Here's why -- the love story, between Jim Tyrone and Josie Hogan, is beautiful, complex, and tormented. Now you take Romeo and Juliet: he was hot for her, she was hot for him; not much of a story, really. I can't tell you now about the nature of the characters or the relationship -- you'll have to discover that for yourself. (But maybe the title will tell you something.)
The play is set in Connecticut, of course, but back in the 1920's. It's more of a rural, agricultural Connecticut, compared to our Connecticut of suburban commuters in their McMansions.
And the playwright, Eugene O'Neill is a Connecticut native. And he's a heavyweight. As should become apparent as you read this.
Be sure to leave your name when you leave your response.
Eugene O'neill created a very dramatic atmosphere. The push and pull love relationship between Jim and Josie was frustrating to read. Their love is palpable yet it is wrought with tragedy. Jim is emotionally fragile and has horrible tendencies which I believe Josie will not be able to alleviate.
ReplyDeleteJosie is the backbone of her family and after everything she has done for them I believe she deserves truelove/happiness. This is the first time Josie has shown interest in commitment with a man and it is heartbreaking her fantasies will not be fulfilled.
The ending, to me, was unsatisfying as I prefer pleasant conclusions. However, I admire how the author illustrated the harsh reality of life in their bitter sendoff. I hope Josie and Jim are able to find peace within themselves.
-Sarah Gorman
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAt the conclusion of this play, I found myself thinking back to Romeo and Juliet, which obviously we all read as sophomores. It is apparent that in both plays, two individuals that love each other are forced apart by circumstance. The similarities, however, go beyond this. In both cases, the reader is tipped off in the beginning that whatever love is to be found will eventually be lost. Clearly, in Romeo and Juliet, this tip comes in the prologue when they are called "star-crossed" and it is made known that they will kill themselves. In A Moon for the Misbegotten, however, the tip comes in the title. By deeming the whole of the characters "misbegotten", O'Neill essentially screams to the reader that these people will not end up happy by the end. When Josie and Jim forge their connection, it becomes clear that they were doomed.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent point, as the two are basically mirror images of each other. While Jim and Josie are not necessarily members of opposing families, they come together over a feud, in this case for land, between Phil Hogan and Harder. They fall madly in love with each other, just like Romeo and Juliet, and end on a tragic note. While Jim leaving Josie is not near as devastating as a double suicide, it is more symbolic for a the death of their relationship and who they were before that fateful night.
DeleteAs I was reading the play I never thought about the connection that Brian made; however, looking back at it now I totally see where he's coming from and it makes me appreciate the play even more. Seeing this classic tragic love story being modernized intrigues me and makes me appreciate O'Neill's work and the ending of the story that much more.
Delete-Haley Zmijewski
As I was reading this play, I felt myself becoming more and more frustrated with the actions of Josie and Jim. Their back-and-forth interactions culminated at night, when Jim struggled between living in the moment and vanquishing the demons of his past, while Josie kept switching between being horrified at Jim's history and feeling sorry for his internal battle. The timing was never truly right for the two, and their love was doomed from the beginning. Despite their constant strife to be right for each other, nothing would ever work out, and the play ends rather emptily. Despite this open ending, I felt rather satisfied with the conclusion, although I'm not entirely sure why. These types of endings usually leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, but for some reason O'Neill's work here left me content.
ReplyDelete- Thomas Dineen
Like you, I was contented by the conclusion of this play. I do, however, think that there is reason for this contentedness. What this ending lacks in panache and gratification, it makes up for in finality and reality. When finished with this play, the reader realizes that there is no longer any story left. Both major characters will head their separate ways and will likely die in their current states of being. With no story left, the reader can feel content with the ending, even if it is one that they didn't like. In addition, I personally felt content because of the realistic nature of the tale. I would love to believe that every story, in both the fictional and nonfictional realms, ended with a perfect couple watching a beautiful sunset from a castle on a hill. Nonetheless, I recognize that the real world does not work like this. It is full of compromise and dismay, all in the hope of love that may not come. I think that this work does an excellent job of illustrating this idea that love will not always work. This, along with the finality of the ending, allowed me to appreciate it.
DeleteI agree that the ending of the play was very much a realistic way to conclude the story. However, what really bothered me was that throughout reading the play, I could never really understand why they couldn't be together. Of course, both characters had their flaws, their reserves with one another, and above all a different vision of what their future had in store, but the whole time I couldn't help but believe that their love for one another was above all of those things. I didn't even particularly like them together because of their constant back and forth banter, however, they continually expressed their love for one another both physically and verbally. I'm upset by their inability to really look into their future and try to resolve their complications.
DeleteThere is far more finality in a goodbye between two characters who had almost found what they wanted in the other than a happy one where there the author leaves off their story with an implication of happily ever after. Though I would hold off from applying the word tragedy to this play, it does share the same melancholia in the departure of Jim from the Hogan farmhouse as many of the classic tragedies- most poignantly, Romeo and Juliet. In both examples, there was a satisfying simplicity in the definitive ending of the stories between each set of characters. This is why I agree that O'Neill created an ending that not only lends itself to a feeling of resigned contentedness from the readers, but an ending fitting of the characters of Jim and Josie. When Jim "comes to" in the morning after their night under the moon together, right before he leaves, he kisses Josie and says that he would never forget her love, and that he would love her always. The words Jim says here, at least in my mind, contradicted his actual action of leaving Josie for good. This very thing leads me to believe that this ending was not wholeheartedly tragic; Jim would always love Josie for the acceptance and forgiveness she showed to him, in the way that we as human beings tend to idolize the thing or person that lead us to change for the better, but in the end the strength that Josie restored in him was greater than the love he felt for her. Likewise, Jim gave Josie the strength to have an honest an open heart that was just as powerful as her love for Jim. The fact that they each were able to leave having alleviated the insecurities of the other so they were each a more completed person made the ending less sad, for the characters themselves were more whole than they were at the start of the play.
Delete-Sarah Lateer
I agree with Kacie in the sense that I wish they were able to overcome these personal issues. Although I didn't find myself very satisfied with the ending. I was really hoping they could push through and balance each other out. I am a hopeless romantic and I was wishing for that "Disney fairytale" ending. I think that Josie would have eventually filled the void left in Jim through his mothers death and through that progress in his alcoholism would have been made.
DeleteTo be quite honest, as someone who enjoys reading plays, I wanted to like A Moon for the Misbegotten a lot more than I did. The title is beautifully evocative, the dialogue is engaging and humorous and the main characters are certainly memorable, but I was so frustrated with Jim and Josie I wasn’t able to really care about the tragic aspect of their relationship. The repetitive arguments between almost all of the characters and what I thought was a sudden and unsatisfying ending were the main issues I had with the plot. I hate feeling like there’s something I missed. Maybe it translates better on stage than what comes through in the text?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your observation of the repetition of arguments being frustrating. I found myself wondering throughout the story why the characters were constantly going back to the same discussions, such as Josie and Hogan bickering about whether or not Jim can be trusted. Josie always defended him to her father, but then changed her mind after Hogan comes home saying he betrayed them. This confused me, though because Josie is constantly saying throughout the play how Hogan is always scheming, so why would she question someone she knows and loves because her manipulative father said so? Also I thought the constant back and forth of "I'm going, no I'll stay I love you" between Josie and Jim was overly repetitive and got old quickly. It seemed like they were always apologizing to one another for something they said which they would quickly take back because they were afraid of the other leaving. I think this truly demonstrates the fragility of their relationship because one thing they said could set either one of the pair off.
Delete-Kaitlyn Hill
Thank you for your insight about how Jim and Josie's mutual fragility comes across in their arguments. I agree that the characters' attempt to prove the strength of their opinions by arguing reveals them to be more fragile than they want to appear and also demonstrates their dependence on each other. Even though the repetition could be confusing, it was a very realistic aspect of their relationship and because of their disagreements, it felt more satisfying when they were finally able to resolve some of their problems.
DeleteI agree as well! Often times I found myself accidentally skipping over the italicized parts in order to maintain grasp of what the characters were actually saying, which could have changed the visual representation that is, in part, important to the play and the understanding of the characters emotions and actions.
DeleteKacie said how she often skipped over the italicized parts in order to maintain the conversation between characters and I totally agree. Often times I thought that this play would be so much better if we could have seen it live instead of having to read it. I felt that have to read every single facial movement or glance took away from what was really happening between the characters. Being able to see the actors facial expressions and the emotions across their face all while hearing the different tones that were employed throughout the play would have really brought the story to life.
DeleteI strongly agree with Kaitlyn's observation of the fragility of their relationship, as well as Eliza's dissatisfaction with the repetitive bantering. It seemed as though they repeatedly had the same conversation. Furthermore, throughout the whole night, their conversations mostly consisted of one character apologizing to the other for what personally seemed like an insignificant comment. I believe that was the most frustrating part of the novel. Their inner emotional distress and misery caused them to be very sensitive, despite how tough they may appear to be on the outside. Therefore, the combination of both these extreme characteristics made their emotions more pronounced and dramatized at times. It seemed like they encouraged each other to be more dramatic.
DeleteI think that being an audience member of a live performance must be an fulfilling experience. The way O'Niell refuses to create a "happily ever after" and instead shows the harshness of reality is brilliant. I agree that I found myself reading just the dialogue trying to allow my mind to fill the gaps of emotion and movement. I am very pleased with this pick for a summer reading book because I never would have discovered a play like this. Now seeing this live is definitely on my bucket list!
DeleteSorry I'm a bit late...
DeleteWhile I agree with Eliza about the level of attention this text grabs, I believe this was BECAUSE of their seemingly unhealthy relationship. The arguments, in my opinion, made this play a lot more relatable than Romeo and Juliet per se. As Mr. MacArthur said, A Moon for the Misbegotten certainly tells more of an engaging story than the love tale we read two years ago. I also agree with most everyone here that this play would be thrilling to view live. The drama is much more exciting and gives the play a more modern and realistic feel.
-ricky
One theme I found interesting throughout the play was death, and how it was represented as both a physical and psychological state. This was especially prominent in James Tyrone's character and his parents. His parents were a part of a physical death, but were more at peace than their son. Tyrone was left to suffer the harsh realities with the other misbegotten souls on the earth. This caused him to face a psychological death were there was no more fight left in him, wasting his days away to alcoholism. I found it interesting that Josie was able to give him his "peaceful sleep", as though he were really dead, for a single night. Yet, Tyrone choses to walk away from this peace, and in the end, only goes back to his lonely life of despair and depression.
ReplyDelete- Sierra DeCarli
This is a very interesting theme that I hadn't really considered until I saw this post. After the reveal of Jim's unfortunate past regarding the death of his parents, and moreover the effect that this left on Jim's mental state and ambitions, it becomes more clear why he finds so great a refuge in the Hogan household. He refers to Josie's father repeatedly as a good friend, and seems to only come alive in the script in his banter with both Josie and her father. Unlike Jim, these are two fiery, dynamic characters with more fight in them than it seems the entire town does-a quality Jim himself had lost to the ghosts of his past. He is drawn to Josie particularly because she has the constitution of the very things he had lost and needed in his life. On the flip side of her prized vehemence and excitable personality, she had his peace.
Delete-Sarah Lateer
The theme of death was definitely very important and interesting, especially toward the end of the play where many parallels are drawn between Jim and a dead man. It kind of shows how he is basically dead inside/emotionally, to the point where Josie wishes (even though she loves him) for him to die soon peacefully. It's sad that he is so miserable, and I wonder if he ever got peace or closure. I guess that night with Josie was a form of it, though.
DeleteI started off thinking that this was a book that was going to be light and simple, yet the more I read, the more I realized that the characters in this piece of literature had complex and deep emotions that were difficult to understand. In fact, this, along with the slang of the diologue, forced me to go back and re-read the same passage two or three times to really get what the characters were implying or thinking. This was especially true with Josie and Jim Tyrone, as they often spoke or acted contradictory to what they were feeling. Jim had to force himself not to just use Josie but actually love her, while Josie wished to have a true relationship with Jim even though she knew she had to use him to save the farm. This type of emotional play definately kept me turning the pages.
ReplyDelete-Luke Bowden
Aidan Doyle says: (Reply to Luke Bowden)
DeleteI felt the same way about this play. There were quite a few spots, particularly near the end, where I thought I knew what was going on but when I re-read it, got a completely different meaning out of it. This happened to me in the final dialogue between Hogan and Josie. When I first read this scene, I thought Josie and Hogan were both ready to go back to their normal way of living and were past the conflict with Jim Tyrone. This did not feel right to me so I re-read the scene and noticed all of the little lines hinting Josie was still hurt from the encounter and still would be thinking of Jim for a while longer. I thought having the more complex and deceptive characters made it a more interesting read, although a little more challenging as well. Josie in particular I found to be the most complex to understand because she was a part of all of the major conflicts in the story and dealt with a great deal of emotional struggles with both Hogan and Jim. What do you think? - Aidan
Like you Aidan, I felt the same way about Josie as a complex character. Initially, she is presented as a strong, tough woman who is generally in good spirits despite some brief encounters with her father. However as the play moves onward, we learn that she has many contradictions. She helped three of her brothers escape from their father, however she never thought once to leave. In addition she presents herself as a tough, brute person, but cares deeply about both Hogan and Jim. Josie is a virgin, but constructed a false reputation of being sexually promiscuous so she is not viewed as weak. Although these contradictions make her a hard character to understand, they also make her easy to connect to as people in the world do not present themselves accurately, to shield their own insecurities.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete(Reply to Aidan Doyle)
DeleteAidan,
I absolutely agree with you on this topic. Josie was an incredibly hard character to understand due to her emotional state mixed with the conflicts she faced with Jim and Hogan. Towards the end, I had a hard time decifering at first whether or not she still felt love for Jim Tyrone or not. Like you, I needed to go back and re-read many sections to fully understand how she truly felt. I did not seem to need to do this nearly as much with Hogan. He seemed like a very straight-forward guy with the same attitude and intentions throughout the story. Actually, it is remarkable that Hogan did not seem to display that type of emotional struggle as muh as Josie even though he fought the largest battles for the land.
