对《夜色温柔》中主人公迪克悲剧命运原因的分析

论文总字数：26409字

摘 要

《夜色温柔》是菲茨杰拉德继《了不起的盖茨比》后的又一部重要的小说，被认为是其最重要的小说之一，也被称为“爵士时代”最后一曲悲歌。该小说描述了年轻的精神病专家迪克·戴弗在邂逅了年轻漂亮的女演员罗丝玛丽之后与妻子尼克尔·华伦之间感情破裂并最终变得酗酒堕落的故事。本篇论文通过对主人公迪克自身的性格缺陷及其所处的社会环境进行研究，来揭示其悲剧性命运形成的原因。

关键词：《夜色温柔》；悲剧命运；性格缺陷；社会环境

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 The Jazz Age 1

1.2 Fitzgerld and Tender is the Night 2

2. Literature Review 2

3. The Characteristic Flaws of Dick Diver 4

3.1 Idealism 4

3.2 Vanity 5

3.3 Cowardliness 6

4.The Social Circumstance 7

4.1The Conflict Between the Luxurious Life of the Upper-class and Dick’s Attitude to the Wealth of the Middle-class 7

4.2The Conflict Between Bad Human Nature of Upper-class and the Ideal of Moral Perfection 8

5. Conclusion 9

Works Cited 11

1. Introduction

1.1 The Jazz Age

The Jazz Age refers to the 1920s (1919-1929) in the United States characterized in the novels of Francis Scott Fitzgerald as a period of wealth, frivolity, carelessness, carefree hedonism and excitement in the life of the flaming youth. Historically it refers to the era that immediately followed World War I and lasted until the beginning of the Depression, during which jazz increased in popularity. It was reaction to the austerity and hardship of the war and was characterized by extravagance and hedonism. It is also called the Gilded Age, the flapper Period or the Roaring Twenties.

It is a shiny, mysterious and complicated decade in American history. In his 1931 essay Echoes of the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald writes, “It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.”(Fitzgerald, 1991: 14) The Jazz Age is a period between the Great War and the Great Depression, two periods of disaster and despair that frame a decade of profound social change. Immigration, race, alcohol, evolution, gender politics and sexual morality all become major battlefields. The consumer society emerges, complete with mass entertainment, lavish living, and the spread of technology. This is an age in which the younger generation rebels against traditional taboos while their elders engage in astounding consumerism and speculation. The decade witnesses a struggle between the old and the new America. This is a miraculous age with glitter, prosperity and chaos.

In such a gilded and roaring age, people are attracted by its superficial glitter while falling into the trap of hedonism. After the spree and binge to their hearts’ content, they have a feeling of emptiness and confusion. But they cannot get away from the society full of hypocrisy and selfishness. They are doomed to spiritual collapse and moral decay.

• 1. Fitzgerald and Tender is the Night

Francis Scott Fitzgerald is the most famous chronicler of the 1920s America, an era that he dubs “the Jazz Age.” F.Scott Fitzgerald is a most representative figure of the 1920s, who might be a mirror of the exciting age in almost every way. An active participant of his age, he never fails to remain detached and foresee the failure and tragedy of the gilded and roaring age. Thus he is often acclaimed literary spokesman of the Jazz Age.

His novels and short stories chronicle changing social attitudes in the Jazz Age. His first novel This Side of Paradise won for him wealth and fame. His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned increased his popularity, which also portrayed the emotional and spiritual collapse of a wealthy young man during an unstable marriage. His masterpiece The Great Gatsby had made him one of the greatest American novelists. Afterwards, Fitzgerald wrote one more important novel Tender is the Night, in which he traced the decline of a young American psychiatrist whose marriage to a beautiful and wealthy patient drained his personal energies and corroded his professional career. His last novel The Last Tycoon remained unfinished. Fitzgerald also wrote short stories of great popularity. His short story collections included Flappers and Philosophers, Tales of the Jazz Age, All the Sad Young Man and Taps at Reveille. One of his best short stories was Babylon Revisited, which depicted an American’s return to Paris in the 1930s and his regretful realization that the past was beyond his reach, since he could neither alter it nor make any amends.

