Long Day's Journey Into Night

The fog in Long Day’s Journey into Night symbolizes the mix of inebriation and denial that the characters experience as they try to avoid the problems they face as individuals and as a family. Both Mary and Edmund explain the value of the fog, using the obscuring nature of fog as a representation of peace they seek in inebriation. When Edmund returns home at night, he tells Tyrone that he loved being in the fog, noting, “Halfway down the path you can’t see this house. You’d never know it was here” (123), revealing how the fog obscures the home from view, uncovering the symbolic meaning of denial in Edmund’s behavior. While he is out in the fog, not only can he not see the house where his troubles are centered, but he can pretend that those troubles do not exist. In the fog, he pretends he is “in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself” (123), which is also the reason he, Jamie, and Tyrone drink so much alcohol. Like the fog, alcohol obscures their ability to reason with and confront the problems in their lives, allowing them to live in a fantasy where there are no pressing or longstanding issues of resentment and pain.