-Luke Bowden
Aidan Devaney says: I feel like your comments on insecurities and putting up walls to shield these insecurities should be touched on more because it could be major theme for the book. In addition these insecurities reflect society today as well because everyone seems to be concerned with their social image and how others see them. In order to attain said image they do things like josie, who just built a reputation for herself so she could hide the fact that she is still a virgin and that she is clearly unhappy with who she is. Jim, on the other hand, uses very unhealthy coping methods in order to deal with what haunts him. Unfortunately, Jim trying to drown his sorrows in alcohol but unfortunately his demons can swim through this because even when he was drunkest with Josie, it still nagged at his mind and made him feel awful. These coping methods and insecurities reflect to today's society and how people are trying to conform.
DeleteIn accordance with what Aidan and Michael have stated regarding Josie's character, I too was stricken by the sudden shift in characterization used by Mr. O'Neill during the narrative's closing scenes. By the time the curtain had fallen, I found myself rather in a state of confusion: why should Josie be in such a state of emotional uncertainty? I ultimately retraced my footsteps and found a surprising commonality of deep emotional conflict & pain between Josie and Jim. While each of them have their own separate personal conflicts, namely with Jim's losing of his mother and the tragic past of Josie's romantic life, the two of them become intimately intertwined simply out of common feelings of heartbreak and unimaginable despair. Therefore, the relationship of Jim and Josie speaks volumes on a thematic element which is often so subtly written that it is not at first realized by the reader: the gravitation and familiarity shared by people who have experienced significant emotional trauma regardless of the specific form of said trauma (a theme which may also be observed prominently in O'Neill's prequel Long Day's Journey into Night, during which the full extent of the Tyrone family's suffering may be seen.) So while I was initially quite surprised by the direction the narrative took with Josie's character, upon further analysis all character elements between her and Jim made the fall of her "emotional walls", if you will, far more understandable and easier to identify with.
DeleteWhile reading "The Moon for the Misbegotten," I wanted to see the connection that both Josie and Jim shared, but there were times that it was frustrating. While reading, the two characters seemed to be at times full in love with each other, but at others seem to be butting heads. The two fell in love because they were both different in the ways of the society. Jim was known as an alcoholic, and Josie was known as a strong headed woman with negative views of herself. Both found this love that they were looking for in each other, but with difficulty. In my opinion, Jim was being protected by a maternal love more than a loving relationship. This propped Jim to be confused but also comforting. This relationship was frustrating because I also wanted it to work out and for them to be happy with each other. But in the end, they were where they started, looking for a change in the world they lived in.
ReplyDelete-Abbey Chmura
I agree with your idea that Jim saw Josie's love as maternal. The fact that he fell asleep on her lap further exemplifies that idea. It was just as a baby having trouble sleeping, would rely on being held by his mother to get back into that peaceful sleep.
DeleteI also agree that their relationship was very frustrating and full of situations where they were continuously contradicting each other. At times they seemed to be having a simple conversation and enjoying each other's company, then the next troubling one another. This was irritating because the next second they would act as a loving couple again. It seemed like very bipolar behavior on both ends.
I totally agree with this. Though they loved each other they were not suited to a romantic relationship and weren't compatible. I agree with the evidence Sierra and Abbey pointed out, and would like to add the fact that Josie didn't truly want to have sex with Jim, and was horrified when he made drunken advances on her. He also didn't see her that way, and was remorseful when he learned of what he'd done. I think Jim was just unable to feel romantic love at that point, he was just so numb after the incident with his parents and the prostitute and his drinking. After his mom's death, he sought out a new maternal figure, which ended up being Josie.
DeleteAbbey, this is exactly how I felt while reading about Jim and Josie's relationship. It annoyed me that they couldn't get their feelings for each other straight. Definitely a very frustrating relationship. I share the same opinion as you on their relationship being frustrating and irritating.-Isabelle Merluzzo
DeleteOn the contrary to many of you who have commented on this play so far, I enjoyed this story. I thought it was refreshing to read a work that does not end when the two main characters fall in love and live happily ever after. Although I do enjoy a good love story, they make me feel hopeless, like I wouldn't be happy unless I achieved the ultimate true love portrayed. However Josie and Jim's' love seems more realistic because they don't live happily ever after and will most likely die alone in their states of searching for a better life.
ReplyDeleteThe realities shown throughout the story, such as doubtfulness in the people you love or the alcoholism clearly present in both Jim and Hogan add to the idea of life and love not always being perfect and easy. Josie often believes her father is manipulating her, or the people they interact with which she then turns around to mean something else because Hogan's schemes always have tricks hidden behind his tricks. I found this difficult to follow because I could never tell if a character was being genuine or trying to fool the other to reach some greater goal. Although I wanted to believe in Hogan's claim at the end of the play that he had only thought up this grand plan to bring Josie and Jim together, I had a hard time believing him as easily as Josie did because of the many schemes he had created, mostly for his own good. For this reason I found the conclusion of this relationship in the story not as satisfying as Jim and Josie’s. I was left wondering if Josie’s relationship with her father would continue to be full of lies and manipulation as it had been or if it would be genuine now that she knows Hogan put her happiness before his own.
- Kaitlyn Hill
I, too, thoroughly enjoyed this play. Compared to past summer readings, this was one of my favorites for many of the same reasons as you mentioned. The abrupt ending of Josie and Jim’s relationship was unexpected, but refreshingly realistic. However, Hogan’s antics left me confused, as well. Throughout the play, I could never tell if he had Josie’s best interest at heart or if it was just another one of his schemes. He was constantly tricking people in order for him to get what he wanted in his life, though the truth behind his intentions were never revealed. -Katie Yates
DeleteI agree with this, and am still somewhat confused as to whether he truly had good intentions. I guess some people never change, and he will probably continue to be like that. However, as a character, I liked how he contrasted with Josie, who was also cunning but in the end used her intelligence for good/chose not to be selfish or go through with the plan.
DeleteI agree, Kaitlyn. I too enjoyed this play and found that the use of harsh reality; how the author didn't sugarcoat anything,made the story feel very real and relatable. I found the imperfections of Jim and Josie's love quite heartbreakingly beautiful. The fact that the reader wants these two together yet the plot and other characters seem to be pulling them apart makes the story so familiar, and it allows the reader to step into their shoes and see that love isn't always perfect, like Kaitlyn said, but it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.-Emily Steiner
DeleteKaitlyn, refreshing is the best way to put it. Like many girls, I grew up watching Disney princess movies. These "happily ever after" endings are extremely unrealistic. This book is a fairy tale with a realistic ending. Some people simply CAN NOT be together. O'Niell does a wonderful job of portraying reality with a pair of flawed characters.
DeleteI agree with all the previous comments about the "refreshing" ending of this play. At first the ending did not leave me content and I felt as though I wanted so much more than I was given. However, I soon realized that was the point. O'Neill wanted to give us a realistic ending and not the fairytale happy ever after and I applaud him for that, I wish there were more authors out there that had the guts to do the same and leave their readers hanging a bit.
Delete-Haley Zmijewski
While reading A Moon for the Misbegotten, it is easy to see one of the key subjects explored by Eugene O’Neill is the relationship between Jim Tyrone and Josie. Though it is obvious to pick out a romantic relationship, I think it is more important to explore the maternal and almost mother-child relationship Josie shares with Jim. This idea of a maternal relationship immediately popped into my head when Jim Tyrone laid down to rest on Josie’s breast, similar to a newborn child resting on their mother, and was further reinforced by many other instances in the play. The relationship seemed to have stemmed from Jim Tyrone losing his mother. His mother was a focal point of his life, guiding him towards a healthier life and when she passed, he found Josie as someone to remain in focus within his now cloudy life. Perhaps the most important thing he saw in Josie was the idea of unconditional love, something almost exclusively seen in an unbreakable mother-child bond. Jim finds the motherly love he so desperately craves in Josie, someone who promised him she would love him no matter what he told her. No matter his treachery or trysts, Josie always has a deep, innate impulse to care for Jim Tyrone. Jim’s desire for love and Josie’s impulse to care act as a magnet, pulling the two together. This maternal relationship between Josie and Jim helps to provide further insight into their complex relationship and helps to provide some explanation why these seemingly opposite individuals are drawn so inexplicably towards each other.
ReplyDelete-Phoenix Grover
Kendall Hughes says: I agree that Jim and Josie's relationship is more of a mother-child bond. Jim is seeking a maternal figure in his life, simply someone who is willing to accept him for who he is. He recognizes that he has made mistakes in the past, and craves for a relationship where the other person is willing to forgive those mistakes. Josie is more than willing to be that person, she loves him unconditionally. She tends to take on this maternal position because of her mother's death. She acts as a mother towards her brothers. it is easy for her to see that Jim is hurting and needs someone to be understanding and forgiving.
DeleteBut beyond this maternal relationship being what Jim needs, I feel that it is beneficial to Josie as well. Josie is insecure in her own skin; she sees herself as undesirable and tells lies about past relationships to feel more comfortable. Jim quickly learns that her tales of past lovers are lies, yet she clings to the story as if it were a security blanket. Josie is just as in need of unconditional love as Jim is. We see that Josie thinks the answer to her problems is Jim loving her enough to marry her and having a romantic relationship with him. But as the events of their fateful night transpire, it becomes obvious that Jim cannot give Josie what she thinks she needs. Instead, he is able to love her as one would love their mother. He accepts her and her insecurities because she has been able to accept him (People love their mothers because they are there for them without fail and can forgive any fault). These two people are so compatible because Jim needs a mother and Josie needs someone to mother that will make her feel wanted and loved.
-Kendall Hughes
Throughout reading the story, I came to like Josie more and more as a character. I see her as a strong women facing many challenges in her life, facing both internal and external conflicts. Although flawed, she still manages to be an overall genuine, good person.
ReplyDeleteAs for her internal conflicts her self confidence isn't exactly there. Because she is described as a larger woman, almost like a man with unfeminine features, shes finds it hard to see herself as beautiful. Many times she compares herself to the gorgeous women of New York that Jim would be more attracted to. Josie is also lonely. She is seen as a woman who constantly sleeps around, but just wants true love. As we come to find out she will most likely never achieve this hope and will continue to live her lonely, loveless life.
Regarding her external conflicts, Josie lives her life day in and out with her verbally abusive father. He insults her many times a day and treats her to unkind words and conversations. The reason I admire Josie is for her strength to stand up to this abuse. She knows she is physically stronger, but uses her whits to fight back, with the fallback of her brawn.
Finally, Josie is a kind soul, always looking out for others before herself. She helped all of her brothers escape their dead beat, drunken father to a more promising life. Showing that love and bravery, I believe makes Josie a good role model, even though she may have some flaws.
Aidan Doyle says: (This was in response to Thomas Dineen and Brian Clokey's discussion on the ending of the play.)
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you that the ending was shockingly satisfying. I found that the conversation between Hogan and Josie at the end is what really made it. Having both of them make amends and be back to their normal relationship made me feel good inside and that they were going to be alright, despite Josie dramatically losing her love forever. I especially enjoyed the line where Josie says she is "well content here" with him (Hogan). In my opinion, the ending was still very gloomy and desolate due to Josie still feeling deep remorse for Tyrone. - Aidan Doyle
I kind of liked the ending also, because physically and situationally, everything pretty much was the same as before. The only things that changed were the feelings behind what was going on, and the events of that night, which I found really interesting. It was gloomy but slightly hopeful/peaceful and I just found it cool how everything came full circle.
DeleteTia Meares says: For me, this play was neither a favorite nor fulfilling. The denouement was hinted from the title ‘misbegotten’ however, it’s natural to hope for a successful turnout. Jim, a man that carried around heavy sorrow and guilt and Josie, a ‘misfit’ woman with a huge heart were characters I’d been rooting for. Personally, it felt suspenseful for Jim and Josie to finally be able to experience true love and acceptance that they'd both deserved. When the story came to an end, I was disappointed because it felt incomplete. As for Josie’s character, she felt content when morning came. Even though she had not attained the romantic night she had anticipated for, she was able to bring her beloved Jim to a state of peace for at least one night. –Tia Meares
ReplyDelete"A Moon for the Misbegotten," in my opinion, was beautiful in its simplicity. There were no super intellectual conflicts or deep universal wonderings, yet the reader still felt as if they could connect and understand what the characters were going through. It seemed to be a simple love story, set in a rural area, but there was much more to the plot, which is what I believe made it interesting. From a quick glance the characters may seem typical; a kind yet unappreciated woman and a man just trying to find his way through the tribulations in life and find love, yet there is much more to them then meets the eye when you think of their complexities. Josie has to deal with her reputation as the girl known for sleeping around yet her father puts that and the fact that she doesn't look like other woman right in her face constantly. Jim is trying to find someone that can make him feel loved, someone who can almost fill in for his lack of a mother yet still be a romantic partner. The simplicity of the plot and writing style contrasted from the complication of Josie and Jim's love makes " A Moon for the Misbegotten" a compelling story, and one that many can relate to. Everyone feels like an outcast at some point, so to see two outcasts find each other and be so perfect for each other makes it easy for the reader to feel as if they are in a way connected to the characters, even if their circumstances for feeling like an outcast are extremely different from that of Jim or Josie.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with what you said in this. I think that, as you stated, the contrast of the complication of Josie and Jim's relationship with the simplicity of the plot made their love really stand out. This made me think more about how something complicated was often balanced by the simplicity of another part of the story. For example, I found it a little difficult to follow who was "the enemy" of Hogan and Josie who were trying to keep their land. They often announced their trust in their good friend Jim, but quickly switched to hating him because he could take away their home. This complicated relationship was contrasted to the simplicity of the other "enemy," Mr. Harder, who was angry that his fence was being broken by Hogan's pigs.This was a clear adversary, unlike Jim whose relationship with his land tenants complicated how they felt towards him.
