Another Group Of Jazz Age Dreamers

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the famous American novelists in the twentieth century, who is honored as"the spokesman of the Jazz Age","the excellent chronicler", or the typical writer of the"lost generation", for almost all his works are characterized with the vivid pictures of the American 1920s in the unique styles. Of all the major works of Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) and Tender Is the Night (1934) focus their plots and characters on the age of 20s with more elaborateness and peculiarities. But the latter is more plaintive in plots and more readable in characters. Mainly lined with the triangle love among Dick, his wife Nicole and a film actress Rosemary, and supplemented by the ups and downs of the men and women around them, this fiction displays complex social contradictions, the psychological crisis, and some shining points about women as well.In the novel of Tender Is the Night, Fitzgerald molded several typical females. We can see the rich girl Nicole Warren who is persistently seeking sincere love and freedom, the young pretty film star Rosemary that is bravely pursuing her dream of greater and steadier success in her career, and the wise and determined Mary, all of whom are partly successful in their dream pursuing. But all of their happiness is transient and their beautiful hopes turn illusion. Since the publication of Tender Is the Night, it has fluctuated in the circle of literary criticism. And conclusively, much has been said about the novel characters, but most of these critical views approach to the novel from the perspectives of psychological theory or social and historical theory with the focus on the hero Dick. And though some aspects of the heroines in the novel have been analyzed, the analysis is not comprehensive. By using the social and historical approach, feminism criticism and psychoanalytic method, this thesis plans to discuss the typical females in the novel so that the following conclusions can be reached: the women in the later Jazz Age are more independent, of more initiative and more bravery than the ones in the former part of that decade, but their dreams are just their good hopes and can't be completely realized. Because the Jazz Age is still the age of men and the realization of the women's dreams is much influenced by the men connected with them. And on the other hand, the women of that time have lost the traditional virtues like plainness and frugality, and they mistakenly equate the abandoned material enjoyment and sensual indulgence with happiness. But whether failure or success, they are always struggling hard to be the master of their own, and the master of their time. They are themselves!...