The Descent of Dick Diver in Fitzgeralds Tender is the Night Essays

The Descent of beam Diver in Tender is the Night Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicles Dick Divers long descent (or dying fall, Letters 310) to ruin at the hands of women. Diver, the novels protagonist and antagonist, seeks to overthrow feminine power. Dick needs to control the women in his life. To him, women want to be dependent they are weak, lost souls who need the guidance only a man can give. In turn, women are parasites who feed on him and ultimately destroy his genius. Before Diver becomes obscure with woman, he is a Rhodes Scholar and a promising young Psychiatrist. By the end of the novel he is a middle-aged drunk chasing young women. Dick Diver, flaw credible, possesses an excess of charm, which leaves him vulnerable to women who lead him to moral and emotional bankruptcy. Diver meets Nicole Warren, the rich heiress. Their relationship is almost incestuous. The unsteady daughter figure/wife/ uncomplaining seeks approval from her father f igure/husband/doctor. The relationship is clearly based on the control Dick Diver has over Nicole. Nicole was already a messiness from the sexual abuse she encountered from her father. She was looking for a father figure, someone to take care of her. Her choice of mate was the likely one her doctor. While Diver does expect to love his patient, he nonetheless handles her, always treating her like a patient over whom he has power. During their courtship, the letters he sends her mostly tell her to be a good girl and mind the doctors. (130) He is a doctor who has control over his patient while corresponding with her he knows she will follow his directions and succeed his commands. After he weds her, he becomes increasingly torn betw... ...e only two people in the world I care about. (218-219). Later, Cullis tells Diver of the incident involving rosemary and Bill Hillis on a train. This image of a third person ... entering into his relation with rosemary was needed to th row him off his balance (88). without delay Diver has really lost control of things with Rosemary. He is obsessed with her, as evident in his repeating his imagined flashback to the scene Do you mind if I tow down the curtain? (90). The Diver that needs to control, is now controlled by the image of Rosemary with another man his need to control people has been suffocated as Rosemary rules his emotions since Nicole no longer needs him. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender Is the Night. New York Simon & Schuster Inc., 1995. The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ed. Andrew Turnbull. New York Scribners, 1963.