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Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald
\\ The final edition of the book, printed in 1956 by ‘Charles Scribner’s Sons’.
I chose to read this book, because I’m partly interested in psychology and human behavior, and this book is a wonderful psychological novel.
The book starts by describing the life of its protagonist – Dick Diver – a young and ambitious student in psychiatry, doing his studies in Vienna in wartime. Dick is a bright student, and is living his “heroic period”, being “the lucky Dick”(the author hints about the decay that he will later experience). Dick’s personality is ideal – I recently read a book called “Your erroneous zones” by the psychologist Wayne Dyer – and the protagonist is exactly the “perfect person” described by Dyer – a man that faces his fears, attractive, with no addictions, concentrated on his studies, striving for his goals. In the end of the book, he will turn into the exact opposite thing, hardly explainable why.
In Chapter I the author points, that Dick was in Europe, but evaded the terror of the war – maybe it’s his luck again. This impresses the thought that Dick hasn’t gone through enough difficult life-experiences, and it’s later affirmed by his thoughts:
“And Lucky Dick can’t be one of these clever men; he must
be less intact, even faintly destroyed. If life won’t do it for him it’s
not a substitute to get a disease, or a broken heart, or an inferiority
complex, though it’d be nice to build out some broken side till it
was better than the original structure.”
To further emphasize on this, the author quotes Thackaray: “The best I can wish you, my child, is a little misfortune.”
Chapter I ends by the author’s words: “Best to be reassuring Dick Diver’s moment now began.”
“Dick’s moment” may be falsely decoded by the reader as adventures, big advancement, and something positive on the whole, but as it was hinted before – this actually the highest point of Dick’s life and from here his life will turn unexpectedly, which will later lead to a deterioration and corruption that the protagonist won’t find powers to recover from. Using the same metaphor, Dick will not rebuild his broken side, but on the opposite, he will turn into a ruin and shrink into a quiet existence, forgetting about his ambition to become “the best psychiatrist in the world”.
In Chapter II Dick meets his future partner Franz Gregorovius, and the reader is passively introduced to Nicole – a schizophrenic girl, which will become Dick’s spouse.
Franz and Dick lead a brief conversation about the war and its effects on Dick. Dick says that he has practically seen nothing of the war, and Franz points that there are some people in his clinic, which were affected only by hearing the bombs hit from a distance.
This again stiffens the thought that Dick hasn’t gone through much hard times, but also suggests that he possesses a stronger personality, of course expected, by the patients of the clinic.
There is some cynicism expressed by Franz who says: “But, we’re a rich person’s clinic we don’t use
the word nonsense.” – which means that although otherwise dedicated doctor, even Franz is partly corrupted and dependent on capitalism’s unwritten laws. If the clinic was for poor people, would they not auto-censure themselves? The attitude to the rich and poor is different, the equality that some sought into communism is a mirage even for these who trust in what they do.
The conversation then turns to Nicole’s case and Dick’s relation to her. The reader understands now why Book I is called “Case History”, and sees the beginnings of the romance between Dick and her. Maybe its not only her “Case History”, but the history of their case that Book I is about.
The reader is also given the correspondence, but only from Nicole’s side, the one which Franz has partially read in order to help her and later stopped for moral reasons as she improved.
The letters serve to show her bad condition at the beginning and then her progress, realization and acceptance of problems, and strong desire to live a life of full value – she even asks Dick several times if he could find her a job as a translator.
In Chapter III we are given the history of her entering the hospital and the underlying reasons for her condition.
The reader is introduced to Devereux Warren – Nicole’s father, a rich contractor, who sailed across the Atlantic to cure, or maybe just to get rid of his mentally sick daughter. Devereux is described by Dr. Dohmler as a “strikingly handsome man looking less than forty.
He was a fine American type in every way, tall, broad, well-made
“un homme tres chic””, idealistic almost like Dick in a way, until this utopian understanding is crashed by the breath of whiskey, his uncertain talk and the lies that it suggests.
Dohmler detects his lies in the very beginning. Warren emphasizes on the words (I was)”a father and mother to her” repeating them twice, suggesting for their closeness, and his devotion over her.
Later he seeks for Dohmler’s approval as if trying to bring him on his side, and not reveal the ugly truth behind the “valet” story.