DeleteAnother place where this contrast occurs is Hogan's schemes that were often difficult for me to follow because there were so many tricks hidden behind his obvious scheme. This is in contrast with the simplicity of his ending goal. For example, Hogan's final scheme in the story, lasting most of the ending, began when he told Josie that Jim had sold his land. I thought Josie tricking Jim into sleeping with her was complicated enough with all of the factors they had to consider, however this was all a part of a greater plan to get them together. This end result was straightforward. Hogan simply wanted Jim and Josie to realize their love, but the complicated nature of how the end goal was realized contrasts this.
I think that because Josie and Jim are very different, they don't really share the same necessities in life. Josie, being the strong independent woman that she is, is very much able to live the life she has with her father on their farm. Although her and her father argue a lot, they manage to make it work. Of course, anyone, in my opinion, would be happier with someone to love and to hold, someone to be there for them through sickness and in health, however, for Josie, she's come to terms with the fact that this late in life, and with her reputation, her chances of getting married are very slim. In this sense, Josie is able to be somewhat content with her current state, although she still wishes for something greater. With Tyrone, he has a horrible internal suffering that is altering his life, causing him to drink and be irresponsible. He's at a point where he needs someone to fill the spot that his mother once held, and although Josie is the closest thing to that, she is simply not enough to end Tyrone's suffering and pain.
ReplyDelete(Reply to Kacie)
DeleteKacie,
This is a great point to bring up that I definately did not recognize before. Josie and Jim truely are opposites based on their state of mind in this story. I had always thoughht of Josie of being emotionally unstable and fretting about her inability to marry, as she mentions this a few times. However, I just re-read the end of the book again, and it is clear now, through the language she uses, Josie is actually content and has come to a realization about her situation.
-Luke Bowden
I just read this and Sarah's comment and think I found a sort of compromise. Josie and Jim are very similar; they are both wounded individuals missing something in their lives. But at times they seem opposite; Josie's tough sure-of-herself facade compared to Jim drinking his way through life. But in a relationship, as I know personally, only one person can fall apart at a time. In the moonlight Jim falls apart, and Josie serves as the breast to rest his head on. They seem opposite at this moment, but both are broken souls.
DeleteI believe that Josie and Jim's love for each other is not as deep as it could/should be because they both find comfort in each other through the void they fill for one another. To me it seemed like in a way they were almost settling for each other. Josie needed the promise of a future through marriage and Jim needed her to give the love he yearned for from a mother. I feel like although they are in love, it isn't as true and as pure as I initially thought.
DeleteI feel as if there is a large focus on Jim's multitude of demons and internal struggles-rightfully, as there are so many-but there is also something to be said in how Josie proudly uses her big personality as armor against her own troubles and insecurities.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that Josie feels such a strong connection and is so emphatic of Jim is that she sees similar behaviorism in herself. She often becomes reproachful of Jim, walking up and down Broadway with all his "pretty little tarts" and how shamefully drunk he gets, sneering and acting as if the whole world was bitter. While she is contentious of his verbal and outward behaviors, she feels a juxtaposing empathy for what she feels is going on in Jim's mind. Early on in the play, defending Jim to her father, Josie states, " ...he doesn't fool me at all. He only acts like he's hard and shameless to get back at life when it's tormenting him-and who doesn't" (30)?
While many of you have commented on the maternal love and affection that Josie has for Jim, I believe this comment reveals that on a deeper, personal level, purely human-to-human, she feels that she and Jim are alike. Throughout the play Josie flaunts her "shameless" behavior, whether it is pronouncing how many lovers she has had (despite her being a virgin), making crude remarks, and even making exaggerated physical threats to cover up her vast insecurities regarding her image and value.
In her self-depreciating dialogue and actions, it becomes clear that she has hardened herself up to the world too, although in a different way than Jim, which is why she in part is drawn to him as a person. As they say, like attracts like.
-Sarah Lateer
I feel like Josie is just a maternal type figure for a lot of people, rather than just to Jim. Her mom died giving birth to Mike, so she became a mother figure to everybody really. She assumed the role of mother to the point where she even argues with Phil as if they were an old married couple. Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree that she treated Jim in a motherly fashion, but she also treats everyone else that way too, just maybe not to that degree
DeleteI definitely agree that Josie is presenting herself in this way to act as a barrier to the world around her. Though the rude and boisterous personality seems to come naturally to her, it becomes obvious it is to hide her insecurities. One of the reasons I believe Josie lies so often about not being a virgin is because it is easier for her to deal with than the judgment she would receive for being a older, single woman who still lives with her father and has never gotten married. At least with this lie, she is able to control how other see her and how she is perceived in the world, giving her some power. In addition, this helps her to better hide her more sensitive personality from those who might abuse it and it makes it so that people keep their noses out of her personal life; they assume that they already know everything there is to know. Thus, I think it is important as you noted to see that Josie’s harsh exterior is protecting everything about herself that she doesn’t want the rest of the world taking advantage of and using against her. These lies allow Josie the ability to control her own life and image, not letting others create a reputation for her.
Delete-Phoenix Grover
Carling Albrecht says: I did not know what to expect when reading this play. Throughout out years of schooling I can’t remember a play we read that had a time frame of one day, written in three short scenes, so this was something new and exciting. I can’t say that when I read through Act 1 I was intrigued. However, after digging further into the novel, I became more invested in the love and schemes between the three main characters. In the end, this was one of the best deeply tragic stories of shame and guilt that I’ve ever read. Like any other hopeless romantic, I would have loved to see Josie and Jim run away off into the morning sunset together and both become fulfilled with love and happiness. However, the ending was almost refreshing in that they didn’t get the outcome everyone was expecting. A new morning should have been a signal for a promise of hope, but Josie realized it was too late for love or for hope. Despite all the strength of the the emotion between Josie and Jim, regret, shame, and pride kept them apart. This makes the story more believable essentially because these things are still factors that tear relationships apart in modern time. On this single day, when they faced each other and faced the truth in themselves, each character discovered this was their one life to live. Overall, I really enjoyed this unconventional and moving love story.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to my classmates, Josie became my favorite character as I got deeper into the text. She was not like your average girl. She had a loud mouth, she drank, and she was in charge of all the manual labor, typically a role made for the father. What struck me most about Josie was that from the beginning of the play, she was described, physically, as a large, broad Irish women who was very rough, almost manly. However, her grotesque size, her unfeminine strength, her roughness of tongue were overlooked and she was described as a beautiful women. This contrast was very interesting to me as Josie did not see herself as a beautiful, even when she was told by Jim Tyrone countless of times, or by any of the other men she interacted with. Josie was an independent female who did not let anyone walk all over her, she was the man of the house, and even knew how to put her father into place when he acted up, or behaved like a drunken fool. She was physically stronger but she was also smarter than her father and she worked that to her advantage when testing him. When I first read through the first pages of Act 1, I thought Josie was the mother to her younger brother because of how motherly she acted towards him, even though she had a small temper. Josie knew her family was not thriving finically and she did not let anyone take advantage of her drunken father or herself for this reason. Josie, despite making mistakes and being flawed as a character overall, made many women feel empowered. She’s a strong and vital character to this play who should not be judged from the mistakes she made or her flaws overall.
One of my friends who is French said to me how she didn't like Le Petit Prince (for those who don't know, this is a famous French classic) because she found the events pointless. Once I read LPP, I understood what she meant; the plot didn't really exist. The value of the literature lied more heavily on the symbolism and themes hidden within. A Moon for the Misbegotten is the same way. I'm sorry to say I didn't end up too fond with the play. The plot could be boiled down to two people in love but can't be together because - mental torment. I find this much too dramatic. It should be simple - he loves her, she loves him, what exactly is stopping them from being together? In modern times, the "I'm a monster; you shouldn't be with me" has sort of become a literary trope, particularly in YA novels.
ReplyDeleteNo one seems to have discussed the setting (CT, 1920s) yet, so I think I will do that. I don't see how this setting in particular adds to the play, and part of me thinks that O'Neill chose it because it is what he was familiar with, having lived in Connecticut. Possibly he was inspired to write AMFTB from his own life (and we could conclude that since it's the sequel to Long Day's Journey, which he tried to ensure was never published nor performed in his lifetime since it was too personal). With that being said, could the story have taken place in another setting but remained in its current condition? It probably should remain in the past as the family lives on a farm, but we still have farms in the US in the modern day. Many rural families today in France have goats or chickens. And if the story took place in rural England? Would there really be much of a difference? (The only issue would be the allusions to Broadway, but Broadway could be replaced by other theatres such as the Moulin-Rouge).
I feel that O'Neill didn't incorporate the setting strongly enough into the plot. I find no trouble imagining the story taking place at another time or place, which brings me back to the likelihood of him choosing it due to personal connections.
Ryan Angers says: I couldn’t agree more that O’Neill chose the setting as Connecticut because it was familiar to him as a opposed to contribute to the plot. In addition to the setting, I found that many other aspects of the play seemed to be similar to what was normal in his personal life. I read a bit about O’Neill’s family life and found many connections to the Hogan family and Jim Tyrone. For starters, O’Neill was born to two Irish immigrants and the main characters in the play were all typical Irish Americans of the time. Furthermore, alcoholism and addiction were around O’Neill throughout his whole life. He struggled on and off with alcoholism, his father was an alcoholic, his mother a morphine addict, one son an alcoholic, another son a heroin addict, and his third wife was addicted to potassium bromide. Addiction and the constant lying, scheming, and irrational outbursts of rage that come along with it were the norm in his life. For that reason he included those struggles in the daily life of the main characters. The most clear connection is between Jim Tyrone and Jamie O’Neill, the author’s older brother as they both began to have some success in theater acting. The eerie part is that in the wake of both of their mother’s deaths, they only found solace in the idea of drinking themselves to death. Jim often wished he could do just that and Jamie did in fact drink himself to death months after his mother’s passing. Also, O’Neill was married three times, all of which ended distastefully and the majority of his family, children too, died in his lifetime. The play included lots of failures and setbacks between family and loved ones just like O’Neill’s family life. So most every aspect of the play was inspired by O’Neill’s life, but I found that all of this gave the play a realistic feel that the reader could empathize with as opposed to it seeming like a theatrical performance.
DeleteAgreeing with Angela Li, I too was dissatisfied with how the setting wasn't more in tune with the play. For example, while reading the Scarlet Letter from last years honors English, the setting was much more prominent being Puritan Massachusetts. There we could see how the Puritan culture made Hester Prynne an outcast, but in "A Moon for the Misbegotten, 1920's Connecticut had no relevance to the play what so ever. If Eugene O'Neill could have added in that aspect of CT culture at the time to show what made Josie and Hogan outcasts from the bigger, more successful society, I'm sure the play would've been much more enjoyable for its readers.
Delete-Jake Robertson
I agree with Ryan and his strong connections between O'Neill and Tyrone. These similarities draw more significance and importance to the play itself, as well as the setting. Furthermore, I personally believe that the 1920s setting does have a large underlying relevance to the play because it assists in further developing Josie's character.Throughout this time period, women were seen as property, and were given little to no say on their lives. Although the 1920s are notoriously known for the largest progression of women's rights in America, they still had to continuously fight for the rights that we often take for granted every day. However, despite these discriminating stereotypes and standards that were held during this time, Josie refused to conform to society's expectations. She took pride in her strength and individualism. Therefore, this 1920s setting emphasizes Josie's uniqueness by implying that no other woman would act with the same power and aggression that she does. Also, it highlighted the idea that Josie didn't ever care for what people thought of her, which I personally believe was one of her most prominent traits. Although Josie's personality traits were evident despite the setting, I believe that this time period pronounces Josie's character to the reader. It allows the audience to get a feel for Josie's true strength and confidence as an individual.
DeleteI liked the play. It wasn't my favorite, but I can tell why it's a classic and I would like to see it one day. While the back and forth was slightly frustrating, I actually found the ending quite satisfying; while it would have been nice for Josie and Jim to find happiness with each other, it would've felt a little fake considering how damaged Jim feels, and how Josie was reacting to his story. The characters were all well written and believable, if unreliable. The humor was well done too; it kept the play from being too heavy, but didn't detract from the sad situation. My only complaint was Jim suddenly recovering his memory of the night before; I felt the reversal detracted from the rest of the story, as though O'Neill was trying to make it even sadder and ended up overdoing it.
ReplyDeleteAidan Devaney says: "I agree with Anna in the sense that if they were to live "Happily every after," it would have been far too cliche. The beginning already started off with Josie being the girl who is "different from the rest" but seems to be just perfect for Jim. By having the little twist in the end it was fulfilling to see a plot that wasn't completely predictable."
DeleteI agree with this, as well. Although I would have loved to see Josie and Jim end up happily together in the end, I do think that this made the play unique and original compared to the cliché happily ever after endings. The not so average ending for sure made the play more realistic and interesting -Isabelle Merluzzo
DeleteIsabelle, I too would have loved a happy ending, however, I feel as though I knew it was doomed from the start, and couldn't have lasted. I feel like if Josie reacted in a more understanding way to the Jim's history they could have had something that could've lasted. Another aspect of their relationship that was a sign of a short termed relationship was the way they talked to each other, there was a constant bickering that often times was aggravating to read.