Tender is the Night is a chronicler of the Jazz Age. It is the best embodiment of the tragic fate in the Jazz Age of all Fitzgerald’s novels. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a friend’s copy of Tender is the Night, “If you liked The Great Gatsby, for God’s sake read this. Gatsby was a tour de force but this is a confession of faith.”(Crunden, 2000: 475) Set against the backdrop of expatriate life in Europe in 1920s, the novel unfolds the story of a competent and promising psychiatrist from the Middle West, Dick Diver, undertaking the treatment of a Chicago millionaire’s neurotic daughter Nicole Warren in Switzerland. During the treatment, they fall in love with each other. In violation of all psychiatric principles and professional ethics, Dick marries her. He has a triple program involving healing Nicole, devoting to psychiatric research, and creating a moral world for the idle rich. However, his efforts are corrupted by the aimlessness and self-indulgence of the American expatriate society. Dick recognizes that everything is out of his expectation. Under his many years of careful treatment and care, Nicole recovers slowly. But her recovery brings her strong awareness of being free. She leaves Dick. Dick’s career is held up by his wife, friends and relaxation. He cannot return back or go ahead for his awareness of his inability to control everything. When Nicole has used Dick to limit, the exhausted man is abandoned as, in the Warren’s eyes, his services are bought and the case is a business deal. The friends around him are selfish and shallow with no pursuit, which puts him into disappointment. Nicole returns to normal self while Dick Diver disappears. He chooses to leave lonely and quietly to a remote place of upstate New York.

In this novel, implementation is not ideal, but a greater disillusionment and pain. The novel is not an ode of the era, but a mournful elegy of “Jazz Age”.

2. Literature Review

As Fitzgerald’s works are being popular in recent years, more and more researchers are devoted themselves to analyzing his novel. Being one of the most famous novels of his, Tender is the Night has attracted many scholars to research, and they also made many accomplishments in studying this novel.

Most researchers are interested in Dick’s tragic fate, and they think he is a typical representative of the failure in the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald has given the main outline of the story and character sketch of the hero: “The novel should do this. Show a man who is natural idealist, a spoiled priest, giving in for various causes to the ideas of the haute Bourgeoisie, and in his rise to the top of the social world losing his idealism, his talent and turning to drink and dissipation. Background one in which the leisure class is at their truly most brilliant and glamorous such as Murphy.”(Fitzgerald, 1995: 147 ) In his “The Degradation of Dick in Tender is the Night”, Li Dong points out that Dick’s tragic fate has the feature of sociality. In his essay, Li Dong thinks that Dick Diver gets married with his patient Nicole Warren and then enters into the upper-class, but he can only heal Nicole and have nothing to do with the American society which traps into spiritual crisis. Dick is overwhelmed by selfishness and cruelty, and he is always lonely and helpless. During his pursuit of ideal he loses himself, and eventually becomes the victim of the upper-class. We can see in him the crisis of American society, the confusion of young American people and the disillusionment of the American dream. Dick’s tragic fate is not only the fate of individuals, but also the fate of the society.

Moreover, there are also researchers who concentrated on the disillusionment of the American dream. The same as Gatsby, Dick is also the pursuer of the American dream and finally fails both his life and his career. Dick’s wife Nicole is the embodiment of his dream and curing Nicole meanings recovering the fearful disease of the upper-class, which is the real value of Nicole, so Dick devote his more than decade of life to curing her. But after her recovery, Nicole leaves Dick soon and Dick remains nothing. Dick’s dream is destroyed finally. They want to explore that implementation is not ideal, it also may be disillusionment. In her “The Disillusionment of the American Dream”, Chen Qing thinks the reason for the disillusionment of the American dream is that “the transformation of the values of traditional morality make people not believe in any hero but pursue individual consumption, enjoyment and indulgence.” (Chen Qing, 2006: 36)In her papers, she mainly explores the formation of the American dream of Dick and the relationship between his love and dream and finally analyzes the reasons for the disillusionment of his dream. “On the surface, the representative figures of the upper-class, the Warrens are the direct destroyers of Dick’s dream and the wealth of the Warrens ruins his aspiration; but beyond the surface concerns there is a profound reason. It is the age of the success of the American dream has past, and the people in the 20s would not believe in the traditional virtues any longer and they had their philosophy of life—that is to ‘seize the day’ and ‘enjoy every moment’.”(Chen Qing, 2006: 26)