The reader is given the diagnosis of Nicole – schizophrenia, a condition that one can never fully recover from. We might pity then, the promising young psychiatrist Dick, for his choice to jump into a relationship with such a problematic girl, when he could have pretty much any girl he wants, and fill the need of love with much less problems.
Devereux Warren turns out to be quite an irresponsible parent, opposite to his words that Nicole was his favorite child, and tries to leave for the US without notice, when Dohmler makes the distant call to his hotel. We understand by that that he actually doesn’t care that much for Nicole’s condition, neither he has bring her there, because Dohmler is the best psychiatrist in the world – but because he wanted to dump her somewhere, where she could not tell the ugly truth of their sexual relationship; to bury the shame, by banishing Nicole and the consequences of his actions.
Warren finally confesses his shame to Dohmler, who expected it, but was still disgusted. Warren has had sexual relationship with his small daughter, which turned out to be devastating for her psychological health. Dohmler, a man who comes upon all kinds of stories and cases on a daily basis, doesn’t manage to hold his emotions this time and judges Warren by calling him a “Peasant” even though only in his head.
In the next Chapter IV we are given even more information of Nicole and her unexpected recovery. It turns out that Dick was something of a pillar for her, “gave her somebody to think of outside”, as Franz points out.
The reader is also given the thought pattern by which Nicole fell into that state, and in the end of it, Franz thought, she slided “into a phantom world where all men, the more you liked them and trusted them, the more evil”.
But Dick is obviously an exclusion of that rule. She felt an emotional affection to him, confided in him to some extent, and expressed “the worries of a lover”, as written in the III Chapter.
Franz warns Dick to be careful to her and after a joke that Gregorovius couldn’t catch, Franz asks him what are his plans, on which Dick proudly answers: “I’ve only got one, Franz, and that’s to be a good psychologist maybe to be the greatest one that ever lived.”
Reading it at this stage of the book, Dick’s “plan” seems ambitious, but with the previous information given on his devotion to his studies, the reader might suggest that it is in the area of possibility, and maybe that is “the moment” Dick was destined for? Sadly, not. In the end of the book this will be just an unfulfilled dream, a chimera – childish wishful thinking, that could have never been accomplished.
To further emphasize on this, Fitzgerald gives a brief account of the never-fulfilled-plan or dream of Franz which he had at the age of Dick(he is a little bit older, though they were fellow-students with Dick). In his “brave” years Franz wanted to go to America with Dick and establish a modern clinic for billionaires. Indicative for Dick’s plan also, this once possible plan is now just thrown aside easily with the summarization “students talk” by Franz.
Franz could have achieved it, and could still do it. But he decided to sacrifice that dream for something else – love and family, even though they lack “grace and adventures”.
Dick is later invited to a dinner with Franz and his wife, where he is exposed to the family idyll, that he will dislike but only initially.
He thinks that “the boundaries of asceticism were differently marked he could see it as a means to an end, even as a carrying on with a glory it would itself supply, but it was hard to think of deliberately cutting life down to the scale of an inherited suit. ” Ironically later in the book he will quite deliberately cut his life down to an even smaller scale and will, in a different meaning, get into an inherited suit, relying solely on Warren’s money, and thus losing his independence and dignity.
In the previous chapter, Franz noted that Dick is very attractive to women, and now Fitzgerald points that he also has great social skills, he “made Kaethe Gregorovius feel charming”. He will demonstrate those skills better at the dinner in Villa Diana, being the hit of the night, controlling all the conversations, making everybody feel comfortable. That suggests that Dick is a very charismatic person, but also that he has that need to make everybody to like him.
And that is the superficiality he fears, and later gives up to.
The chapter ends in a pretty interesting way:
“The truth was that for
some months he had been going through that partitioning of the
things of youth wherein it is decided whether or not to die for
what one no longer believes. In the dead white hours in Zurich
staring into a stranger’s pantry across the upshine of a street-lamp,
he used to think that he wanted to be good, he wanted to be kind,
he wanted to be brave and wise, but it was all pretty difficult. He
wanted to be loved, too, if he could fit it in.”
Dick expresses here for the first time his doubts that psychiatrist is what he is really meant to be. In one of the next chapters, he will shamelessly confess to Franz that he chose to become a psychiatrist in a quite random way – because of a girl that went into the same lectures. Although his ambitions are connected with the subject, he is not sure if that is what he really wants to do with his life. He is sure that he wants to be perfect, but he gets to fear the difficulties, and is not sure if that will make him happy He delicately inserts that “he wanted to be loved, too”. Loved by whom? A spouse? Or everybody else – maybe that is his ultimate dilemma.
