In Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dick Diver starts out as a well-respected, intellectual, and well mannered doctor (a psychiatrist). Yet, even he seems to be more interested in women’s beauty and youth rather than their personality or mental stability. The younger and the more beautiful, the more attractive he finds women. If someone intelligent and seemingly well-meaning cares more about being with someone with a superior appearance rather than a superior mind or even mental stability, it seems clear that Fitzgerald is saying that women’s beauty and youth in the 1920s was the most valuable attribute.
Dick Diver is working as a psychiatrist when he meets Nicole, a mental patient who is about 16 years old. Besides knowing that her father sexually abused her when she was very young, all he really knows about Nicole is from what she has written in a few letters to Dick. As the story of how they met progresses, it becomes evident Dick is attracted by her youth and beauty. When asked about the patient he responds “‘I like her. She’s attractive” (138). She is a patient in a hospital because she is mentally ill, so he seems to mostly be in love with her outer beauty. Later when he meets up with Nicole, it says that her face “had a promise Dick had never seen before” and that she is “a creature whose life did not promise to be only a projection of youth upon a grayer screen, but instead, a true growing; the face would be handsome in middle life; it would be handsome in old age” (141). It seems very important to Dick that she has lasting beauty and youthfulness rather than that she is mentally ready to have a serious relationship. Once they marry it becomes clear that she is still not completely, mentally stable. Dick Diver pays the price to marry someone who is so beautiful yet mentally unsound. She has mental breakdowns, sometimes in front of friends and other times in public.
When Dick Diver meets Rosemary, the brand new American movie star, he is again attracted to her as she is very young and beautiful. He has just met Rosemary but he is already enchanted by her youth and beauty. Since he is married he tries to not give in to the temptation to love her but he struggles as he is “remembering too vividly the youth and freshness of her lips” (65). He is not constantly thinking about how talented she is as an actress, but rather how youthful and beautiful she appears.
Dick Diver is supposed to be a great man in the 1920s, yet even he seems more interested in women’s beauty and youth than their mental capacities or skills. Ultimately, his desire for beauty leads to the poor choices causing him to end up unhappy and alone. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Tender is the Night seems to be a critique and warning for men who overlook everything for outer beauty.
You bring up a really interesting point in showing how Dick (and, likewise, Fitzgerald) mainly focused on women's beauty in the book above all other attributes. It's sad to think that this was the norm for that time period, but also something that might be taken into consideration. Even in the present day, many women are judged on appearances alone, and are held to much different standards than men. However, I would agree that Dick's lust for women and his attraction to them seems unusually uncontrolled. It is obvious that he is not as much of a gentleman as he likes to think he is.
ReplyDelete