All in all, these researches all made great contribution in studying this novel, which laid foundation to the following explorers. This paper plans to analyze the reasons for the tragic fate of Dick Diver, who is the representative of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald contrasted human and social environment, ideal of people and the cruel reality to reflect the conflict between the character and the social circumstances which result in the destruction of the ideal. Therefore, this thesis will explore the reasons from the aspects of characteristic flaws and social circumstance.

3. The Characteristic Flaws of Dick Diver

“The tragedy is to show the characteristic flaws and weaknesses of tragic hero, his conflict with environment leads to his final tragedy”, “The formation of the tragedy is due to the characteristic flaws and weaknesses of tragic hero.” (Zhu Guangqian, 1987: 98) Dick Diver is the protagonist of Tender is the Night. He is, in a word, an idealistically optimistic and promising young man. But because of his own character flaws, he is doomed to spiritual collapse and moral decay after marring with the wealth patient Nicole.

3.1 Idealism

Dick has many traditional virtues. First he has a good wish—that is to become “the greatest psychologist that ever lived”. (Fitzgerald, 2012: 182) In order to achieve this ideal, he has paid a lot of effort. Dick is born into a poor family, but he goes to college and medicine school by effort. He is highly educated and internationally traveled. Second he is a very talented person. “He is considered to be the most talented person in all people who have degree in neuropathology in recently Zurich”, (Fitzgerald, 2012: 181) his books are also regarded as the classic in the field of psychiatry. At the same time, from his marriage with Nicole we can see that he is a brave people and a self-sacrificial enthusiast. He has the courage to accept Nicole and her mental illness, and he shares heavy mental burden with her. Although he has given Nicole too much, it does not become an excuse for him to enjoy her riches. He still remains independent income. It is his positive personality that makes him to pursue his ideal unremitting.

But Dick has a romantic fantasy like Don Quixote. He is a natural idealist for romantic love, successful career and perfect morality. He can’t unify the reality and the fantasy, and he lacks ability to judge himself and the surrounding environment of him. As an ideal romanticist, he dreams to encounter a pretty girl, a romantic love and become the greatest psychiatrist “maybe to be the greatest one that ever lived.” (Fitzgerald, 2012: 182) He also wishes to cure not only one patient but also the society, especially the disease of the upper class. However, the reality is very cruel. At that time, people, especially young people, they are falling into the trap of hedonism. Upper class people do not take Dick as one of them, but they all regard him as the family doctor who they hire. In the specific background, he becomes an unwitting supporter of a criterion for success—having both money and status at the same time. He mistakenly believes that he will achieve his ideal after he sacrificed himself to the love and marriage of the upper class woman. In such a mammonish society, Dick is polluted by ubiquitous corruptions and decadence. He gradually abandons his career, and forces himself to adapt the living standard of upper-class. At the same time, he gives his kindness and considerate to the people who need help. Even so, he cannot escape the fate of being abandoned. With the improvement of Nicole’s condition, Dick has no use to Warren family. He is eventually discarded by the upper-class.

3.2 Vanity

“The American Dream” is a desire for freedom of religious belief from puritan immigrant at first. In the process of development in new land, it turns into people’s pursuit of happiness, especially in success (including business, love, wealth, and so on). With the development of industrialization and the metropolis after the Civil War, “The American Dream” becomes more specific to the desire of money, it makes people believe that opportunities are equal in this continent; as long as you work hard you will become a millionaire. Dick is also seeking for his “American Dream”, which is the dream of his father. They are eager to live a rich and happy life like that of the upper class. This dream is like a natural thing in him. “Watching his father’s struggle in poor parishes had wedded a desire for money to an essentially unacquisitive nature ”. (Fitzgerald, 2012: 176) The economic prosperity provides him the hope and possible. So, when he meets Nicole Warren, the rich patient, he thinks that his chance is coming.