Chapter 5 is devoted to depict the first two dates between Dick and Nicole, which turn out to be romantically wacky, or the opposite. Instead of coming and taking the lady like a gentleman, he is accompanied by Franz, and she – by a nurse.
They spend some time together and find that they fit perfectly. Fitzgerald narrates: “She smiled, a moving childish smile that was like all the lost youth in the world.” , “Dick whenever he turned toward her she was smiling a little, her face lighting up like an angel’s when they came into the range of a roadside”, “Dick wished she had no background, that she was just a girl lost with no address save the night from which she had come.” – those passages serve to show what Dick really found in Nicole; and moreover – what he seeks in a woman. He is in love with her youth, and childish beauty, and the little romance they have.
He will later find those same qualities in the 18y.o. actress Rosemary, and that is how she is going to attract him. Although he marries and has children, sustainable affection is not what he is prone to look for, nor attached to. It is the transitive feeling of being in love with a young and innocent creature, that really turns him on. He won’ realize that soon it will play its role into his degradation and self-destruction. By now Dick is presented like an almost ideal person, who has no addictions; At the end of the book he starts abusing with alcohol, but before that he becomes a victim of his own carnal and romantic preferences which are somehow entwined and are a temptation he can’t resist. This addiction turns out to be even more devastating than alcohol.
Dick is pretty mature and does not give up himself to amusements by this point; His father was a clergyman and he was most likely educated in discipline, privation and spirituality. Maybe its that “hole” he fills by being attracted by the complete opposite of mature qualities.
Chapter 6 describes Dick’s internal conflict – to stay or not with Nicole. The chapter starts with the author emphasizing on Nicole’s fortune, as Dick senses a man staring at her expensive clothes, and that is not accidentally – later her wealth will be of major significance, when Baby Warren will try to bribe him, “to buy Nicole a doctor” and he will lose his sense of independence, when the investment in the future clinic with Franz and Villa Diana will be financed with the money of the Warrens, further solidifying the notion that he is “owned” by them.
This experience also servers to show again Dick’s social skills, always controlling the situation with meta-language, sensing the impolite looks and interfering in the right way go get them out of the uncomfortable situation.
Dick shares his intention to write a book, by combining all the pamphlets already written – “Psychology for psychiatrists”, but Franz doesn’t like the idea.
Dick makes the confession that he chose to become a psychiatrist only because of a girl that went into the same lectures at Oxford, which suggests that Dick could have chosen some other subject to study in which he is more interested. Here the reader again senses that Dick is not truly fulfilled with his current occupation, though he has ideas and ambitions.
Franz tries to confront him for his intention to write the “Psychology for Psychiatrists”, but Dick skillfully diverts his attack, which makes Franz silent and change the subject of conversation to Nicole.
Dick states to him that he is attracted to her, and he may “devote his life to her” which makes Franz perplex. Finally, Dick agrees they to go to Dr. Dohmler, and do what he says. On the way he feels some strange feeling of control over the situation, which he compare to one of his experiences as a child.
“The professor, his face beautiful under straight whiskers, like a vine-overgrown veranda of some fine old house, disarmed him. Dick knew some individuals with more talent, but no person of a class qualitatively superior to Dohmler.
Six months later he thought the same way when he saw Dohmler dead, the light out on the veranda, the vines of his whiskers tickling his stiff white collar, the many battles that had swayed before the chink-like eyes stilled forever under the frail delicate lids”
It is strange here – Dohmler’s death has no meaning connected to the plot of the book. This parallel serves maybe to make the whole atmosphere of the book darker, to show that things on the whole are going to get worse from now on.
The three men – Dohmler, Franz and Dick start the conversation about Nicole’s affection to Dick and vice versa. When Dick confesses that he might marry her, Franz sharply protests with the argument that Dick will have to be both a husband and a doctor to her and that their marriage is going to collapse on the very first problem.
Later in the book we see that their marriage manages to survive through some hard times, but Dick truly faces the problem with looking at Nicole from two aspects – one of a husband, and one of a psychiatrist.
Dick surrenders to Franz’s reason and at the beginning of Chapter VII it is announced that Dick is going to delicately retreat from Nicole’s life.
