Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Tender Is the Night, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Excess, Destruction, and the Failed American Dream
Gender, Mental Illness, and Psychiatry
The Pursuit of Youth and Innocence
Racism and Otherness
Summary
Analysis
In 1935 on the French Riviera, a “dazzling beach” stretches out in front of Gausse’s hotel, an impressive pink building on the coast somewhere between Marseilles and Italy. In recent years, the resort has become an increasingly popular summer destination among “notable and fashionable people.”
Fitzgerald begins the story with a “dazzling” image of the natural beauty and splendor of the French Riviera. This coastline was a fashionable holiday destination for wealthy American expatriates like Fitzgerald and his artistic friends throughout the 1920s.
Themes
The story that is about to unfold, however, begins 10 years earlier, in 1925, when the shore surrounding Gausse’s was derelict and “almost deserted.” Alone in the quiet summer morning, a single hotel guest takes a swim, “grunting” and floundering in the cool water.
With his opening—which shifts from 1935 back to 1925 within a matter of lines—Fitzgerald warns the audience that this is a story concerned with time passing. The novel about to unfold will straddle both the 1920s and 1930s, two vastly distinct periods of American history due to the financial crash of 1929.
Themes
It’s a June morning and a woman of “fading prettiness” and her astonishingly beautiful daughter arrive at Gausse’s Hotel. The girl exudes a magical youthfulness and a lovely brightness, “like the thrilling flush of children after their cold baths.” The girl’s body clings to “the last edge of childhood,” as she is nearly 18 years old.
Introducing these two female characters, Fitzgerald reduces them both to their physical appearance, suggesting that this is what they will be valued for by the other characters in the story. Disturbingly, Rosemary’s beauty is inherently linked, not just to youthfulness, but her relationship with childhood. This description forebodes the story’s preoccupation with youth and innocence.
Themes
The mother and daughter crave “high excitement,” and they sense that they’re not going to enjoy their stay. The mother announces that they will return home after three days, and they book themselves into the hotel.
The beach resort is not yet fashionable or popular and this leaves Rosemary and her mother feeling dissatisfied. Fitzgerald highlights how wealthy American expatriates treated Europe like a playground during the Jazz Age; they were accustomed to ceaseless distractions and became easily bored if not constantly entertained.
Themes
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Moving with the grace of a ballet dancer, the daughter walks out into the bright sun, noticing the attention directed towards her from strangers on the beach. Heading into the sea to swim, she is surprised by how shallow the water is and turns her gaze towards those on the beach.
Rosemary’s beauty, elegance, and traditional femininity make her captivating to others. She is not yet entirely self-confident, however, or sure of how to behave under the gaze of others. Throughout the novel, men will be drawn to this interplay of mature beauty with youthful self-consciousness.
Themes
As Rosemary walks slowly through the water, she sees “a bald” and hairy man watching her through a monocle. She swims joyously towards the raft, where she finds “a tanned woman with very white teeth.” Back on the shore, the man with the monocle warns Rosemary—in a “slow Oxford drawl”—about sharks, before walking away to pour himself a drink.
Rosemary is seemingly unaffected by the gaze of the odd man observing her from the beach, suggesting that she may be quite accustomed to strangers watching her despite being a bit unsure of herself. Through his portrayal of Gausse’s beach, and its guests, Fitzgerald captures the eclectic nature of the crowd who really frequented the French Riviera during the 1920s.
Themes
Slightly self-conscious, Rosemary scans the beach for a place to sit among the different families. Lying on her bathrobe, she begins to tune into the different voices around her, overhearing snippets of their conversations. She observes a group close to her who she believes might be American; there is a young woman wearing pearls with a “lovely and pitiful” face, “a fine man in a jockey cap,” the tanned woman from before, a man with a “leonine head,” and an “unmistakably Latin young man.” She watches the man in the jockey cap entertain his party, drawing attention from others on the beach, who are also enraptured by his funny “little performance.”
The reader is introduced to this new cast of characters through Rosemary’s observations. By introducing new characters predominantly through descriptions of their physical traits, then, Fitzgerald reflects and captures Rosemary’s shallow obsession with outward appearances. The description of Tommy as “Latin” is a reference to his complexion, and implies that he is not white, like the others. This is the first indication of the widespread racist views commonly held in the 1920s.
Themes
Just then, the man with the monocle interrupts Rosemary, complimenting her on her swimming. He introduces himself as Campion, and invites her to join his party, who he says are keen to meet her. Rosemary reluctantly moves towards the “untanned people,” who Campion introduces as Mrs. Abrams, Mrs. McKisco, Mr. McKisco, and Mr. Dumphry. One of the women announces that she needn’t be introduced to Rosemary Hoyt because she already recognizes her from the last film she starred in. The group fusses over Rosemary, warning her not to get sun burned, and admitting that they might have acted improperly by calling her over.
Rosemary, concerned with appearances and social standing, is reluctant to join a party that she snobbishly considers to be vulgar and unfashionable. The group, equally concerned with seeming fashionable, pay lip service to social codes and manners yet chose to ignore them entirely. They fret, for example, that they shouldn’t have beckoned Rosemary to join them without a proper introduction but, of course, have already done it anyway.
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