Long Day's Journey: The Shaughnessy-Harker debacle -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 19:36:05 04/06/08 Sun
Author: Hwaet!
Subject: Long Day's Journey: The Shaughnessy-Harker debacle

What�s interesting about the Shaughnessy-Harker debacle that Edmund relates on pages 22-25 is that Shaughnessy is its only source, and yet Shaughnessy himself has information which he would not have if things happened as he says they did. Edmund runs into Shaghnessy at the pub and recalls that Shaughnessy �was delighted because he�d had a fight with [Tyrone�s] friend, Harker, the Standard Oil millionaire, and won a glorious victory� (23). The story that follows is merely a retelling of Shaughnessy�s. Somehow, Shaughnessy knows that �Harker�s foreman told [Harker] he was sure Shaughnessy had broken the fence on purpose to give his pigs a free wallow� (23). When Harker goes to confront Shaughnessy, Shaughnessy �was waiting at the gate to welcome him. He told me [Edmund] he never gave Harker a chance to open his mouth. He began shouting that he was no slave�� (24).

If Shaughnessy never gave Harker a chance to speak, then one must ask how he knows a) that Harker�s foreman accused him to Harker, b) when to be waiting for Harker, and c) what Harker was going to say. It is possible that Harker�s foreman, who accused Shaughnessy, was slipping Shaughnessy this information, but this seems unlikely; even if the foreman told Shaughnessy that he was going to accuse him to Harker, would the foreman have returned to tell Shaughnessy when Harker would come? And would Harker, the p.o.ed oil tycoon, delay the confrontation long enough for Shaughnessy to get a few drinks and be back at the gate in time?

It seems more likely that Shaughnessy knows what he knows because he has instigated the whole affair, and that some of his facts are fiction. It is more likely that he is mythologizing the actual event by telling a story justifies his own violence toward Harker and the foreman. Moreover, Shaughnessy hurls accusations of his own at Harker and the foreman: �Then he accused Harker of making his foreman break down the fence to entice the pigs into the ice pond in order to destroy them� (24). He also accuses Harker of thievery: �He was King of Ireland, if he had his rights, and scum was scum to him, no matter how much money it had stolen from the poor� (24). These accusations not only fit the pattern seen in Oedipus Rex, Bacchae, and King Lear; they name the crisis that Shaughnessy perceives, which may serve as a motive for victimizing Harker and his foreman, who are distinguished from the majority by their wealth.

If Shaughnessy is mythologizing, and I think it is clear that he is, then his myth is one which Edmund is happy to accept. The unrest Shaughnessy perceives is capitalism, and the pharmakon is Harker. Edmund is a socialist. By retelling Shaughnessy�s story, Edmund mythologizes, propagating the story which justifies scapegoating Harker. This adds weight to Jamie�s line, Dryly. �Don�t look at me. This is the Kid�s story� (22). In fact, it is conceivable (although not necessary) that Shaughnessy told Edmund the facts, and that the myth begins with Edmund.

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