On their next meeting they get to talk about the trip that she will take with her sister – Beth “Baby” Warren. Dick uses that conversation to imply that they will not meet again. He tells her that she will be happy in America, she will fall in love(apparently with someone else), thus showing her that they have no future and this is probably the last time they meet. He insults her, by talking about her condition, and ruins her hopes. But that is uneasy for him also, as he is not quite sure that he wants to leave her.
In a desperation, a thought passes through her head to tell him how rich she is, thus making herself look more valuable in his eyes, and fortunately, she represses herself. That brings again the theme of money and class division and the doors that they may open.
After dinner he decides to end the whole thing, but Nicole has already understood his intentions and refuses to go out with him again. On one side, he is relieved from the eventual burden she might have turned, but on the other he is not sure if that was really the right thing to do. It’s a battle between mind and heart.
Franz calms him that she has been doing relatively well the next two days, which as it is stated, hurts Dick’s vanity, because she had overcome him so easily – something he hasn’t yet done.
The next Chapter VIII starts describing the bad taste the whole story left in Dick’s mouth. He feels used by Franz and Dohmler as an instrument to fix her, and after that they just had to end their relationship, though he thought he have some serious intentions about her. Of course, as expected, this is not the end of their romance.
Very soon he sees her again and this time he is certain about his passion to her. He decides not to allow this feelings to overwhelm him, and uses the so-called antidotes – the “telephone” girl he had a brief romance with, before Nicole and arrangements for going back in the US in August. Obviously, the thought of Nicole Warren has become such a problem that he has to comfort himself to overcome it.
The other way Dick plans to forget her is by working hard – he feels he needs a routine work that will help for that. The next two or three pages are passive diversion from Dick and Nicole’s case, describing him peddling and getting on a mountain-climbing car, soothing the suspense until he runs into Nicole and a friend of hers – Conte de Marmora, with whom she turns out to be intimate, but nothing serious.
“The delight in Nicole’s face to be a feather again instead of a
plummet, to float and not to drag. She was a carnival to watch
at times primly coy, posing, grimacing and gesturing sometimes
the shadow fell and the dignity of old suffering flowed down into
her finger tips. Dick wished himself away from her, fearing that he
was a reminder of a world well left behind. He resolved to go to
the other hotel.”
Dick is charmed by her change. She is back to life, and moreover – enjoying it to the fullest. Dick fears that he might harm her with his presence; or he fears from his growing affection for her. He decides to stay at another hotel. Seeing her so lovely and healthy and with another man maybe makes him jealous to some extent, but he doesn’t yet show it. Later in the book he will feel much stronger jealousy for Rosemary, and will become obsessed with the thought of her having sex with a friend of Collis Clay in a train.
When they get off the mountain-climbing car, Dick goes to take his bicycle but finds Nicole beside him, asking him if he won’t stay at the same hotel. She invites him to come for dinner, but then Nicole’s sister – Beth interrupts them. Nicole introduces them – she is “tall and confident”, “formidable and vulnerable”.
Dick promises to come for dinner – which practically makes pointless his staying at a different hotel. Dick starts to slip, the “antidotes” were of no help.
Chapter IX starts with the sentence “They were waiting for him and incomplete without him.”
Keeping in mind that the last sentence of the previous chapter impressed that Nicole was deeply in love with Dick, it is surprising why is it “They”? Certainly, Marmora is not the one, who feels “incomplete”. “They” maybe refers to the proposition Beth will address to Dick – to be bought by the Warrens as a doctor and husband for Nicole. The description after the brief game with the “wireless“ transmit from the corners, suggests that Beth is also to some extent captivated by Dick’s charisma and is sexually interested in him:
“But Baby Warren wanted to talk to Dick, wanted to talk to
him with the impetus that sent her out vagrantly toward all new
men, as though she were on an inelastic tether and considered that
she might as well get to the end of it as soon as possible. She crossed
and recrossed her knees frequently in the manner of tall restless
virgins.”
Dick and Baby lead a conversation about Nicole’s mental health. Beth expresses her worries about Nicole’s “eccentric” deeds and Dick calms her. This discussion seems like a cover for what’s following.
“Baby shifted her knees about she was a compendium of all the
discontented women who had loved Byron a hundred years before,
yet, in spite of the tragic affair with the Guards officer, there was
something wooden and onanistic about her.”