DeleteHaley Zmijewski says: I liked this play much more than In the Beauty of the Lilies because it didn't really beat around the bush, it was concise and to the point which is something I tend to like while I'm reading. Another thing about the story that I really enjoyed was how O'Neill was able to add an element of comedy in the bantering back and forth between Josie and her father while simultaneously telling the deeply tragic story of guilt and shame felt by Jim Tyrone and the lost opportunity for love between him and Josie. In the end, I did feel like I was left wanting a bit more because of how short it was and how little time it covered, but the story that was there was easy for me to enjoy because being so short it never seemed to lose my interest.
ReplyDeleteAlso to add to my previous statement about the bantering between Josie and her father, at first I thought that it was extremely rude and almost an abusive father/daughter relationship- and maybe even father/son relationship as all of Josie’s brothers had moved away- until I kind of got the sense that this was just them joking around. Any thoughts or comment about how any of you felt when you first began the play?
I agree with having that initial reaction to their back and forth banter. But eventually I came to like it, and even find it humorous. They were both able to joke around and poke fun at each other without really crossing the line. I found myself comparing Josie and Hogans relationship with the one that I have with my father. We often go back and forth with each other, it may not be on the same level of intensity as between the two characters but its still the same sort of relationship. Like Josie and Hogan we know the line and how not to cross it.
DeleteWhen I first started reading I couldn't stop laughing at how terrible of people Josie and Hogan seemed to be. As it continues on, I realized that they were more complex people than I originally thought. They don't have what outwardly appears "loving," but underneath everything Josie and her father are looking out for each other.
DeleteI know this was my original comment, but Annie brought up something that I didn't even think of. Annie when you said Josie and Hogan's relationship reminded you of your relationship with your father it struck me that I also have a similar relationship with mine. Since my parents are divorced I don't see my father quite as much but when I do we like to joke around with each other and I guess other people could see what we say to each other as rude.
DeleteThanks for bringing that up Annie, it made me like the comedic bantering even more:)
-Haley Zmijewski
Meghan Gifford says: • I feel that it's an American trend to have a character that is rather promiscuous, and how it tends to be a female to have this representation.
ReplyDelete• It seems to be another book to show corruption and alcoholism- classic American lit.
• To a degree I understand how one may have internal conflicts and whether or not to do/say something but the amount of back and forth within the dialogue is dizzying as if to make the audience feel like they've had some of that "bonded bourbon."
• I'm a little confused by the ending in the sense that we have Josie who had a rather simple and blunt way of talking and then suddenly at dawn she speaks so poetic. Also, I feel that it was another failed American dream moment where she and Tyrone wanted to be together and yet their lives seemed to make it rather impossible, yet it seems that that is what they are telling themselves, the actuality, in my opinion, is that they could get married theoretically, but they are choosing not to for thinking it is best for the both of them.
Similar to my classmates, I found the end of A Moon for the Misbegotten to be shockingly satisfying. However, while reading the play, I found the constant fighting and banter between Josie and Jim to be quite frustrating. It led me to believe that they would never be able to resolve their differences or find happiness together (as also foreshadowed by "misbegotten" being a part of the title). My view quickly changed. After reading Act 3, I began to see the deep, unconventional, and unique love that these characters shared. They both had inner demons and struggles, but were still able to accept each other. Although they did not end up together, the conclusion proved that they truly loved each other. I found it enjoyable how, despite being riddled with tragic internal and external conflict, Josie and Jim were able to experience a sense of contentment when they were with each other. Some may be upset that the play did not end with them in a relationship, which I can understand, but I found the nontraditional ending to be a satisfying change from stereotypical conclusions where the characters live "happily ever after".
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Abby with the idea of two internal conflicts between two characters foreshadowed the idea of a love between them. The thought of their love was different from others: "perfect guy meets the perfect girl, etc.." This love was for the misfits or the "misbegottens" and gave a new insight to the characters in the play. The connection between characters that are not your normal 'lovebirds' was also very refreshing to me.
Delete-Abbey Chmura
Jillian Haggerty says: I agree with both Abigail and Abbey regarding Josie and Jim's relationship. As the play progresses, a reader may definitely be hopeful in a "happy ever after" ending for Josie and Jim. Especially when finally understanding
Deletethe complexity of their relationship and how through conflicts amongst themselves and what surrounded them, they could still find love and care for one another. However, with my hopefulness for the two to end up together in a so called "perfect" world, I actually liked the ending because I thought it best portrayed reality. Josie and Jim's character traits as well as the conflicts surrounding their lives overruled the possibility for a relationship between the two. Jim's selfishness and unsettled lifestyle guided by his dreams of Broadway performing and Josie's dominant aggressive character as well as the underlying obligation she might have had to take care of everything at home including her father. In the end, each were too engaged in their own lives to be able to make something work out between each other.
I am the world's biggest believer in happily ever afters, but Abby, I like how you put it. Within this one night Jim and Josie settle their problems to leave content. Sometimes being content is better than forcing something not meant to be (a relationship). I loved how real this: we may not find a "happily ever after," but we can find peace, which is arguably just as amazing.
DeleteAt the conclusion of reading this, along with many other people, I was very content. However, in the beginning of reading the play I did not enjoy it at all. Right off the bat I thought none of the characters had a bit of decency and that the play could not be very interesting as . I thought Josie was just rude, Hogan a drunk and that Tyrone was an ignorant Broadway performer. As the play progressed I began to understand the complex relationship that this play contained led me to a appreciation for the play. For example, Josie and Hogan go from shouting aggressive fights to friendly teasing. Lastly, I agree with what many here have already stated about the ending. The change in the ending from the traditional “happily ever after” made the conclusion much better.
ReplyDeleteI agree Michael. Without the "happily ever after" aspect to the story, it let the reader question if the right decisions were made, and what would've happened if the story ended on a different note. Stories with nice endings or neatly wrapped up conclusions can be a good end to a piece of literature, but I believe O'Neill made the correct decision by ending the play in this way.
DeleteI agree with both Michael and Jack. Many stories or plays tend to end with the classic "happily ever after", but this was not the case. I think that because this play didn't have that ending, the reader was able to relate and stay attentive to the play. In reality, life doesn't always have that happy ever after, and through this ending that was exposed. Josie and Tyrone’s timing was off so they didn't work out, but the reader is able to see that they still were able to spend that one night together. It taught us the lesson that you need to appreciate the time you have with someone, or anyone. This ending actually made me enjoy the play more because similar to what Jack said, the reader is left to wonder about the decisions that led up to the end of the night. We are left to wonder if they could have made a play to make their relationship work or if it was doomed from the start. The ending to this play, though not the traditional fairytale, happy ever after, truly brought the play to a nice closing. -Brie McNamee
DeleteI agree with everybody in this case, but just because it wasn't a "happily ever after" ending, doesn't mean that it wasn't the best possible outcome. In my opinion, I believe that the ending was not necessarily bad for the characters at all for what would have most likely transpired afterwards. At the end of the play we saw that Hogan had become a respectable parent as he attempted to set up a scheme to have his daughter sleep with, and ultimately marry. This is very different from where he was in the beginning of the play when he wanted to give Mike a good "licking". In Josie's case, she had proven to herself that she was not just a brute nor slut, and was capable of relating to a person and caring for them. For both these characters, they had dynamically changed for the good and become more decent characters from their former selves. Tyrone was still struggling with alcoholism at the end of the play as he was at the opening and I personally do not believe that he would have been a good husband and would have met his demise at the bottom of a bottle. To sum it up, I believe that the ending was the best possible outcome, and even though they didn't live "happily ever after" as in fairy tales, this was the best point that they could have ended at while keeping the ending realistic.
DeleteI also agree that the ambiguous and tragic ending to this play was the best fit for the story, not just for keeping a realistic tone to the story, but also because this play seems to reflect so much of Eugene O'Neill's life. From what I understood while reading the introduction in my copy of A Moon for the Misbegotten, Eugene O'Neill did not live a happy life. Much of it was filled with loss and struggles, and this was reflected in the play. In addition, the author of the introduction suggested the idea that writing A Moon for the Misbegotten was almost a grieving process for O'Neill. Had he created a happy ending to this novel, it would not allow him to accurately reflect the pain he had experienced in his life and the ending would have been in a way, lying to himself. Thus, I believe the tragic ending was most appropriate for a play that shared many of the same subjects as Eugene O'Neill's own life.
Delete-Phoenix Grover
Megan Corbin says: Upon finishing this play, I was satisfied by the open ending left by the author, Mister Eugene O’Neill. The entire story was built upon the collision of empathic souls, where each character is so absolutely individualized, that even their “love” could not meld them together. From the very beginning, O’Neill makes it clear, that his characters have weathered the storms of lives on their own. This callousness halted any prospect of a lasting romantic engagement. This is specifically seen within the relationship between Jim Tyrone and Josie. Though they obviously care for each other, they have grown to be rigid in their characteristics. For example, throughout the third act, Tyrone repeatedly tells Josie to act differently so that their night will be “special.” Josie asks the same of him, by questioning him on his mother and “the pig.” They have to adamantly chase each other’s softer side in order to sustain their night. With their years alone, their individual coping mechanisms prove to be detrimental to their relationship. Eventually, in spite of their efforts to meet half way, their love story was not to be. Had they been able to witness and actively be a part of each other's lives from a younger age, they may have had a chance to be together. However, time was cruel to them in only allowing one night in which they could confide in one another. It is clear, that despite their vulnerability in the night, they will return to who they are in the morning. An ending such as this is far more relatable than one in which Jim and Josie would be together. In a way, they loved the idea of each other more than they loved their true versions. In reality, people cannot conform to the images others have of them, therefore neither Jim nor Josie could become what the other hoped for. That is why, I believe it is satisfying for them to part after this singular instance where they were able to step outside of their callous personalities. Therefore they can go about their lives with the memory of love.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this. I also find it interesting how this night changed their viewpoints but not their circumstances, as they continue life as it had been previously.
DeleteAnother point I like that you brought up is how they kept saying they wanted this night to be "different" from all the others, for Josie to not put on her front, and for it to be a better, more emotional/pure experience for Jim than with his past lovers.
Katrina Griffin says: When reading this play, I kept picking up on one major theme: the fact that people are rarely what they seem to be at first glance. We see this theme in at least three out of the six characters in the play. In the beginning, Phil Hogan is portrayed as a drunk, greedy farmer with absolutely no morals, including verbally abusing his children. In addition, he seems to be willing to sacrifice anything for a little bit of money. As soon as the play begins, we see that Mike, one of his children, is leaving home because he can no longer deal with the lack of morality in the house. Mike also makes the audience aware that he is the third one of Hogan’s sons that is leaving for this reason. Josie, being the only daughter, is the only one who seems to have completely followed in her father’s footsteps. We learn very early on that she is considered to be a slut by everyone in town, and that she has a very rough way of speaking to people. She also seems to share her father’s attitude that the best way to go through life is as an immoral individual. In addition, Jim Tyrone is seen as an alcoholic traitor to the family when listening to higher offers for the Hogan’s property. Before we even meet Jim, we learn from Josie that he has a reputation of sleeping with several women and getting too drunk to think straight. For all three of these characters, their true personalities are revealed as the play continues and are not what the audience originally suspected. Hogan’s schemes were genuine in the sense that he wanted to help his daughter admit to herself and to Jim that she was in love with him and act on it. Josie has a “loud-mouth” personality, but has a maternal comfort at heart, especially when it comes to being with Jim and professing her love for him. Finally, Jim is not a traitor to the Hogan family and truly loves Josie. He is constantly haunted by the ghosts of his family, tormented with guilt over his mother’s death, and ultimately incapable of love. All three characters ended up being more complex than when first reading about them. They have more internal issues than stated, making them not as carefree as they were in the beginning of the play.
ReplyDeleteOne symbol that obviously showed up more than once in this play is alcohol. Both Jim and Hogan are heavy drinkers. Their behavior is exaggerated and extreme when under the influence, which they are at multiple times throughout the play. Josie does not normally drink, although she is willing to when seducing Jim. Liquor has significant roles in the play as well. It acts as an escape for Jim from the pain of losing his mother and his abusive childhood. Jim is drunk for the majority of the play, at different times during the day. It also symbolizes Hogan’s pride. Hogan takes pride in the fact that he is the type of person who can drink in large amounts, but still be clear-headed.
Another symbol in this play is the moon. I felt as though the moon symbolized death. When Jim spends the night on Josie’s steps, his face is described as “a pale mask in the moonlight – at peace as a death mask is at peace.” After hearing Jim describe his mother’s death, Josie tells him that she feels his mother’s soul wrapped in the moonlight. In addition, during the night, Jim is haunted by the ghosts of his family, reminiscing about his past in the moonlight.
While reading this play, I found the relationship between Josie and Hogan to be very interesting. They are two very different personalities who relay on each other for their survival. For example, after the excitement with Jim Tyrone dies down and all hope for Josie finding a successful man to marry fades away, she says "Don't be sad, Father. I'm all right- and I'm well content here with you." Here Josie is being grateful for her father's company as she has no one else's. In addition, Hogan lost all of his other children to bigger and better lives, but Josie remained. Even though they seem to be at odds within most of their encounters, they really do need each other to laugh off all of the hardships that underwent in their lives.
ReplyDelete-Jake Robertson
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DeleteI also found their relationship to be interesting, not just mentally, but also physically, since it is different than those in other books and movies. Since Josie has such an overpowering build and her father has tendencies to lose control of himself when drinking or mad, she has learned to defend herself physically and verbally. For example, after she had helped Mike escape, her father furiously came up to her and she instinctively grabbed a sawed-off broom handle from her room that was ready to go, implying that this had been used before. I think it was strange seeing a daughter readily fight back with a father who was almost frightened by her at times. Like Jake said, though, I don't think they meant to actually hurt each other during these fights since they always came back to each other in the end.
