Nathaniel Hadley

TENDER IS THE NIGHT

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
ON F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

Born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Graduated from the Newman School, and is a Princeton dropout.

Wrote his first Novel quickly in fear of dying in WWI it was

rejected, but after rewriting the novel it was published as This
Side of Paradise.

His most successful work was The Great Gatsby a novel that
perfectly captures the essence of the jazz era.

His wife Zelda suffered from mental health issues, and Fitzgerald
descended into alcoholism and writers block. Until 1934 when he
wrote Tender is the Night which was initially a failure, but is now
considered one of the great American novels.

He died of a heart attack in 1940 he was 44.

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT F.

SCOTT FITZGERALD

He was flunking out of Princeton because

he was spending all his time writing.

He went to Hollywood to be a
screenwriter.

He died before completing his last novel

The Love of the Last Tycoon which will
remain half finished.

He was a terrible speller.

DICK DIVER

The American son of a clergyman

who is on the way to becoming a
renowned psychologist when he
falls in love with Nicole and
marries her. Dick is extraordinarily
charismatic and graceful at the
start of the novel, but eventually
falls to his ruin.

NICOLE DIVER

Born Nicole Warren, the beautiful

heiress to a wealthy Chicago
magnate, Nicole was sexually
abused by her father and suffers
from mental breakdowns as a
result. She falls in love with Dick
at first sight, and the two enjoy an
extravagant and turbulent life in
Europe at the center of a
sophisticated group of friends.

ROSEMARY HOYT

The beautiful young movie

star, born in America but
educated in France, who
falls in love with Dick at first
sight and contributes to his
dissipation through their
affair.

TOMMY BARBAN

The half-American, half

French-mercenary soldier
who is in love with Nicole.
He ends up taking her away
from Dick toward the end of
the novel.

SUMMARY OF TENDER IS THE

NIGHT

Rosemary Hoyt, a beautiful eighteen-year-old movie

starlet, falls in love with Dick Diver, a handsome
American psychologist in his thirties.

Dick and his wife Nicole are part of a very sophisticated

society which Rosemary becomes a part of. Things go
well and Dick starts to have feelings for Rosemary.

Then a friend of the Drivers accidentally kills a man,

and Nicole has a mental breakdown.

The story shifts back in time to relate the events

that led up to the marriage of Dick and Nicole.

Dick had moved to Vienna to study clinical

psychology. Once, as Dick was leaving a clinic on
the Zurichsee, he met the sixteen-year-old Nicole
Warren. She had been sexually abused by her
father

The two would fall in love, and Dick becomes both

her doctor and her husband. They travel
extensively, are happy, and have two children
together.

The story picks back up as Dick is accused of

infidelity by a patient, and Nicole gets mad and
runs their car off the road.

Dick has to go to America because his father died.

He then hooks up with Rosemary, and afterwards
he realizes his life is a mess.

He goes out carousing, gets beat up and

imprisoned, and must be rescued by Nicole's
sister, Baby Warren. As Dick continues to drink, he
jeopardizes his position at the clinic and is asked
to leave.

The Divers return to the Riviera, and Dick

continues to drink and unravel. Nicole has an affair
with Tommy Barban.

Dick agrees to a divorce realizing that Nicole's

finally overcome her psychological condition.

Dick then disappears to America, never settling

down. The book ends, suggesting that he is still
there.

LITERARY CRITICISM OF TENDER

IS THE NIGHT

No two reviews were alike of F. Scott Fitzgerald's

"Tender is the Night"; no two had the same tone.
Some seemed to think that Mr. Fitzgerald was
writing about his usual jazz age boys and girls;
others that he had a "timeless" problem on his
hands. And some seemed to think that Doctor
Diver's collapse was insufficiently documented.

It seems to be a sufficient exercise in cause-andeffect. Dick has a complicated life and the simple
Rosemary was enough to Drive him to unrest and
his demise. It is logic personified.

HISTORY CORRELATION

It was during the Great Depression fresh off the

Jazz age. This was an era of hard times and just
trying to make it by. President FDRs New Deal was
the economic program that gave Americans hope
that maybe things can get better.

MUSIC CORRELATION

Most of the music of the 1930s reflected to social

and cultural conditions facing the nation.

Songs like Happy Days Are Here Again take a

painfully ironic yet optimistic approach to the
troubles facing the nation. Music like this was very
popular during the 1930s.

ART CORRELATION

The work of
photographers like
Dorothea Lange were
very prominent during
the depression era of
the 1930s. She was
able to capture the grit
of the Americans of the
depression era.

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