Dick compared Beth to a “restless virgin”, and now he feels her “onanistic”. This dirtiness will
maybe symbolizes the corruption in her.
Beth proceeds with the important matter – “Actually I have a plan”. Her attitude is like of a business woman, and reminds of Nicole’s instinct to emphasize on how rich and classy her family is in order to keep Dick with her. Obviously, that’s the way the generations of Warrens are used to solve problems of any kind.
It is not an accident that she starts the conversation with the division of Chicago to a North and South side – symbolizing the high and middle class and delicately pointing to which one her family belongs.
Dick bursts in laughter in the first moment he hears what Beth’s plan is; it seems ridiculous to him now, but very soon he will feel himself caught in Warrens’ spider web, weaved by money. He does not yet realize that he is the doctor that Beth wants to buy for Nicole.
Dick goes out to check where Nicole is and finds her between two lamps in front of a romantic view in the Alps, expecting him. She tells him that she wanted to stay alone for a moment and that these social events doesn’t seem to have a good effect on her. Dick reminds himself that she was “re-educated” by Dohmler and his predecessors’ dogmas, and realizes that they had flaws.
He makes her a compliment that she takes too deep. She asks him, embarrassed, if he would like a girl like her, if she had no mental problems.
“He was in for it now, possessed by a vast irrationality.” Dick loses control over himself, though not over the conversation, yet. He tries to change the topic with a fun story, but is stopped by Nicole’s exclamation “Bull”(shit), which startles Dick.
She bursts, confessing her affection towards him, and affirming that she is fine now. That makes Dick even more uncomfortable. He feels the loss of control over the situation now, and would maybe confess his feelings too, if it weren’t Baby Warren’s proposition. Dick lies that he can’t fall in love with her. He gets even more confused in the “anarchy” when she answers that he won’t give her a chance. Nicole maybe crazy, but she sure knows what she wants, and does not feel ashamed to take the lead and kiss him.
And that is the final step to Dick’s “capitulation”. He is the weak now, she is in the stronger position, and she knows how to use it to retain and even increase his interest, retreating from the battle as a winner.
After a romantic confession, a storm causes them to get back in the restaurant.
A whole paragraph is dedicated to the storm, describing its crudeness and anger, bringing harsh atmosphere right after the climax moment :
“Suddenly there was a booming from the wine slopes across the
lake; cannons were shooting at hail-bearing clouds in order to break
them. The lights of the promenade went off, went on again. Then
the storm came swiftly, first falling from the heavens, then doubly
falling in torrents from the mountains and washing loud down the
roads and stone ditches; with it came a dark, frightening sky and
savage filaments of lightning and world-splitting thunder, while
ragged, destroying clouds fled along past the hotel. Mountains and
lake disappeared the hotel crouched amid tumult, chaos, and darkness.”
The storm is like an allegory of Dick and Nicole’s (oncoming) story. “The lights went off and went on again” – Dick left her once, but then got back to her. “the storm came swiftly, first falling from the heavens” – all of a sudden Nicole ended up in Dick’s arms “with atoms joined and inseparable”, the experience was like a spiritual orgasm for both of them. And then “came a dark, frightening sky”, “world-splitting thunder”, “crouched amid tumult, chaos, and darkness.” referring to the experiences that Dick and Nicole will have, especially Dick’s degradation and solitude in the end.
The night is tender, but what the day will be?
When entering the vestibule, a thought flies across Dick’s mind: “. . . For Doctor Diver to marry a mental patient? How did it happen? Where did it begin?” It is meant to express Dick’s worrying about the opinion of the others. The thought is like a gossip between his patients. Dick obviously doesn’t pay much attention to it.
Going to his hotel, Dick thinks about Baby Warren’s intention to buy Nicole a doctor, and that he won’t be that doctor.
The next day Dick finds two letters in his room – one from Nicole, and one from her sister.
Nicole informs him that the last night was “the nicest thing that ever happened” to her.
The next letter, from Baby Warren, asks him for a favor – to accompany Nicole to the sanitarium.
Dick gets furious. He is already introduced to the cunning plans of Baby and suspects that she intentionally tries to “throw them together”, but this is not the truth. Beth wants only to use him, and them throw him out, just like the way Dohmler and Gregorovius used him and then almost forced him to leave her.
