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
The next morning Dick tries to apologize for his behavior at the party. Nicole is glad when he leaves her bedroom. Overhearing a conversation between Dick and Tommy, Nicole admits to herself “that Tommy loved her,” and that there was a growing tension between him and Dick. She enjoys the “feminine satisfaction” of knowing that two men care about her.
Nicole has had little to comfort her or bring her joy for a long time now, and she is pleased knowing that both Tommy and Dick love her. This simple “satisfaction” emboldens her with confidence.
Themes
On her garden walk, Nicole reasons that “other women have lovers,” and so why shouldn’t she? Nicole knows that she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life with the Dick she saw last night—drunken, angry, and embarrassing. Returning to the house, she finds Tommy and Dick on the terrace. Avoiding eye contact with the latter, Nicole begins to sketch Tommy’s face.
Nicole intentionally tries to make Dick feel jealous when paying Tommy attention while ignoring Dick. No doubt it makes Nicole feel powerful and worthy to know that Dick is jealous of Tommy’s love for her.
Themes
While Tommy prepares to leave, Nicole declares that she must fetch Tommy some “special camphor rub” for his cough. Dick protests at this generosity, however, saying, “don’t give Tommy the whole jar—it has to be ordered from Paris.” Nicole ignores this instruction and throws the jar toward Tommy, who is waiting with the car. “There was no necessity for that gesture,” Dick says after Tommy has left. Dick turns away and heads upstairs to lie down. Nicole is “aware of the sin she had committed against him” and wonders what sustains Dick while she continues “her dry suckling at his lean chest.”
Nicole’s loyalty to Tommy becomes crystal clear when she gifts him their entire family tub of “camphor rub.” Dick perceives this as a huge betrayal, suggesting that Nicole could have just given him a little of the medicine. The camphor rub is a metaphor for Nicole’s care, and it seems that Dick would have been satisfied if she had given just a little of herself to Tommy, but he is shocked to learn that she is prepared to give all of herself to him. The image of Nicole suckling Dick is a peculiar one. It suggests that he has been both a mother and father figure to Nicole all this time, but that now he has nothing left to give her. Dick cannot nurture or care for Nicole, hence the image of “dry suckling,” and now it is time for her to move on and find sustenance elsewhere.
Themes
It’s a hot June day when Nicole next thinks of Tommy; she receives a note from him saying he’ll be in Nice. That very same morning, Dick opens a telegram from Rosemary, explaining that she’ll be at Gausse’s beach the next day. “Grimly,” Nicole pretends that she’ll be pleased to see Rosemary.
Nicole’s changeable and unstable nature is highlighted by the fact that she forgets about Tommy as soon as he leaves their house in Tarmes. It is a strange coincidence—or a fated intervention—when Rosemary contacts Dick on the very same day that Tommy reaches out Nicole. It is easy for the reader to imagine that Nicole might pursue an affair with Tommy, after all.
Themes
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