3.2.1 The Jazz Age 9

3.2.2 The Conflict between Upper Class and Middle class 9

4. Comparing Fitzgerald with Dick 11

4.1 Living Environment 11

4.2 Love and Marriage 11

5. Conclusion 12

References ….13

1. Introduction

1.1 Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940) 

Fitzgerald was born in a middle-class family in America. His grandfather was a well-known local merchant, and the family provided Fitzgerald with a wonderful education environment. His mother often took him to join some upper-class activities which developed Fitzgerald’s artistic style to a certain extent. His father was a gentlemanly man, whose gentle manner influenced his behaviors in many aspects. But his father’s career was not successful. His business failure caused the family to move a lot when Fitzgerald was young. This family background contributed a lot to his future literary career.

Adult Fitzgerald fell in love with Zelda Sayre and married her. In their marriage, Zelda was a spendthrift woman who always pursued a high-quality life, which made their lives straitened. Fitzgerald felt the overwhelming pain and he got the lung disease that made him unable to write. The extreme pressure brought him to the brink of collapse. Fitzgerald descended into drinking later and his wife Zelda had a mental problem. In the end, Fitzgerald died at the age of 44 of a heart attack, which was the result of heavy drinking in the 1940s. Seven years later, a psychiatric hospital caught fire accidentally, the place where Zelda was treated, and she was trapped on the top floor and burned to death.

As one of the greatest American writers in the 20th century, Fitzgerald was best known for his novels and short stories, all of which chronicled the social life in the Jazz Age during the 1920s in America. Fitzgerald finished four complete novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is the Night. And one unfinished novel The Last Tycoon which was published after Fitzgerald died. And he wrote over 160 short stories about the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald recorded his own experience with his imagination, and most of his fictions had something to with his own real life. So was the novel Tender Is the Night. Fitzgerald’s writing style represents the Lost Generation writers. All of his works establish his unique artistic orientation in the history of modern American literature. Thereby, Fitzgerald becomes one of the representative writers in the Lost Generation writers in America. 

1.2 Tender Is the Night

Tender Is the Night is the fourth and the final complete novel of Fitzgerald. It was first published in 1934. The novel vividly shows the American life and the social environment in the Jazz Age. It is regarded as a semi-autobiographical novel of Fitzgerald. And it was the darkest time in Fitzgerald’s life when he wrote this novel. The novel explores Fitzgerald’s own experience and reflects the process of his emotional breakdown and mental collapse. It almost mirrors Fitzgerald and Zelda’s real life.

The story of Tender Is the Night took place in Europe, but it displayed the social life in the Jazz Age in America. The main character of the story Dick Diver was an American who was a young psychiatrist with great promise. Dick’s wife Nicole Warren was one of Dick’s patients. Nicole had an illicit affair with her father that was thought as the main reason that caused her mental breakdown. Then Nicole fell in love with Dick in the course of her mental treatment. And Dick determined to marry Nicole regardless of his friend’s dissuasion. After they got married, Dick put his full energy into taking care of Nicole so that he had no more time and vigor to struggle for his own career. Consequently, Nicole’s mental problem became steady gradually while Dick neglected his career. In the meantime, Dick had an affair with Rosemary who was a young actress in Hollywood, then he was abandoned while Rosemary rose to stardom. And Nicole also left Dick and fell in love with Tommy who was a rich man. Experiencing a change of emotion, Dick developed a drinking habit and became an alcoholic. After a series changes, Dick and Nicole’s marriage broke down. After the porce with Dick, Nicole lived with Tommy. Dick returned to his hometown and became an ordinary doctor. He spent the rest of his life by himself.