Delete-Marlee Takes
Marissa Paolangeli says: For me, the start of the play didn’t really grasp my attention because it seemed as if the story was just going to be one big conversation/ argument between Josie and Hogan. As I read further, I started to enjoy the play more through the themes and irony I recognized, as well as the complexities of the characters. For example, Josie’s character represents an “outcast”. She isn’t similar to most other women in that she is always described as large and masculine. Although Josie is very tough, she seems as though she lacks in self confidence. She is lying to people about her virginity to keep up a reputation of sleeping around.
ReplyDeleteThe play showed irony when the “outcast” actually turned out to be a part of this love story. I enjoyed this theme and ironic turning point because it relates to many women now, worrying about reputation and looks, as well as fearing to find their own true love story. This play very well demonstrated a theme of finding love, despite your visual features and reputation.
Meaghan Rowedder says: I agree with Marissa's comment about the beginning of the play. I had trouble staying interested and intrigued when I first started reading this play because of the conversation and being worried the entire play would be conversations like this. Once the initial conversations had subsided however, I found myself getting more interested in the plot and the relationship forming between Josie and Jim. Although I eventually became more interested, I still did not find this play as intriguing as some of the others we have read in English. The fact that all of it took place so quickly and they only spent one night together left me unsatisfied. I feel like if it had been a longer period of time I would have been more invested in their story/love and whether they ended up together or not.
DeleteWhile reading this play, I personally didn't think I was going to enjoy it due to the fact that there wasn't much of a variety in scenery. It was portrayed as though it was one conversation, and even with the changes in Acts, they all took place right where they left off. Thus as a result I couldn't see any interest or excitement coming from this play. However, after I continued reading I became very engaged in the relationship between Josie and Tyrone. Although it was frustrating, I thoroughly enjoyed their arguments and disability to come to terms with their feelings because I thought it added humor to the play, even if that wasn't its intended meaning. For example, there were many instances where Tyrone would claim that he couldn't be with Josie and would attempt to leave. However almost immediately he'd turn around and they would confess their love for each other all over again. To me, I saw this as extremely over-dramatized and entertaining, as well as showing a lot about who they were as characters. They both were seen by the town as completely different people. Similar to what Katrina said, Josie and Tyrone were much different than their reputations, thus emphasizing the overall theme. Josie was seen as the town slut that constantly played with mens' feelings, and always refused the idea of marriage. As I learned more about her true personality, I recognized that she also had a lot of self-confident issues. However she played it off as though she didn't mind. In fact, it was as if she had accepted her oversized body and aggressive behavior because she was very confident in her behavioral actions. For example, she is always bringing her appearance to others' attention, and doesn't hold back what she is feeling or thinking. We often see this with her relationship with her father. Furthermore, Josie expresses the idea that no man could ever love her because of her appearance. This self-doubt allows the reader to understand Tyrone more deeply, as well. We see that although he is known as a drunk that often sleeps around with women, he is still capable of true love. He doesn't care for the "tarts" that he sleeps with. Despite Josie's reputation and appearance, he truly loves and cares for her. Overall, I find their love for each other very beautiful and genuine. They don't see what the town sees, and truly bring out the best in each other. Throughout their "moonlight date", they consistently make sure that it is 'different' from all of their previous experiences and relationships. This emphasizing the way they see each other differently and more deeply than they do with others, thus adding to the beauty in their love. Josie was even able to overlook Tyrone's sinful decisions with the blonde on the train, and was able to comfort him through his shame and misery. Although it was extremely frustrating, I believe that it was necessary that they were unable to be together. The morning represented a new start for them because they finally stopped denying their love, and confessed some of their greatest regrets. They discovered they both had their own lives to live, but were still able to express their deep emotion and love for the other before this realization. From this, I was able to gain satisfaction from the ending.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite aspects of this play was the contradicting relationship between Josie and Hogan. In the beginning, Hogan is portrayed as an abusive drunk whom is deeply feared by his children. As Josie was assisting Mike in his escape, as she did for her two brothers prior to Mike, they expressed their concern of their father finding out. However, it is very clear to the reader that Josie is the only one who stands up to Hogan. Throughout their first encounter, the constant insults and arguments between the father and daughter portray the idea that they have no respect for each other. However underneath this bantering, they seem to agree on a lot of things and have very similar personalities. It's clear that Josie gets her attitude from Hogan. However, in Act 4 their love for each other is revealed when Josie threatens Hogan by saying she is going to follow in her brothers' footsteps and leave, even though she never had any true intention on actually leaving. Hogan gets genuinely upset and tells Josie that he had her best interest in mind when lying to her about Tyrone's betrayal to their family, and Josie understands where he was coming from. We see this hate-love relationship between them as they express their love for each other, while simultaneously calling each other names. Overall, once again we see that Josie and Hogan feel in extremes and express their feelings in aggressive ways. Furthermore, at the very end the two of them return to calling each other names and it adds a sense of comfort that the relationship between them will remain the same.
ReplyDeleteJosie and Hogan’s relationship was one of my favorite aspects of this play as well. Josie keeps Hogan’s image of himself alive as he sees his personality in her. Also she shares the same sense of humor, in turn causing frequent arguments between the two, in which ultimately Josie typically puts Hogan back in line and straightens him out. As you said, even after all of Hogan’s scheming, he still was trying to help Josie out for the better when he lied to her about Jim Tyrone selling the farm. He was hoping that the two may be able to find something in each other, however Josie is heartbroken and Jim has nothing left in him. Despite Hogan’s lying to her she knows she had good intentions and realizes she must stay with him, and Hogan knows he could not exist without Josie’s backbone.
DeleteFrom a production standpoint, I find the genuine minimalism of A Moon for the Misbegotten to be quite compelling on several different levels. For one, seeing as the entire story revolves around the characters' suffering and sense of aloneness, it is most fitting for them to be so isolated as they are in the rural Connecticut farm at night. The sheer isolation of the environment mirrors that of Josie and Jim, and likewise the night itself serves as a visual representation for the imposing darkness surrounding each of their lives. Furthermore, as many of my peers have noted upon, the narrative is rather slow paced until the conversation of Jim and Josie becomes more emotionally significant and their own stories begin to come into light. By the time their stories have concluded, it almost seems bizarre looking back on their time together, having so much emotional meaning but only taking place in one predominant location. This is merely my own speculation, but I would wager that the beginning of the narrative was intentionally slow paced as a means to emulate the monotony of Josie and Jim's lives in rural Connecticut, and this would later become ironic in the sense that despite having only spent a night together on the farm, the connection formed between the two of them was a truly strong bond formed out of common sorrow and lifetimes of misery.
ReplyDeleteWhile most stories have a joyful ending, this left readers wondering where Josie and Jim’s future stood. Their relationship was only shown in this one night, underneath the moonlight, where the authenticity of their love was expressed. Once the dawn came, Josie knew it was best to leave Jim behind as he was “already dead”. She realized that there could be no saving him as he was gone; she had done what she could, however their love would not last. Throughout the night, Jim kept saying how he doesn’t want Josie to see the real him and once he started to treat her like a whore, which he quickly stopped, he said, “You ought to thank me for letting you see”. He loved and respected Josie like he could with no one else, yet he couldn’t break from his habits. It was almost like he did not believe he was worthy of her and that he did not deserve her. -Katie Yates
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ReplyDeletePaige Dodd says: As I was reading this play, I felt it was easier for me to keep in the groove of reading by skipping over the italicized parts to keep the flow of the conversation going. While doing this, I did have to go back sometime to read the italicized parts to get the emotional feel that each character had at each point. The part that I realized I was going back to read the italicized parts the most was when Jim Tyrone was expressing feelings about his past to Josie. I, myself, had a hard time reading that part of the play because it was very deep. Overall, I enjoyed reading the play and thought it was an easy read for me. I was confused at some of the schemes that Hogan and Josie came up with. For example, I still don't understand if it was Hogan original plan to trick Josie into confessing her feelings to Jim, or did he just come up with that excuse on the spot because he was afraid of Josie actually leaving him. Also, was Josie actually going to leave him like her three brothers or was she just threatening to scare Hogan into treating her better? Eugene O'Neill did a good job keeping the conversations flowing between each character and keeping the storyline clear throughout the play. He also did extremely well at molding each character into their own person so the reader could tell who was speaking without having to look at the characters name.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading this play. I especially liked the way O'Neill describes the characters at the beginning. The people were described so well and so in-depth, I continued through the book with a physical image of each character in my mind. Having a clear picture of each character is important to me as a reader, because it helps me connect and imagine the story playing out better. Another element I enjoyed throughout play was the use of character development. Beginning the story, the characters were introduced as almost static. I knew this couldn't be, since the play only had a few characters (and how this is an AP English reading assignment.) As the play got further into the night, important character traits for Hogan, Jim, and Josie were slowly revealed. For instance: Josie began the play as a physically large, intimidating, and overall blunt person, who wanted barely anything to do with love. However, she came out to meet Jim with her hair up. Different characters who portrayed themselves as one thing, slowly began becoming true to themselves as the night went on. O'Neill showed me that I can still enjoy a book without a real change of scenery, and only a few characters. -Jack Murphy
ReplyDeleteCorynne Mahlstedt says: My favorite thing about this story is not the frustrating love story but the perfectly witty dialogue. The sarcastic and rough tone that Josie and Hogan use against each other gives us a sense of their bent father-daughter relationship that, personally, I can’t look away from. I like the downright insulting jokes and sarcastic, fiery banter. And they’re often times such low-blow and degrading insults, adding to the complexity of the relationship; Hogan is quite dependent on Josie, however treats her like trash. One of many examples would be “Sure, you’re two of a kind, both great disgraces. That would help make a happy marriage because neither of you could look down on the other” (22). These insults not only provided comic relief at times but give the readers a sense of the strange family dynamic. They also showed us how thick-skinned Josie is which created a parallel between the overarching love story and the tough, hardship story of her life.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Cory concerning the sarcastic comments and name calling added into the majority of the conversations between Josie and Hogan. Like I said earlier, their relationship is surprising to me since the offensive actions and comments come from both the father and daughter. For example, during a heated conversation, after Hogan called Josie a slut, she said, "'Don't be calling me names, you bad-tempered old hornet, or maybe I'll lose my temper, too'"(13). Comments like these helped to show her position in their household and relationship with her father. Also like Cory said, it provided comic relief during intense times and kept me interested to see what would be said next.
Delete-Marlee Takes
When I first started reading “A Moon for the Misbegotten” I did not know what to expect. I knew that this was going to be a short play that only had one real setting, making it different from any play that I have previously read. After reading the first few pages I thought that I would not enjoy this play because it really is just a few conversations with minimal characters, but after reading through the first act my opinion changed. Since this was a shorter play I found it easy to stay engaged in what was happening. I also became intrigued in the complex relationships that existed between both Josie and Phil Hogan, and Josie and James Tyrone. With the relationship of Josie and her father Phil, I at first thought it was awful that she had not run off with one of her brothers to get away from her father. The conversations between the two were vicious and abusive, making it hard for me to understand why she would stay with him. As I continued reading, as Haley said, I also got the sense that they were joking and poking fun at each other. Their relationship was not as bad as it first appeared and for the most part, there was a line that they knew not to cross. The quarrelling and comments to each other was a way that they showed their love for one another. In addition, I found myself fascinated by the relationship between Josie and Tyrone. As a reader, I was able to understand and see the complexity of this relationship. With everything going on this resulted in a few fights throughout this long conversation. Their fighting was very overdramatic, but that kept me entertained with the play as Tyrone would go to leave when it seemed like he had enough, but then Josie would call him back and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, in these few hours two people would not quarrel this much but since their relationship was so short, it all happened in a few hours. In a relationship, a couple will say they love each other, fight and maybe walk out but this takes place over a span of months or years, not a few hours. As the playwright was trying to demonstrate to the reader the depth of this relationship, Eugene crammed that span of a few months or years into one restless night. Though this was all crammed, we were able to see the love that was between these two characters. Josie acted as she had been with many men and did not care about marriage, along with Tyrone who slept with many “tarts”. The two came to admit that they cared and loved one another deeply and that no one else mattered. This was emphasized by the two constantly saying how this night would be different and like never before because no one else compared to one another. Tyrone saw past Josie’s self consciousness. As well as Josie accepted the story with the blonde and his drinking. Sadly, when the morning came, Tyrone had to leave. Josie feels sorry for him and the guilt he feels, but their love had come alive. Tyrone had felt something and Josie felt it too. Even though it was only one night, it was the night that made all the complicated become uncomplicated, but the realization that they had separate lives had come to. Tyrone was going off to New York and Josie lives on the farm and helps her father. Even though their timing was off and they were at different points in their lives, I was satisfied with the story and it’s ending. They had loved each other in denial for a long time and it was finally admitted. Even though they only had that one night, they still had that one night.
The concept of ill-fated lovers formerly held a poignant romanticism to me; I admired the promise found within impossibility. However in recent years, I have become more and more realistic in my view of dysfunctional relationships. I have a difficult time understanding why two people who fight frequently would stay together, why someone who claims to love another would choose to leave, or how closure could ever be found in deciding your own true love could never be. For that reason, the intense complexity found in the relationships of this play have become a burden on my mind.
ReplyDeleteWhether it be literary or between people I know, when two people face the kind of passionate turmoil that Jim and Josie exemplify, I find myself perplexed by their inability to recognize the seemingly obvious determining question: will this relationship work or will it not?
In my mind, either the answer was yes, therefore the fighting and heartache could stop, or the answer was no and the subjects could cordially part ways. It seemed the simple solution to any tumultuous relationship.
Upon reading this play and reflecting on the troublesome time thoughts of this relationship have soaked in my head, I've found my mind changing once again. Past my former infatuation with the misbegotten, and beyond my very recent logic that all troubles have a simple answer, this story has shown me something I have never fully comprehended within the past seventeen years: that some things can be complicated.
