The Tension between Truth and Illusion in "Tender is the Night"

Exploring the tension between truth and illusion is a frequent preoccupation of twentieth century American literature. Compare and contrast the treatment of this theme in `Tender is the Night' and at least one other relevant text you have encountered.

`Tender is the Night' is a novel where the presentation of the main characters at the beginning of the novel is shown to be an illusion. An illusion which often masks the seedy truth and results in people having to present an extravagant front to disguise their inner problems.

In the opening chapter Fitzgerald narrates that Rosemary was `nearly complete, but the dew was still wet on her'. Further references to `baby teeth' and children indicate that the author wishes the narrator of Book 1 to be innocent and therefore receptive to the illusion of the Divers perfect lifestyle. The yearning for `high excitement' in the nineteen-twenties Jazz Age resulted in a willingness to accept extravagant lifestyles and not query its substance or value. The American presence on the French Riviera, out of season is nothing more than an expansion of `American property holding' according to Rosenberg; the illusion of having a peaceful summer in the South of France hides the reality which is wild parties and destruction. The beautiful `Villa Diana' is in fact a symbol of mankind's destructive power: `five small houses had been combined to make the house and four more destroyed to make the garden. Whilst Dick Diver appears to be congenial and dazzling to his onlookers, Rosemary is able to detect `the layer of hardness in him'; she is attracted to this manly quality, but Fitzgerald is perhaps suggesting a shrewd character who exploits people for his own ends. Indeed, it is a common theme of Americ...

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...character. Nicole comments on her Englishness and the fact that she lost a fiancée in the War: `I [Nicole] never knew him'. This warms the reader to her slightly creating a sense of sympathy, especially when other writers of the time such as Hemingway were writing of women who had lost fiancées. When Baby saves Dick from an Italian prison after having run to the American Embassy, the reader is left with the impression that there is some kindness in her. The McKisco's start the novel appearing to be the dregs of upper society, sitting in the `pebbles and dead seaweed', yet in Book 2 Mr McKisco is shown to have made his way in society and is now having his work published on a regular basis. He is so popular and in truth so talented as a writer that he is asked to sit at the Captain's table, whilst Dick sits on the side and is no longer the centre of attention.