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
On the way to meet Rosemary at the beach the next day, Nicole worries about Dick. Their relationship has been “unhappy” for a while, largely due to Dick’s drinking problem and his “growing indifference,” from which “Nicole d[oes] not know whether she [i]s to be crushed or spared.” She doesn’t fret, however, about what might happen after Dick has or hasn’t ruined himself, since she has always had money as a security.
Dick and Nicole are both wearing white as they step onto the sand at Gausse’s beach. Dick looks around and Nicole decides that “he was seeking his children, not protectively but for protection.” With a pang of nostalgia, Nicole is sorry that “tasteless” visitors have ruined their beach resort. Nicole spots Rosemary in the water and Dick suggests that they swim out to her.
Dick has assumed the position of a father figure throughout the story—first to Nicole, then to his own children, and then to Rosemary. Here this is inverted, as Nicole notices that Dick needs to be protected by his children and that he can’t offer them protection in return. With this, Fitzgerald reveals how shattered and fragile Dick has become.
Themes
Nicole stays in the water while Dick sits beside Rosemary on the raft. Nicole is shocked by Rosemary’s youthful beauty but rejoices “that the young girl was less slender” than her. It’s been five years since they met Rosemary on the beach, but Nicole recognizes the same “old game of flattery” between Rosemary and Dick. She leaves them and swims away.
Nicole is remarkably calm and patient while Dick pays Rosemary attention in a way he hasn’t done with Nicole for a long while. Perhaps this is because Nicole feels secretly and inwardly superior after noticing she is slenderer than Rosemary, despite being older. Fitzgerald refers here to the beauty standards of the 1920s and 1930s, which held up thinness as being an attractive ideal.
Themes
Rosemary’s friends have a boat and aquaplane and Dick is keen to exhibit his physicality—standing on his hands or holding another man above his head. Nicole knows that Dick is “somewhat tired,” but proximity to “Rosemary’s exciting youth” has inspired him to show off. Nicole watches with “smiling scorn” as he attempts his lifting trick on the aquaplane board. Just one year ago he had done it “with ease,” but now, Dick is not strong enough and he topples dramatically into the water, nearly hitting his head on the board. Nicole sees “Dick floating exhausted and expressionless, alone with the water and the sky.”
As usual, Dick feels somewhat rejuvenated and revitalized through proximity to Rosemary and her “exciting youth,” but he overestimates the power of her youthfulness when attempting ambitious tricks on the aquaplane. His failure to do his trick represents all the other failures in his life—he has failed as a husband to Nicole, who watches scornfully, failed to impress Rosemary, and failed to make a success of himself professionally. Dick is ashamed, emasculated, and isolated as he floats alone in the water.
Themes
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Back on the beach, Dick fetches some sherry for them. Rosemary expresses how glad she is to see that the rumors about Dick’s “deterioration” aren’t true, but Dick corrects her saying, “It is true […] The change came a long way back.” Rosemary is shocked to see Mary avoiding the Divers. Upon noticing Rosemary, however, Mary comes over to their group to greet her and Nicole. Rosemary declines a dinner invitation but is surprised to witness Dick mocking Mary, asking sarcastically after her children “and their aunts.” Refusing to engage with “Dick’s bitterness,” Mary leaves them. Rosemary is reminded of some gossip she had overheard about Dick: “He’s not received anywhere anymore.”
Rosemary witnesses Dick’s deterioration and decline firsthand when he is rude to Mary. Perhaps this is why Rosemary wanted to visit in the first place, because she was curious about whether the rumors were true. Nonetheless, Rosemary has a sense of loyalty to the Divers and she turns down Mary’s dinner invitation.
Themes
Nicole grows impatient as Dick turns on his charm and prattles away to Rosemary about her latest movies. When Rosemary suggests that Topsy would “make a fine actress,” Nicole snaps, admonishing Rosemary for putting such ideas in her daughter’s head. Nicole announces her exit. Feeling happy, independent, and free from Dick, she drives home alone and writes Tommy “a short provocative letter.”
Nicole is repulsed by Dick’s ability to maintain his performance and pretend to be charming to Rosemary. Nicole feels empowered when she contradicts Rosemary by making a snobbish judgment about her acting career and uses her newfound power to leave Dick on the beach. Tommy’s “provocative” letter foreshadows a love affair between him and Nicole.
Themes
Come evening, however, Nicole’s good mood is dampened by “nervous energy.” She fears Dick’s plans and resolves to take control of her own path—she mustn’t rely on him to think for her any longer. Later that evening Nicole sings along as Dick plays the piano. When he realizes that the music he’s playing is about a father, he automatically goes to change the song, but Nicole exclaims, “Am I going through the rest of my life flinching at the word ‘father’?” She and Dick are “lonely and empty-hearted toward each other.”
Nicole has spent her whole adult life taking guidance from Dick, but she knows that she must be stronger now. She demonstrates her newfound resolve when assuring Dick that she is not upset by the mention of a father in the song he plays on the piano. With this utterance, she proves that she doesn’t need Dick’s care anymore.
Themes
In the morning Nicole finds a note from Dick saying he’s going away for a few days. Just then, the phone rings. It’s Tommy, and Nicole “fe[els] her lips’ warmth in the receiver as she welcome[s] his coming.”
Nicole experiences a sort of sexual awakening with Tommy. He relationship with Dick had always been reduced to that of a daughter or a patient, but with Tommy, Nicole is desired as an equal lover.
Themes