My initial reaction was instinctively to detest both Josie, for her unnecessary abrasiveness and harshness towards those important to her, and Jim, for his complacency in his own hopelessness. However, given some time and consideration of their respective characters, I discovered that their story embodies something much deeper than a romantic relationship and the decision of its success or failure. It became unfair for me to blame them for not addressing their issues as black-and-white decisions, and through this discovery I believe I've found the deeper premise of the story.
This play is not about two lovers who can't stop quarreling, only to tragically go their separate ways. Rather, this play is comparable in purpose to the poem "Main Street: Tilton, New Hampshire" in the sense that its characters and their individual troubles are not what's most significant. Jim is no Odysseus and Josie is no Joan of Arc; their story is the kind that any individual might know at some point in their life, without fanfare or any romanticism to be proud of. It's a story of despair, poor timing, and the necessity of accepting love as a fleeting part of a life without gold plating.
I have found that this play has not only altered my judgement of its own characters, but also opened my eyes to a new perception and acceptance of flawed life, love and self. Some things don't have an answer or neat and tidy conclusion, as the ambiguous and initially dissatisfying conclusion demonstrated.
Something I found very intriguing about Josie's character was the dynamic mold of how she presents herself to the world. She knows very well how people view her, both in terms of appearance and her well-known "loose morals" and while she is undeterred from announcing either of those traits as plain as they are, she also demonstrates well-hidden self-consciousness and uncertainty. Her blunt and brisk personality, while indeed genuine, creates an ideal shield behind which to hide these self-doubts or, in the case of this story, love for another person. I think that Josie's sharp tongue towards Jim is clearly elaborated on enough to show how her personality contrasts with traditional affection, so I mean to bring up those things less obvious in her behaviors.
ReplyDeleteJosie's promiscuity is something that she has accepted and seemingly remains impartial about, but even the coolest of people cannot manage to entirely ignore the opinions of others. In a town like the Hogans', it's presumable that Josie's reputation is something frequently discussed in no other light than as a complete joke. Though she may be entirely at peace with her own actions, the hardest part of carrying such a reputation is knowing that no one will ever see you as anything more than what they've heard you've done. While the strength of her character is apparent through many other examples such as being the only child willing to stand up to their father, her assertiveness in conversation, or her failure to withhold criticism towards others, I wish to make a point of noting Josie's strength in accepting not only herself, but more importantly accepting the notoriety that gossips have bestowed on her without cracking or deciding to leave town.
Christina Lawrence says: I thought "A Moon for the Misbegotten" was a good, well-written play. I really liked the character development of Josie. In the beginning of the play she is pictured as this aggressive amazonian women with a reputation for being promiscuous. She also came up with a plan to get revenge on Jim when her father revealed that Jim planned on selling the farm when he promised that he would sell it to the Hogans. As the story goes on, Josie is not as scandalous as she claims to be. She turns out to have a big heart and loves Jim. She keeps up with the reputation because she feels insecure about herself having been described as being a bigger women with a masculine appearance. In addition, I admire Josie for her strength and kindness. Throughout the story she was treated poorly by her father with all kinds of abusive language and disrespectful manners yet she stood up for herself by using comebacks. Although she too was abrasive, she also helped others. She managed to help her brothers get away from from their mean father and live a more peaceful life elsewhere. She also helped Jim out. When Jim was talking about his troubled past and the absence of his mother, Josie comforted and listened to him. In addition, Phil Hogan turned out to be not as selfish as he came across. Even though he insulted his daughter a lot, he cared about her enough to come up with the plan to have Jim and Josie spend time together because he had her best interests at heart. I feel like people can relate to Josie and Jim because everyone has their flaws and insecurities.
ReplyDeleteEugene O'Neill created a very interesting scenario between three people all intertwined with different struggles. I enjoyed reading Josie's relationship with her father and the banter that they had together. Phil came across as very critical at first but shows how much he cares about her and how the jokes are really their way of showing that they love each other and are there to support the other. It was also interesting to see Josie interact with Jim and she showed how much she wanted true love, contrary to what she was portraying on the outside. I think that they were looking for different things but settled on the comfort that they could give each other, and as the reader you know that it would never work out between them. Reading about Jim and Josie's relationship over the span of a few hours seemed like it could have taken place over a much longer period of time, and although they definitely felt something for each other they weren't right for the other. As the night went on things were revealed about the different characters and I think it did fit well into the format of the play. In the first act the stage was being set for the scheme and for everyone's growth as the night continued, and by the end you can see the amount of that growth in the characters and what they portray almost like that night revealed something about each one of them. I think all three characters would say that reveal is something undesirable about themselves but it really shows how dynamic and different the characters are from how they were portrayed in act one. The end did not come as a surprise to me because it would have been to nicely wrapped up if they ended up together, it was refreshing that they weren't together in the end. Overall as I was reading it I felt like I missed something, or that there was more to the story that I wasn't getting from the characters dialogue which is why I think I would enjoy watching the play more than reading it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with multiple points that Alana has made in her comment. I totally love how O'Neill could make characters that were so different and still incorporate them into the lives of each other. All of their individual problems seemed to overlap into a different character. I also agree on the whole time warp thing about how Josie and Jim's relationship seemed like it should have taken place over a couple of months. It's almost heartbreaking that these people have hope for love with each other and in the very same day that hope is crushed.
DeleteMeaghan Rowedder says: Aside from the love story aspect of this play, like many of my classmates, I enjoyed the humor and dialogue, specifically between Josie and Hogan. A lot of the dialogue was very sarcastic and witty. The banter between the two kept me on my feet and helped me to enjoy the play. I also found it interesting how she had this strange bond with her father. Her being the only one who could really put up with him and that even though he wasn't necessarily nice to her, you can tell he relied on her. Especially after the loss of his wife and his sons running away. I found this relationship and humor to be the more interesting part of the play rather than the love between Josie and Jim.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the love part was somewhat confusing and strange, but the banter was well-done and realistic. I found it engaging and helped me to stay interested in the play as well as gauge character relationships and personalities.
DeleteTimothy Lewis says: Of the works we had to read over the summer this one was by far my favorite. Due to the nature of plays in general, it wasn't too long and drawn out or overly descriptive, but still had a lot of room for character development. I found Josie in particular to be quite interesting, described as a large relatively brute-ish woman, for most of the piece she describes herself as a whore, though Jim doesn't believe it. This did cause tension and arguments between them as the night in which this all took place progressed. By the end though, despite their arguing and fighting it is made clear of the love these two individuals share, despite it not being able to continue on.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tim in that this was much more interesting to me personally as far as my required summer reading goes, and to be honest, from the setting of the scene I was captivated. O'Neill's description is eloquent and exquisite, with the perfect amount of attention to detail in that you can picture a vivid image in your mind of just what he wants you to see in the scene and characters, but not so overboard that you quickly lose interest in the scenario because of the level of over-description. Far from an average, boring, vanilla love story, it brings together two unlikely characters to one night of obvious, but passionate love between the two characters, who, despite their glaring flaws, we come to truly love as they do each other, learning of both lies, as Jim's "betrayal" is proven false, and insecurities, in Josie's love for Jim but wanting to protect him from her life because she doesn't find herself worth his time, although he heartily disagrees, slowly wearing down her wall of nerves to the point where she can make her love truly known to him in the way she holds him and wishes that his goal become true, even though it involves his death, because she wants him happy at any cost.
ReplyDelete~Cam Boutot
I find it hard to fathom that people did not enjoy the characters at either the beginning or end of the play. At the beginning of the play, when Josie aids Mike in his attempt to escape to start and new and better life away from the tyrannical grasps of his father's, Hogan's, tenant farm, I thought the characters were quite comical. The language and slang that they used was funny and I enjoyed the numerous times when Josie threatened Hogan. It was also enjoyable to hear their scheming and their devious tactics to get what they wanted. Maybe it was their personality that people did not enjoy , but I believed that the characters as a whole were amusing. Now at the end of the play the characters really developed and became dynamic characters. From a person that wanted to beat their children to a pulp when they left the farm at the opening of the play, Hogan came a long way into wanting his daughter to be happy and find a better life with a loving husband at the end of the play. Josie was described as and acted as a brute and slut at the beginning, and seemed to develop as a caring woman. I believe that the dynamic changes of these two main character was a strong piece of this play. I can acknowledge that Josie and Hogan maybe weren't as substantial as they were in the end, but they were still strong pieces of the story in my honest opinion.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was funny that Josie was more in charge of Hogan and could very easily put him in his place in a comical way. I liked that even though they sort of seemed to dislike one another, they also maintained the father-daughter bond by joking with each other and being there for one another.
DeleteOne aspect of the play that I found interesting and ironic was the change in Hogan specifically from the beginning and the end. At the opening of the play, Mike was attempting to escape the dictatorial tenant farm which Hogan ran with complete authority and brutality. Mike eventually escaped successfully as his older brothers had before him. Hogan exploded in rage when he found out Mike had escaped. The reason that Mike and his brothers had escaped was in search of better lives for them and, hopefully, their future families. Hogan displayed a very selfish persona of rage and an incapability of understanding their reasoning. The only thing that Hogan wanted was his children slaving away on his farm. However, Hogan transformed into a dynamic character and ended up attempting a scheme to have his daughter marry. Hogan crafting the plan to blackmail Tyrone was actually a blueprint to get Josie to sleep with, and eventually marry Tyrone. In the beginning of the play, Hogan wanted to give Mike a good "licking" when he left the farm to find a better life. At the end, he was willing to give his only daughter, and final child, away to marriage. He had developed into a caring parent and wanted his daughter to strive to start her own life and search for a better life/situation. This is important to strengthening the character and not only makes Hogan more interesting, but more likable in the end.
ReplyDeleteSince I didn't really see anyone else talk about it, I want to talk about the title of the play and its meaning(s)/relevance. Both Jim and Josie keep talking about the moon throughout their little date, with lines such as "Everything is far away and doesn't matter-- except the moon and its dreams, an I'm part of the dreams-- and you are, too" and "I was glad of the excuse to stay awake and enjoy the beauty of the moon... It was all about beautiful nights and the romance of the moon." The moon was definitely a symbol. I'm not sure exactly what for, though, maybe dreams or goodness, or the unattainable things one wants that keep them going?
ReplyDeleteThe word "misbegotten" means "badly conceived, designed, or planned" or "contemptible" as an insult. I think the word describes Josie, Jim and Josie's father as people; their lives are imperfect and play out badly. It could also describe Josie and her father's schemes, as they are quite misbegotten themselves. I like the double meaning of it. In fact, maybe even a triple meaning because Josie and Jim's love is also misbegotten.
I agree here in that I also lamented for a while about the title. It seemed that while it was a somewhat interesting title, even before reading, it gains even more of an enigmatic shell after reading, I think. While the first definition of misbegotten, "badly conceived, designed, or planned" has a clear surface meaning, in describing Jim and Josie's love, I believe its meaning can go deeper. Let us look at both of their lives and histories. Josie was and is the strongest and most independent child of Philip Hogan, and the only daughter. Not only does she do as much or more work than her father for the farm, she also does the housework, like cooking and cleaning for him, as well as taking care of him every night he comes back from the bar while intoxicated. And because of her vulgarity, large size, and extreme strength, she has had little to no thought of settling, because she thinks that any proper man would not take well to her because she is, in her own eyes, unfit for a wife or proper woman because of her physical properties and upbringing. So, to her, any love or crush she has is badly conceived. For her to deny herself actual love rather than just surface lust is painful, and sad. On to Jim. He is the landlord for Phil Hogan's farm, and a good friend to both Phil and Josie, as we learn his father was his predecessor in the landlord business, and Hogan would banter and drink with the both of them in their respective times. Jim used to live in Brooklyn, and he used to sleep with many prostitutes and whores when he was there. But he has so destroyed his mind, happiness, and sanity with alcohol and throwing his time away on "tarts" in Brooklyn, and so, especially to himself, Jim fits the second definition of misbegotten, "contemptible". He hates himself for who and how he is, and as we learn in the moonlight as he and Josie discuss, he wishes to die peacefully and quickly in his sleep. I like the way that O'Neill projects such deep, thoughtful meaning in just a title alone, and still we can interpret his entire book in whatever way appeals to us and our sense of reason, such as deciding whether their love is truly meant to be even though it does only last a single night, or whether it was badly conceived. Where the line is between sarcastic banter and verbal abuse, and what Josie will do after the book ends, because she seems so very conflicted and confused about where the story of her life is going.
DeleteI agree with Meaghan R. In the way that I also thought the relationship between Josie and her father was especially different compared to most. The constant bickering and witty comments kept us on our toes throughout the play and had us asking questions like: Do they really hate eachother? Is it all sarcastic? Where do we draw the line between playful banter and verbal abuse? I also think Sam Golden pointed out something not many of us caught which was the title itself giving us a major theme of the story. It reminds us how Josie and Jim's love story was so sloppy and poorly planned. I thought another key theme would be deception.
ReplyDeleteThe major point of deceit in the play is when Hogan lies to Josie about Jim breaking his promise. There is nothing accidental about it. In order to achieve his goal, Hogan uses everything he knows about his daughter and manipulates things accordingly so she will react exactly how he wants her to react. His motives may be noble but does that make the deception valid?
