ubled and deeply divided. Though Jamie Tyrone has enjoyed success on the stage and has made sufficient money to become a major property owner, he is not a happy man and his wife and children are also unhappy. The pursuit of the American dream of wealth has not resulted for this family in a desirable outcome.
Implicit in the American dream is that all a person needs is an opportunity for success. This dream suggests that an individual can literally pull himself or herself up by the bootstraps, choosing to become wealthy or at least sufficiently prosperous to maintain a good quality of life. The fact of the matter is that people like Edmund Tyrone in O'Neill's (1878) play are not able to capitalize upon the opportunities that American life and society provide them; Edmund is an alcoholic, a failure, and a man who is doomed to an early death. He is not able to capitalize upon the opportunities that his father, James Tyrone, believes he has provided for his son. Similarly, Jamie Tyrone û an alcoholic and womanizer who has followed his father to the stage û has also not been able to achieve real success. What the famil
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