Need for Control in Fitzgeralds Tender is the Night Essays

Need for Control in Tender is the Night Dick Divers love for his wife, Nicole, in F. Scott Fitzgeralds Tender is the Night, is ground purely on his need to assert control and act as veneration taker to her due to her illness. He assumes this role in order to feel g everywherening body for his own lack of achievement in his professional life. The only if true success he can be credited is Nicoles cure, achieved through his devotion and c be thus he continually tries to replicate this previous success in his relationships to other young girls. He looks to be a source of caring and stability just as he had been for Nicole, relying on him for caring and protection from her illness. The growth of Dick and Nicoles relationship is shown through letters written by Nicole. Although there are none of Dicks replies to refer to we see the change in Nicole from incoherent babble to normal correspondence. Dr. Gregory thus attributes the case to Dick as a success, When the change began, s lenderness prevented me from opening any more. Really it had become your case(136). Nicole comes to rely on his letters at the clinic and is apologetic when he doesnt write, fearing she has lost him But when Dicks answer was slow for any reason, there was a fluttering burst of worry-like a worry of a lover Perhaps I have bored you, and Afraid I have presumed(142). He is her connection outside of the clinic and she desperately needs that relationship and his approval. Nicole is repeatedly described through her smiling as young and innocent, She smiled, a moving childish smile that was like the lost youth of the world, and whenever he turned to her she was smiling a little, her face lighting up like an angels...(153). The love she feels for D... ...glish things the story of safe gardens ringed around by the sea was implicit in her bright voice...(248). In each of these he is looking for love outside of the control he once had over Nicole and in doing so is drawn to the young and impressionable girls he sees and assumes he can replicate his love with Nicole. The complete loss of control over Nicole and over her illness is the ultimate demise of Dick. She hated the beach, resented the places where she had played planet to Dicks sun. Why Im almost complete, Im practically standing alone, without him(321). Nicoles realization of her freedom leads her away from Dick, and his only success was in the end his greatest failure, the loss of love of his wife and his loss of the life he knew. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender is the Night. New York Charles Scribners Sons, 1961