The Descent of Dick Diver in Fitzgeralds Tender is the Night Essays

The Descent of Dick Diver in Tender is the Night    Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicles Dick Diver's long descent (or "dying fall," [Letters 310]) to ruin at the hands of women. Diver, the novel's protagonist and antagonist, seeks to overthrow feminine power. Dick needs to control the women in his life. To him, women want to be dependent; they are weak, lost souls who need the guidance only a man can give. In turn, women are parasites who feed on him and ultimately destroy his genius.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Before Diver becomes involved with woman, he is a Rhodes Scholar and a promising young Psychiatrist. By the end of the novel he is a middle-aged drunk chasing young women. Dick Diver, flaw credible, possesses an excess of charm, which leaves him vulnerable to women who lead him to moral and emotional bankruptcy. Diver meets Nicole Warren, the rich heiress. Their relationship is almost incestuous. The unsteady daughter figure/wife/patient seeks approval from her father figure/husband/doctor. The relationship is clearly based on the control Dick Diver has over Nicole. Nicole was already a mess from the sexual abuse she encountered from her father. She was looking for a father figure, someone to take care of her. Her choice of mate was the likely one: her doctor. While Diver does seem to love his patient, he nonetheless "handles" her, always treating her like a patient over whom he has power. During their courtship, the letters he sends her mostly tell h er to "be a good girl and mind the doctors." (130) He is a doctor who has control over his patient while corresponding with her; he knows she will follow his directions and obey his commands. After he weds her, he becomes increasingly torn betw... ...e only two people in the world I care about." (218-219). Later, Cullis tells Diver of the incident involving Rosemary and Bill Hillis on a train. This "image of a third person ... entering into his relation with Rosemary was needed to throw him off his balance" (88). Now Diver has really lost control of things with Rosemary. He is obsessed with her, as evident in his repeating his imagined flashback to the scene; "Do you mind if I pull down the curtain?" (90). The Diver that needs to control, is now controlled by the image of Rosemary with another man; his need to control people has been suffocated as Rosemary rules his emotions since Nicole no longer needs him.    Works Cited: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender Is the Night. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1995. The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ed. Andrew Turnbull. New York: Scribners, 1963.