Tender is the Night

Nicole and Dick Driver - Insanity courted by a man who falls in love with youth and becomes attached to it out of responsibility. Is that it? Is that the story? 

There is more, and yet, that is the thread that weaves it together. And Nicole's story becomes more sad with each reading. It is such a small part of the novel - her reason for breakdowns - and yet it is such a large part of her life. When I step back and dissect Nicole I have this certain softness for her because of what she has gone through, and the fact that she lets Dick feel like the man in control, even though in a way she pulls the strings.  

Fitzgerald's world is so fueled by men who don't seem to have anything together. And he paints the women as lucky to exist in their crazy fun party world. And yet you start to understand that the women are the reason why the men create the world they live in. Perhaps not on the surface, but definitely underneath, and I think that is evident with Dick's relationship with both Nicole and Rosemary. He is alive with both women - both with pain and excitement. And yet you get the feeling that both women would exist surely without him. And how much of that does Fitzgerald pin on their beauty? His world is punctuated by beauty. The women, the men, the surroundings. One is wrapped in it, and perhaps that is where the meaning lies. They are living in lush beauty, yet their world is shrouded in waste and sadness. 

... A bit later... 

Waste is right. Life as waste, beauty as waste. Nicole finally decides to do her own thing and step out of Dick's parental pose, yet she steps into the arms of another man who knows what is best for her. Better? Come on! What the hell. The more I think about it the more irritated I become. She saves herself from one way of life, and chooses another that is going to be slightly less boring for a while. I have to be honest - she really pissed me off. 

And Rosemary... I at least felt some sort of pleasure in the life she led. Sure, she was googly eyed around Dick, at least for a while, but she didn't need him, and I don't really think she needed anyone except for her mother. ( I don't think that is any better, but for the sake of this entry I will leave it at that.) She wasn't honest with herself completely, but she seemed to know the limits of her crush and so called love. 

And Dick. At first I kind of felt sorry for him. And then I realized that he was living the same life in the United States as he did in Europe. The same life. Getting into trouble, running from complications, falling in and out of desire. And it didn't matter where he was or who he was with. He was living to undo himself. The loss of Nicole didn't matter nearly as much as the loss of his age of desirability.