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
Campion invites Rosemary to ride with him in the hotel car to watch the duel. She is reluctant but when she asks him why he can’t take Mr. Dumphry, he replies that he never wants “to see him again.”
Again, Fitzgerald alludes to Campion’s sexuality here by suggesting that he has had a love affair with Mr. Dumphry, which has now turned sour. Homosexuality was still considered a disease that could be cured when Fitzgerald was writing in the 1920s, and sodomy laws made gay relationships illegal.
Themes
Returning to her bedroom, Rosemary tells her mother what has happened. Mrs. Speers instructs Rosemary to go and watch the duel—she likes her daughter to experience new things without her. Rosemary obeys. Pulling up secretly at the golf course in the hotel car, Campion and Rosemary hide in the woods to watch the duel. The opponents shoot but miss each other, and after some firm arbitration from Abe, they agree to call and end to the conflict.
The peculiarity of Tommy and McKisco’s duel highlights the reckless abandon with which expatriates behaved during this period. The fight is one motivated by traditional concepts of masculinity and honor, and the two men are willing to risk their lives in order to prove their manliness.
Themes
“Gasping” with excitement and shock, Campion is “the only casualty of the duel.” Rosemary laughs at him as her thoughts turn to meeting Dick on the beach later.
Again, Campion is presented as weak, ridiculous, and feminine. Fitzgerald’s homophobic portrayal, while offensive to modern audiences, would likely have been socially acceptable to his contemporaries.
Themes
