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Book 2, Chapter 13
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
Dick wakes from a dream of war. Hearing Nicole muttering to herself from the next room, he feels “sorry for whatever loneliness she was feeling in her sleep.” Nicole survived her first illness “alive with new hopes,” but she has since been “deprived of any subsistence except Dick, bringing up children she could only pretend gently to love.” She has “led a lonely life owning Dick who did not want to be owned.” Dick continues to leave Nicole “holding Nothing in her hands,” waiting helplessly for him to return to her.
Dick dreams of war, even though he never personally fought in World War I. This could suggest that Dick thinks of himself as a brave and heroic figure, or it could foreshadow a conflict soon to come. Dick is aware that Nicole has led a sad and lonely life, and that he is partly to blame for that, having “deprived” her of anyone other than himself. Dick feels remorse for his mistreatment of her but doesn’t seem to have the energy or emotional strength to make things right.
Themes
Since living beside the clinic, Lanier has developed a strong admiration for his father, Dick. Doctor Diver is 38 and his clinic—which he’s been running for 18 months—is very successful. The buildings are beautiful, cheerful, and modern and give “strangers a momentary illusion that all was well, as in a kindergarten.” Most of the patients are fond of Dick but others share the view that he’s a poser, or that he neglects them.
Fitzgerald reveals the deceitful and illusory nature of the modern psychiatry when suggesting that the exterior appearance of Dick’s clinic masks the reality of the facility. While Lanier holds deep admiration for his father, some of Dick’s patients believe him to be shallow and inattentive, implying that Dick doesn’t possess the exquisite social skills he used to.
Themes
Dick has a unique relationship with one patient, a woman with nervous eczema, whom he tries to soothe “almost sexually.” Dick wants to “gather her up in his arms, as he so often had Nicole, and cherish even her mistakes.” Instead, he kisses her on the forehead, reassuring her that everything will be all right.
Dick has an inappropriate relationship with one of his female patients, whom he flirts with when he’s doing his rounds. He treats her like Nicole, which suggests that he enjoys—and is perhaps attracted to—the power he is able to wield over the vulnerable women in his life. By kissing the patient on the forehead, Dick assumes a paternal relationship with the woman, treating her at once sexually and like a child, much like he treated Rosemary.
Themes