The relationship between Josie and Jim had me frustrated and made me put the play down several times before continuing. It's messy and it went from 0 to 100 very quickly many times. I think that their back and fourth actions where one second they're happy on the steps and the next they are fighting sheds light on the fact that both of them have their hidden problems and struggles to deal with. Not to mention everyone in the play has some sort of burden or anxiety or problem sitting on their shoulder and the way they act shows how they deal with it. Josie feels as though she isn't good enough for anyone so she plays the role of someone who has relations with every guy she sees to make not only herself feel better, but make the people around her view as an "it" girl, not the brute and tough girl. The death of Jim's mother clearly took a tole on him. The drinking, the confusion, the mental idea that he is already dead; it all adds up to someone in pain. Jim and Josie may love each other, but they could never be together because of their own problems and personal issues. Josie feels like no man could possibly ever love her, and Jim is depressed and confused and full of regret. The ending, while in my opinion tragic, does wrap up nicely and is left with no more story to tell. If it ended with Jim and Josie together it would have been a distraction from the story that was written and the meaning behind it. Jim and Josie going separate ways was the only way it could end and I think it was done well.
ReplyDeleteDuring Josie and Jim's special night we see that she is undoubtedly mothering him. I think this is very interesting, seeing as Josie's mother died earlier in her life after giving birth to Mike. She even admits that she had been like a mother to Mike, when explaining why she stole money from Hogan for him she says,"It was the little boy you used to be that I had to mother, and not you, I stole the money for." She seems to have taken on the role as mother with all the characters, even with Hogan. When he comes home from the Inn drunk she settles him and helps him get his wits back. She doesn't put up with anything that he tries to pull, but she is also extremely forgiving with him. Maybe Josie's way of showing love is by providing that mother figure that is missing from many of these characters lives. Jim obviously needs a mother figure and not a lover, which Josie is completely capable of providing him that night. She comforts him and lets him sleep on her breast as if he were a child. In the end perhaps Josie was never meant to be Jim Tyrone's lover but meant only to give him the love and comfort that a mother can.
ReplyDeleteThis was a whole new perspective that I hadn't given much thought to. It makes complete sense that Josie's main purpose as a character was to fulfill a motherly role. It is interesting to think of their love less as romantically and more as a family member. This could answer her father as to why she isn't out starting a family like the rest of the people her age. Living the life she is living allows her to fill the motherly role of guidance and direction for both Hogan and Jim.
DeleteMy favorite part about this play is what lies beyond the ending. O'Niell does a wonderful job characterizing and showing the audience the potential of each character. Does any one else think they know what happened to Jim and Josie after? Personally, I think Jim continues his life of heavy drinking and many sexual partners. This eventually ends with him being found dead in some hotel room after a night of parting too hard. I like to think that Josie moved away and found happiness. Considering how much she boasted about her promiscuity it eventually catches up to her. She becomes pregnant but ends up being a wonderful mom and giving her child a much better life than she had all those years on the farm. I saw all this potential in Josie. Jim only would have brought her down, like her father did, and made her continue to be miserable. Although they loved each other, they were definitely not meant for each other.
ReplyDeleteMany people have commented how Jim and Josie were incapable of loving each other,and that it was best for them to part ways. I agree, but it made me realize how utterly upsetting it was.
ReplyDeleteJosie Hogan is a woman of unusual characteristics. Her large size, unfeminine strength, vullgarity, and bad reputation are all convincing reasons that she should play the slut. However, Josie really is a virgin, not the wanton woman of the neighborhood; a variation on the idea of the prostitute with a heart of gold. Because she has presented this false image of herself, for a man to sleep with her would be to sacrafice his own masculinity.
This is why(in part), Jim and Josie's love is so simple and selfless. Jim in a way, gives himself to her, and they can love each other without pretense. These two isolated, unhappy souls are able to connect with one another. I just think it's sad they have to part ways
I like this post. It isn't often that we look so deeply within something that we have already invested our minds and time in, such as how sad it is that they cannot be together. We often find ourselves in a head space where we overanalyze unnecessarily, but sometimes it is necessary to look deeper, and even further, something that didn't hit me for a while after finishing the book is how selfless Hogan really was at the end of the book - he lies to Josie in order to get her to confess her love to Jim and actually be with him, for at least one night. I agree with Danny on the how this is your atypical tragic love story, and I like his take on the characters.
DeleteI think what O’Neill did so well in this play was his focus on humans and the connections we make with one another. Personally, I think that Jim’s relationship with his mother was very touching as you know that he was truly devastated by her death and responded to the pain with bad habits like his heavy drinking. Maybe it’s just that I haven’t really read a story that had a character so traumatized by the death of a parent, but I found it refreshing and touching. Like some people have been saying, O’Neill did an excellent job with the dialogue, which I guess makes sense considering it’s a play. The dialogue between Jim and Josie felt authentic and natural, containing humorous remarks, but also its fair share of awkward and somewhat dull moments. The dialogue was extremely important as it was readers main entrance to our main characters and their backgrounds. I mean, their struggles and opinions were only revealed through their dialogue, so the dialogue became an important vessel in the character building in the play. So props to O'Neill's conversation writing.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the reasons why Jim and Josie’s relationship felt so strong and lively that night was because Jim knew that their relationship was going to be one night and he wasn't capable of love. I think Jim knew that there would never be a real relationship between him and Josie, so he was honest and open. On multiple occasions Jim’s so-called inability to love someone was brought up, which I think establishes that Jim never expected anything to come from this night. I can’t help but wonder if this were an actual date and Jim was completely sober and believed he could love, would Jim and Josie still feel so good together or was it just their circumstance that helped this “relationship”? Personally, I believe in the latter. Jim believing nothing would come of this night, created a vulnerability to his character that would’ve never been shown under different circumstances.
ReplyDeleteColton Freeman (responding to earlier posts) says: I completely agree with this statement about the dialogue between Jim and Josie. I found that the continuous indecisiveness between the two really distracted the reader from the entirety of the plot. I thought the repetitiveness of dialogue between Jim and Josie dragged on the play significantly to becoming somewhat boring at times. It is possible that O’ Neill slightly intended for this to distract the reader from the entirety of the plot that comes as a bit of a shock at the end. The beginning of the play perceived Hogan we a very selfish and greedy person, which pushed me to believe that Hogan’s plan to bring Jim and Josie together was for his own sake. As a result, when it is revealed at the end that Hogan’s intent was to make Josie happy, it came as more of a surprise for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this statement that Josie was considered a complex character in this play. Early on we see her help her brother run away from their father and learn that she has done the same with her other two brothers. This depicts her as a very strong, independent woman that can take care of herself and live with her father’s temper. This attitude then changes when Hogan comes home and sees Josie by herself because Jim never showed up. At this point, she seems to be much less strong-willed and sees herself as an ugly woman that no guy wants to be with. This attitude once again changes when Hogan tells her that Jim plans to sell the farm and she furiously comes up with this cunning plot to frame Jim. But when Jim shows up, we again see the soft side of Josie that is insecure and emotional. From this, I can infer that Josie has feelings for Jim even though she doesn’t outright admit it and it proves her to be a complex character.
I agree that this play was very concise and to the point. Being only 150 pages, I think O’Neill did a good job developing the plot to make the reader reread what they missed. I thought the ending would be the cliche “happily ever after” ending that had been overused in literature so I was pretty content when I was proven wrong. I think the way O’ Neill developed Jim and Josie as characters really helped to conceal Hogan’s change of feelings toward his daughter, making his scheme to bring the two lovers together come as more of a shock to the reader. Overall, I think the plot was played out very well and kept the reader in their toes throughout the play.
Rylee Kavanagh says: I really enjoyed this play, overall I thoroughly enjoyed the humor that took place throughout the book. I also loved the character of Josie, the way that O’Neil wrote her to be a strong female was done in a way that I have never seen before and I enjoyed the direction he took on her character. O’Neil took the father-daughter relationship, as well as her relationship with Jim, and amplified it to be humorous and enjoyable for the reader. Overall, I would rank this play quite high in my list of plays that I have read I loved the humor, direction, language, and story that O’Neil used throughout the story.
ReplyDeleteLacey Ryan says: I liked the dynamic between Josie and her father, Phil. Although not very many fathers call their daughter a slut, you could tell they cared for each other. Josie always protected him when he came home drunk, much like her mother did before she passed away. After all, Phil claims he wouldn’t survive if it wasn’t for Josie wasn’t taking care of him all these years. She’s the only child of his that he wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to. I didn’t like how they used their wits to trick people, like selling them sick livestock or trying to steal from Jim. I also found it was weird that her father encouraged her to entice Jim and lure him in by her sexuality. However, like Bonnie and Clyde, I have to admit that they were a great match for whoever they planned on scheming.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this play was enjoyable for me, I found the ending quite underwhelming. When Josie and Jim finally got together on the final night of the play, I was expecting them to find love and have it tragically ripped away. While this did indeed happen, it was done in a more symbolic way than I had expected. As Jim reveals his miserable life story, Josie begins to love him like a mother loves a son. When Jim leaves Josie, it is symbolic for the son leaving his mother to go into the world and be independent. Following the trend of previous plays that I have read throughout my four years of high school, I expected this ending to be more tragic, such as Jim committing suicide or drinking himself to death. The play, especially the ending, was written masterfully; however, I had expected more a more shocking ending as the plot built up.
ReplyDeleteI feel like even thought Josie is seen as a " complex character", I also think she is very relateable. Josie portrays herself as something she is not ( a slut) to protect herself from getting hurt. She gives off a strong and impenetrable attitude that suggests she is not offended nor affected by what people think of her. She calls herself a slut and continuously makes comments about her sexuality and has also convinced the people around her she is one too. She owns this fake persona. I think she does this because if she convinces herself and everyone else she is this girl she won't have to think about what she really is or what she really feels. Therefore, if no one knows how she really feels, they cant use it against her.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I didn't really make this connection, but I think that towards the end it became very apparent that Josie wasn't the harsh and vulgar woman she pretended to be, like you said, and I think Jim saw that in her, which is why she liked him so much. I think it's easier for some people to pretend to be something they're not, especially when it will protect them or even make them blend in more, but to be truly happy, we have to be ourselves.
DeleteSamantha Cochise says: What I most enjoyed about this book is how genuine the connection between Jim and Josie is. Both characters are at odds with the outside world, Josie being so large and having such a reputation and Jim with his drinking problem and family legacy, so I was incredibly touched by their ability to see through each others facades. Jim repeatedly tells Josie that he doesn't want to hear any of the crap that she gives the other men about being a slut, and Josie has real faith in Jim’s character. Both project really abrasive personas to the public to compensate for their problems, but with each other they can be themselves. This genuine connection is what I feel makes the story so beautiful. Even though the characters don't end up together in the end, the reader is still left with the impression of caring and love. I was reminded of the saying If you love something, set it free and if it's yours it will come back to you. I feel that Josie was setting Jim free in a way, although I think she knows he isn't coming back. Real love is when all the walls come down and you truly expose yourself to someone else, and that's what Jim and Josie did in O’Neill’s masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteI feel like that's the struggle between the two of them, try as hard as Josie might, I don't think she could ever truly set Jim free on her own. Josie would need Jim to also want to set himself free and I don't think he wants that yet. Truth be told, I don't think Jim even realize what he wants, making it impossible to set him free
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ReplyDeleteAs mentioned before, I think in Josie's relationship with Jim she acted as a mother figure since one was missing from both of their lives. She comforted Jim when he was most vulnerable and had no one else to have an actual conversation with, instead of allowing him to continually brush off the emotions by drinking excessively. After sitting with him for some time, he explained that he became dead inside after his mother died. Josie replied by saying, "Maybe if you talked about your grief for her, it would help you. I think it must be all choked up inside you, killing you"(122). Josie's protective nature was exposed there and she was only concerned with Jim's need to feel better, like a mother would be. She then let him comfortably rest on her as he slept.
ReplyDeleteJosie also had to take care of her father often, which included making sure he was safe when he was drunk and cooking for him at mealtimes. I know that during the 1920s, when this took place, the women in the house generally had to do more for the men, like cooking and cleaning up for them and taking care of their every need, so it made me question whether the author meant for Josie’s actions to have a deeper meaning here also, or if they were just supposed to be supportive of the time period.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great question, and I think it's a good topic to bring up. Joise did have older brothers that could have easily stayed with her father and helped him with the farm and everyday needs, but instead they abandoned him. Josie then had to take responsibility for him and the house. This put her in an authoritative role which was different for women in this time period. Yes, they were suppose to clean and cook and tend to the family, but Josie was picking up the slack her brothers left behind as well, which I think makes her a stronger and more dynamic character. She has to be this strong, independent woman for the sake of her family, but she gets so lost in that, that she forgets her own wants/ desires/ needs, until she finds someone ( Jim ) who brings it out.
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DeleteI enjoyed the dramatic mood that the author was able to create. However, the relationship between Jim and Josie was kind of disappointing. It's obvious that they are in love, but it doesn't work out. Jim has some emotional problems, since he was too drunk to go to his own mother's funeral, and his drinking problem continued throughout part of the play. Josie takes care of her whole family , so she really deserves a good relationship, and someone who can take care of her. She is clearly interested in having a relationship with Jim, and it's disappointing that she isn't able to have that kind of connection with him. The play was frustrating because I was expecting a happy ending. However, I did like that the author showed that things don't always work out and there aren't always happy endings in real life.
ReplyDelete-Kyle Ferguson
Allie Simon says [ha!]: The progression of the relationship between Josie and Hogan kept me tuned into the play. From the beginning, I found it somewhat angering to follow the conversations between them because they were arguing so irrationally. They had this tendency to attack each other's character and demean each other unnecessarily. As amusing as this was, I also saw it as a waste of their time and breath; however, you can see through their arguments a pure love for each other. As I felt the mood of their conversations drift to a somewhat more lighthearted and comical state, I was drawn in and more satisfied with the bittersweet emotion it gave me. I definitely found myself reading over to appreciate their witty nature more than a couple times, while still rolling my eyes at the absurdity in their words. I saw most of Josie's relationships as uncertain, and based upon misunderstandings and lies. I don't think a strong relationship always means one that is filled with gentle words, but I think truth is the most important thing in a relationship. While Jim seemed to open up to Josie, she held back herself for the majority of the play. Their connection was rough, but it still felt strong in the end, despite not even lasting.
