’s snoring (something about which he is sensitive). To calm things down, Edmund tells a funny story about a tenant on their land in Ireland where the family comes from. But Tyrone isn’t amused because it could be an issue with ownership of the land. He attacks Edmund again by calling him socialist, then gets upset himself and leaves after saying “shut up” to Jamie for bringing up how sickly he looks like (as though trying to prevent Mary from finding out something). Mary tells them both that she believes her son has nothing more than a bad cold—despite what any doctor may say—and that she has no faith in doctors at all because she trusts only herself. She reflects on her faded beauty and recognizes that she is starting to decline into old age; even so, however, she doesn’t want people feeling sorry for her or thinking badly about her health just because she’s old enough to be their grandmothers.