For Dick Diver, he gets married with Nicole Warren not only because of love, but also because he can not resist the wealth and status provided by Warren family. He wants to realize his ideal with the aid of Warren family, so he staked his all on the marriage with Nicole. But in reality, he just becomes the tool for serving others. In the love and the lure of wealth Dick has blurred consciousness, and he feels he has been entered into the upper class. Of course it’s only his own wishful thinking, and he would never be a part of them. During this period, Nicole has received carefully treatment from her husband. He puts most of his energy on Nicole and other people who need help. Great wealth of his wife also impels him to work hard to make his dream come true. Gatsby want to gain wealth to realize himself, but Dick is gradually losing himself in great wealth. Under the guidance of vanity, he is increasingly ignoring his career as a psychiatrist. This leads to the loss of his ego and his sad ending.

3.3 Cowardliness

Although Dick enters into the upper class through getting married with Nicole, he is still not accepted by the upper class. He has always been seen as Nicole’s “Nanny Doctor”, and the wealth and temptation kill his will constantly. Ultimately, he is swallowed up by the society. Nicole’s love for Dick is in part a “transference” caused by her condition. Nicole is in deep love with Dick as well as dependence on him. However, she turns into her family property immediately after she recovered. Nicole finally abandons Dick on behalf of her class. Baby Warren, Nicole’ sister, is a selfish, calculating and cruel woman. She pans to buy a doctor and husband for her sister Nicole, because she believes the power of money. She supplies the Warren money so Dick may become a partner in a psychiatric clinic. Not only does she use money to sap Dick’s will, but also she aggravates his mental illness during his ten years of marriage. Dick Diver, a man who is facing the temptation of luxury, has no courage to decide his own destiny. It could be argued that his tragic fate is not separable from his cowardliness. Dick, as well as Gatsby, has been seduced by the upper class and been drowned by the society.

Thomas Hardy once said, “The tragedy, in a nutshell, it can be said: the tragedy expresses the situation of things in one’s life, its instincts and desires inevitably lead to a tragic ending.” Although Dick’s tragedy is caused by era, it is also related to his character, because all our actions are driven by our character.

4.The Social Circumstance

Aristotle emphasizes the importance of the protagonist’s character in the elements of a tragedy. One change is always formed by both of character and social circumstance. Character usually operates in priority to circumstance, for one person’s character is decisive to his fate. But the character will not cause change unless in a certain circumstance. Therefore, the social circumstance and the character are the same important. The following part concentrates on the importance of social circumstance that influences Dick Diver’s fate.

4.1The Conflict Between the Luxurious Life of the Upper-class and Dick’s Attitude to the Wealth of the Middle-class

The decade from 1919 to 1929, was a prosperous period of rapid economic development of the America, and the pursuit of material enjoyment becomes possible. This novel uses French Riviera as the background of the plot development. “On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel. Deferential palms cool its flushed façade, and before it stretches a short dazzling beach. Lately it has become a summer resort of notable and fashionable people; a decade ago it was almost deserted after its English clientele went north in April.”(Fitzgerald, 2012: 2) Dick Diver, a middle-class doctor, only earns three thousand a year. This little salary, in addition to par funds of his tailor fee and personal life, also has to be used to pay the electricity bills and the wages of nurses, etc. He has no ability to live a luxurious life as the upper-class people. Therefore, he has to cut down his expenditures, for instance, traveling to a cheaper place, drinking the cheapest wine and wearing cheap and comfortable clothes.

Therefore, Dick is not a member of the wealthy class, and he always identifies himself as a member of the middle class. He has a strong sense of vocational responsibility like other members in middle class, so he thinks that his vocation is everything during his life. That’s why he keeps pushing himself in order to make success. Even though he gets a low salary, he lives an elegant but not extravagant life. It is the life, Dick thinks, that can help him get a strong heart. Meanwhile, he is extremely proud of his educational background and technique, therefore Dick is able to make his mind keep in front of others rather than sink into idleness. But, Dick’s strength seems so small, in the whole upper class. That’s why he gradually becomes idle and luxurious. Slowly, his attitude towards money as a frugalness middle class is away from him.

