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
Franz continues his story, recounting to Dick how Dohmler had agreed to take Nicole’s case if Mr. Warren kept away from his daughter “indefinitely.” Franz thanks Dick, explaining that Nicole’s letter writing helped her recovery, because she was able to think about somebody outside the clinic, and this gave her hope. He warns Dick, however, that he should be careful when he meets Nicole again: “You are attractive to women, Dick.”
Franz has called on Dick to help with Nicole’s case, bit he is also wary about introducing Dick, a Lothario character, to a vulnerable, young woman. This tension foreshadows Dick and Nicole’s later relationship.
Themes
Franz and Dick talk about their plans for the future and reminisce a little about their student experiences. Dick’s only ambition is “to be a good psychologist—maybe to be the greatest one that ever lived,” to which Franz remarks “That’s very good—and very American.”
Fitzgerald highlights a contrast between European and American values when Franz jokes that Dick is being “very American” in his arrogance and ambition to be the best psychologist. Here Franz represents old-world Europe, while Dick embodies the optimism of the new world, and the American dream.
Themes
Over dinner that evening with Franz and his wife, Kaethe Gregorovious, Dick makes an effort to make Kaethe “feel charming,” despite finding her somewhat loathsome. Accustomed to post-war “American splendor,” Dick feels “oppressed” by the lack of “grace and adventure” in Franz’s simple and domestic life. Dick is at an important juncture in his youth, faced with the task of deciding what he does and doesn’t believe in. Whereas he used to idealize becoming “good,” “kind,” “brave,” and wise,” he has found this to be “pretty difficult.” He thinks that he “want[s] to be loved, too, if he could fit it in.”
There is a tension between Dick’s sense of duty to be good, manly, and heroic, and his desire to live a life of “splendor.” Dick is the son of a humble priest, and is expected to live a good life, but he has already begun to be corrupted by the hedonistic and pleasure-seeking values of the younger post-war generation. He wants to be good, but he also wants to have fun.
Themes