ReplyDeleteAvery Savoie says: In response to Kelly Sheidel:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kelly’s view on Josie’s “fake persona.” I think that O’Neill included this aspect of her character in the novel not only to question Josie’s own motives in actively portraying herself as a promiscuous young woman, something that is commonly looked down upon, but also to make the reader or the audience revaluate their personal opinions of real women seen as “sluts” or “whores.” Kelly’s comment left me with questions about why Josie portrays herself in such a poorly regarded light, and who she feels she needs to protect herself from, questions with answers I don’t think can be found within the book.
Avery also says: In response to Anna Garrow:
ReplyDeleteIn agreement with what Aidan and Anna previously stated, I think that O’Neill was extremely successful in setting up situations so that the audience would believe one thing was going to happen, and then something completely different would occur. This unpredictable aspect of the play, I believe, contributed to it being such a great success, because unlike most conventional love stories the audience didn’t know what to expect with every page.
I really enjoyed reading this play. O’Neill’s unconventional style of writing made for a page-turner. I especially admired the amusing tone with which O’Neill wrote the dialogue. The sarcasm that the characters spoke with kept the difficult discussions that were taking place light-hearted to some degree. I also appreciated the complexity of O’Neill’s character development. Two of his main characters in this novel, Jim and Josie, are seemingly tough, but throughout the play, they showed their softer, more caring sides. They open up to each other, and confess their feelings, and in an unexpected turn of events, Jim still leaves in the morning. This uncommon aspect of surprise in literature and the character’s hesitance to open up made this play an intriguing and thought provoking read.
Holly McGrath says: In reply to Eliza’s entry from Aug 2: I agree that the repetitive scenes made the play hard to enjoy. I especially agree with Kaitlyn’s observation about Josie being fragile and indecisive. On one hand it was refreshing to witness her raw, internal debate, but on the other hand, it dragged on for so so long. It came to a point where found myself confused as to whether or not I should trust Jim, myself. Maybe this was the author's intention? However, like many of my classmates, I found my confusion to actually take away from the larger, more significant plot elements.
ReplyDeleteIn reply to Meaghan Rowedder’s entry from Aug 28: I think that Josie and Hogan's relationship was extremely important to the play. As my classmates have pointed out, the sarcasm in their conversations was a nice break from the heavy arguments between Josie and Jim. Still, I believe their relationship was more important in terms of revealing character’s personality and lifestyle. After learning about Josie’s past and home life I felt more sympathetic towards her was able to better understand her hesitation to jump into a relationship.
In reply to ALex Wells’ entry from Aug 28: This is a very interesting though. Before reading this comment, I was hung up on the lack of closure in then end and wondering why their relationship could not have been defined. Weather it be a happy or sad ending, I had wanted to be given a more decisive ending. However, I guess there is beauty in the unknown. What happens to the two of them is our guess- the reader is left to fully immerse himself in and explore the toxic relationship, which as you said, definitely will never end up working out. I too hope that Josie ends up better off without Jim bringing her down.
In reply to Sam Golden’s entry from Aug 28: I also found the meaning of the title to be subtle but important. After reading your comment I have found myself hooked on the glaring differences between the symbolism of the moon and the meaning of the word misbegotten. You described the moon to have such beauty and elegance whereas you interpreted “misbegotten” as a word with a highly negative connotation. I agree with both you observations, I just find it interesting how O’Neil synthesized the two parts of the title.
One major similarity between Josie and Jim is that they are both atypical members of society at the time. This uniqueness about them is, in a way, what brings them together as lovers. However, I found it interesting that the thing that unites them in society might actually be what is separating them on a more personal level. The reason Jim is considered a misfit is because he is an alcoholic-he has lost control of his life and no longer cares about success or achievement. Josie, on the other hand, is stepping out of the constraints society puts on women and becoming a hard-headed leader. She cares more about success and achievement than most other women do. This difference in ambition and future goals is a major cause of many of their fights.
Carly Nivison says: In reply to first comment on the thread: I actually tend to dislike reading books that tell more than one story. For some reason I don’t like having to continuously switch between characters,conflicts, and settings. However, I felt differently about this book. I think a major reason why this book didn’t frustrate me as much as I expected it too is because of the strong connections between each story. As Eliza began to point out, many character's lives were impacted by the lives of other characters, and generations easily flowed into each other. This allowed me to easily interpret the individual stories while still being able to piece together the big picture.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Aidan’s entry from Aug 20: I had the same immediate connection between Jesse and Charles Manson. In fact, the cult aspect of the characters was what I found most interesting throughout all of the book. Now, after reading Lionel’s comment, I am even more intrigued. It is interesting to explore how this cult, an insulting memory of a past society, can lead to “death and chaos”.
What struck me most about this play was that Josie was described as very big and broad but also described as very beautiful. I admired how she didn't let herself get stepped on because of her social status and how much money she had, she stayed a strong tough woman. Josie knew what she had to do and got it while being smart and knowing right from wrong all the while. I love it when authors create strong female characters, I feel it really brings light to the topic of feminity and I think Josie sort of redefines that term. After reading this I definitely view her as a character I look up to.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wasn't too impressed with the O'Neill's paly, "a moon for the misbegotten". I felt throughout the play there were no really interesting or exciting events that ever occurred. The entire book was basically back and fourth conversations between a few of the characters that had very little excitement to them. I think that this play needed a more dramatic event or something surprising to happen in order to grab the readers attention better. -Isabelle Merluzzo
ReplyDeleteI too felt a bit bored when reading some of the conversations between the characters. This was mostly due to my personal preference of plot driven stories over character driven ones. I truly believe this play is for readers who enjoy fleshed out characters and internal conflict over external because most of the play is about discovering who Josie and Jim truly are, rather than the possible loss of the farm.
DeletePaige Fluckiger
Eugene O'Neill's play starts off with a great introduction to the Hogans family dynamic. We see immediately that Josie is the most well equipped to handle Phil, while her brothers have all had enough of him to the point of running away. We also see Josies cares for her family because she helps her brothers leave because she supports them, but she also sticks around to help her father. I love the banter between Josie and Phil because it’s so quick and sharp, but also shows how they care for each other, as they use this banter to subtly ask about each others lives. At the beginning of the play their back and forth is almost lighthearted, but as the play continues it gets more serious which sets the mood for the events going on around Josie. Her character starts out as this seemingly unashamed, strong woman who is proud of her reputation, but it turns out she’s actually quite the opposite, and that really disappointed me. I was rooting for her to stay sure of herself, but as the events of the play unfold, like the reveal of her lying about her sexual history, it’s obvious that she wouldn't. While I understand that the ending wouldn't be the same without Josie showing who she really is, I still found it somewhat annoying. We end up finding out that she’s ashamed of being a virgin, but in a way that stems from her being self-conscious of her looks and her desire to be the kind of lady she thinks Jim wants. Josie believes Jim wants a broadway girl, but he’s more interested in finding someone to fill the hole his mother's death left in his heart. He finds that in Josie as we see he talks to her as if he were talking to his mother, and he also lays in her lap. That motherly dynamic (sorry Freud) seems incredibly unhealthy in the situation of these two tormented lovers because it causes Jim to have an unclear image of who Josie really is and, ultimately, I don't think Josie would be able to provide the support Jim needs. I think Josie and Jim could have ended up together well after the events of the play, but only if Josie were to find more confidence in herself, and Jim to accept and appropriately deal with his mother's death. They both have internal conflicts that, when put together, are toxic to their ability to have a stable relationship. That's why I wasn't dissatisfied with the ending, because their relationship would have been detrimental to both of them if they'd ended up together. Josie and Jim not ending up together also, in a way, reveals that Phil doesn't truly know what's best for his daughter. He covered up his desire to keep the farm by telling Josie he just wanted her to be happy, which he did want, with Jim, but he doesn't realize that she can't be happy with him. He doesn't realize this because both Josie and Jim hide their true selves from him. During their night under the moon, both josie and Jim hide aspects of themselves from each other like they do with Phil, but they also show their vulnerable sides. This makes for a messy and confusing back and forth between Jim and Josie, unlike the father-daughter banter we saw earlier in the play. Though the ending to A Moon for the Misbegotten was not a happy one, it was realistic, natural, and fitting for the characters within it.
ReplyDeletePaige Fluckiger
Something interesting I noticed is the length of Act Two. It could have been condensed into two lines of dialogue ("I have discovered X at the bar, and we should respond by doing Y." "OK."). Instead, Act Two is an endless dialogue in which one character repeatedly makes reference to something he doesn't want to say, then Josie pries it out of him, when it was obvious to the reader all along. It showcases a little of their relationship but its effect seems insignificant considering its length. Maybe I’m just not analyzing it deep enough, however.
ReplyDeleteSophia Webster says: The relationship between Jim and Jose was what made this entire play so interesting to me. The contrast between who Jose is with her brother and father and who she is with Jim really shows so much about her character. Additionally, as Jose is so honest and vulnerable with Jim, it is really something that he is able to show the same openness and trust. While the two of them seem like an unlikely pair, their personalities and love for eachother bring out the best in each other in that they they can be open and honest and true to themselves when they are alone and together. For both of them the rough exterior, whether it be drinking, promiscuity, or both hides a deeper emotional pain and insecurity. The ending is tragic in that they cannot be together, however this ending seems best, for they have both loved and lost, but learned that they can love and be loved.
ReplyDeleteIn Response to Marlee’s Comment:
It is very interesting the role that Josie plays in society particularly due to the time period of the 1920s. I agree, during this time a woman of her age would most likely be looking for a marriage and a future with her own kids, certainly not living with her father and doing hard farm labor all day. This was very interesting and one of the first things I noticed at the start of the book along with the way she talks and behaves in her sarcastic and bold manner. Personally, while historically not the best example of a typical 1920s lady, I think that her large and in charge personality makes her all the more likable, and certainly more entertaining as far as the storyline goes.
While the relationship with Josie and Jim is very compelling and arguably the main focus of this play, the relationship between Josie and her father is certainly not to be ignored. At the very beginning it becomes clear that Josie is the only child of her father that has decided to stay and work on the family farm. More specifically, she is the only one that does not despise the father. While reading early on I was stuck on the question as to why she sticks around when all of her siblings took off to pursue their own passions beyond the farm and their temperamental father. As I continued it became clear that Josie truly does care about him and seems to understand him better than anyone else, even though he might not understand everything about her. Additionally, both of their bold personalities seem to click as seen especially as they bonded over tormenting their poor visitor from down the street. The both of them can scheme together, argue, work, and joke together but I think that Josie stays because they care for eachother and they need each other in many ways even if just for the simple comfort of some company.
Mallory Goldsmith says: REPLY TO OLIVER KUHN: I agree with Oliver that the ending of the play was a little underwhelming, and kind of predictable. I found Oliver's comparison of Jim leaving Josie being like a son leaving his mother to be quite accurate. Josie, being the only woman in her family, tended to take on a maternal role throughout the play, and probably throughout the rest of her life. Another point in the play that Josie took on a motherly role was in the beginning of the play, when she was assisting her younger brother Mike in running away. I also found it interesting that the play begins and ends with a man leaving Josie forever, while she takes on a maternal role. I feel there was some sort of significance to O’Neill starting and ending the play in similar ways, but I’m not quite sure what it is yet.-Mallory Goldsmith
ReplyDeleteREPLY TO BRIAN CLOKEY: I totally agree, Brian. I too thought of Romeo and Juliet when I read the ending of the play. However, I was only focused on Josie and Jim being in love, but being torn apart, and how their romance’s fate was similar to Romeo and Juliet’s. I really like your connection of the title of A Moon For the Misbegotten, and the prologue for Romeo and Juliet. I hadn't even noticed that particular similarity until you pointed it out. I'm almost certain that Eugene O'Neill was been influenced by Shakespeare in that aspect. Great connection!
Julia Pereira says: I think the ending of this play was perfect for Jim and Josie. Jim was a man who couldn't take one step forward without taking two steps back. In addition he was frequently unstable due to his drunken manner. Josie, was a hard-working woman who care deeply for those she loved. She helped all her brothers escape from the clutches of her father; even though it meant she would never see them ever again. If Jim and Josie were to stay together in the end, I feel that their relationship would would burn instead of blossom. Josie would always care for Jim and give him her all. Yet Jim would never be able to do the same. What's nice about this ending is that after everything Josie went through she still had a constant in her life, making her father breakfast. If Jim and Josie were to remain together their lives would never have a constant due to Jim's unpredictable behavior. Their relationship would cause more harm than help. Not always does “Happily ever after” mean that the couple stays together, sometimes it's whatever is best for those involved.
ReplyDeleteKettie Rose Cormier says: One topic I found important in the book "A Moon for the Misbegotten" was the types of conversations that were held between the two characters Phil and Josie. The topics of conversation ranged between being vary casual and light witted, to highly invariable, explosive attacks against one another. Following the attacks against each other, there was always forgiveness and apologizes. Through the different exchanges of dialogue between the two characters we come to learn that it's more of Phil trying to manipulate Josie, leaving Josie to protect herself. Through this constant change of fights and forgiveness we come to the realization that we as readers aren't completely satisfied at what their relationship is at points throughout the story. This is what aggravated me the most was the continuous banter and not knowing about how secure their relationship truly was.
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ReplyDeleteI really did enjoy “A Moon for the Misbegotten” for two reasons: one, in that it was unique for a play because it took place over the course of just one day, and I think it’s amazing how characters can evolve in such a short period of time. Second, I appreciate how we can relate to the insecurities and desires for forgiveness that both Jim and Josie have on some level.