4.2The Conflict Between Bad Human Nature of Upper-class and the Ideal of Moral Perfection

Dick’ marriage to Nicole determines his social class, the kind of patients he will deal with, the sorts of friends he will have, and the social circles in which he will move. From these people, we can see the sick hint of the upper class. They are selfish, hypocritical and mercenary. Dick’s energy is exhausted not only by Nicole but also his social class. “I’ve wasted eight years teaching the rich the ABC’s of human decency, but I’m not done. I’ve got too many un played trumps in my hand.” (Fitzgerald, 2012: 187)The selfishness, hypocrisy and mercenary in the upper class disappoint Dick.

Baby Warren is a selfish and mercenary woman. Proud of the Warren family money, she is supercilious. “He bowed to a young woman of twenty-five, tall and confident. She was both formidable and vulnerable, he decides, remembering other women with flower-like mouth grooved for bits.” (Fitzgerald, 2012: 131) She represents the impersonal power of wealth. When Dick talks to her about the marriage to Nicole, Baby Warren shallowly shows her seeming superiority as a member of wealthy Warren family, which in fact has been degraded for Nicole has met incest crime made by her father:

“I think it’s ill advised,” She said, “I’m not sure I truly understand your motives.”

“Don’t let’s be unpleasant.”

“After all I’m Nicole’s sister.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to be unpleasant.” It irritated Dick that he knew so much that he could not tell her. “Nicole’s rich, but that doesn’t make mean adventurer.”

“That’s just it,” complained Baby stubbornly. “Nicole’s rich.” (Fitzgerald, 2012: 170)

Dick is the central man of his small group with an innate sense of courtesy to other people. He has many virtues of traditional morality: sincerity, considerateness, diligence and discipline, and he tries to bring happiness to all his friend, but they finally drain him of his energy. Dick can’t function within a society that has abandoned its former value and now believed. Therefore, the time of the success of the self-made man has past and no matter what efforts Dick devoted, he is still doomed to failure.

5. Conclusion

Tender is the Night, exposes the diseased surviving rules of the upper class in the Jazz Age, through the description of the tragic fate of Dick. Dick is a failure incontrovertible. After marring with Nicole, Dick gradually abandons his career. Although Dick has entered into the upper-class, he always has a sense of dissident and loss. He tries his best to cater to the needs of the people around him, but he cannot be recognized. Then, Nicole betrays him emotionally. Dick is a protester between noble ideal and ugly reality of the upper-class from the beginning. The twenties is rooted deeply in traditional morality of the pre-war wants to save the sick soul of the people around him by his sincerity, kindness, diligence and discipline, but he himself is finally destroyed by these shallow and selfish people. He never integrates into the upper-class on the concept and spirit, and he could not change the moral putrefaction and selfish nature of the upper-class. His passion is exhausted, and he loses himself. Dick Diver, a man full of ideal, disappears forever. Now, Dick who lives in a luxurious house is lonely. As the poem in Ode to the Nightingale: “Though the dull brain perplexes and retards/ Already with thee! Tender is the night/ And haply the Queen Moon is on her throne/ Clustered around by all her starry fays/ But here there is no light”(Keats, 2011: 11) Tender is the night, but here there is no light.

Dick Diver is a victim both of his character flaws and the social circumstance. The natural idealism and some flaws in his character may not result in his spiritual collapse and moral decay, but it becomes an unavoidable fate in Jazz Age. In the Jazz Age, some people live without soul. Some other people, like Dick, have their idealism in this glittering age. But they are falling into the trap of the hedonism. When they come to recognition their loss of everything, they are helpless to control things and save themselves, and finally doomed to spiritual collapse and moral decay.

Works Cited

[1] Keats, John. Selected Poems of John Keats: Ode to the nightingale. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2011.

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