The chapter, and Book I, end with the sentence: “They made no love that day, but when
he left her outside the sad door on the Zurichsee and she turned
and looked at him he knew her problem was one they had together
for good now.” – suggesting that, unlike the previous time he missed the opportunity, Dr. Diver is now sure that he will marry her, and will embark on the oppressive task to be a lover and a doctor to her simultaneously.
Svilen Ivanov 0803041014
American Literature stuff
Topic N3:
Referring to their writings, discuss the political, religious, and social vies of America’s Founding Fathers Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin and discuss views about fledgling America expressed in the writing of Michel-Guillaume de Crevecoeur.
Benjamin Franklin grows up in a big, hard-working family. His career begins with with writing for a newspaper, owned by his brother.
Benjamin Franklin is keen on Reneissance art. He is a founder of a philosophical circle.
Franklin writes his autobiography in 3 parts.
He is honoured as one of the greatest American scientists(polymath). He founded the first hospital in Phildelphia.
Another important thing about him is that he helped with the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Paine, the so called “voice of the American revolution” is famous for his negotiations with French revolutioners. He believes that there should be equality among everyone. He thinks that each person – poor or rich – deserves God’s love.
Thomas Jefferson also speaks of justice and equl rights. He spreads the idea of religious freedon. He was very active person, good architext and engineer.
Thomas Jefferson, such as Benjamin Franklin, has respect for the individual’s personality so he sets his slaves freee. He was the one who wrote the Declaration of Independence.
As a conclusion, we can say that founding fathers fight for equal rights among social classes and respectful attitude.
Michel- Guillaume de Crevecoeur’s work “Letters from an American Farmer”also support some of these ideas. It contains 12 letters, each of which presenting different side of American reality. The lesson that the story gives is that the society is capable of self destruction or recreation. There is always a choice. If people support each other and maintain the peace, everything should be fine. The author tries to make it clear that the fate of our world is in our own hands. We’d be better if we cooperate and keep each other. That’s the real way of development.
TOPIC N9: Discuss the rise of American realism, defining and giving eamples from local-color realism, as practiced by writers such s Sarah orne Jewett and Kate Chopin, and the genteel psychological, transatlantic realism of Henry James and Edith Wharton. Also, compare and contrast these variesties of realism.
In the realistic works main place is reserved for the character. The inner world of the human becomes very important. Individual’s life is described in detail. Characters are more important thatn the plot.
Realism is, in some way, opposite to the Romanticism, because in the Realism the things are shown exactly the way they are. Realists are pragmatic, rather than emotional. The philosphy of that period is descendental. Relation between society and people is explored.
William Dean Howells was spreading realistic ideas, during 19th century. He was very powerful person. Many things depended on his will. One of the most remarkable words that comes to mind when we speack about American realistic literature is “The pit”As a matter of fact, it is part of a trilogy written by Frank Norris. In that trilogy is traced the development of wheat industry from the very beginning to the most prosperous moments. The story is realistic, because it shows life of the different social classess the way it really is. The reader can see the ugly face of the poverty and greed the hunger of money, the struggles of the little people to survive, while big fishes manage to succeed as spectators who seemed to have sold their souls to the Devil.
Realism could be painful sometimes, but it reveals true facts about life. Realism gives clear view of the things, that’s why we need to have a sense of it in the right situations.
The Mysterious stranger and The rich boy.
There are couple main differences between Twain’s novel and Fitzgerald’s work. The first thing is the style in which they are written. The Mysterious Stranger is created during 19th century, while The rich Boy shows up in the 20th. It is typical morenistic work. We can conclude that rom the descriptions of the places and the characters, their actions and conversations.
“The mysterious stranger”The author implies the idea of right and wrong, moral. That can’t be seen in Rich Boy where the main character’s lifestyle involves drinking, meaninglesss meetings with different girls and lack of real, warm feelings.
Other differences between the two works are the places where the action takes place. In Twain’s novel characters travel all around the World with Satan’s heep, they could even reach the moon, while in the Rich Boy centre of the action is the city. While Auson belongs to New York and feels comfortable there, Theodor, Seppi and Nikolaus enjoy walking in valleys with forrests and anywhere with open air.
Other differences that could be mentioned are relatied with the theme of Friendship. In “The mysterious Stranger”when Theodor and Seppi find out that Nikolaus will die soon they do everything possible to make him feel happy during alll the day he has left. They really love him and care about him. In controversy, in “The rich boy at one moment Anson finds himself alone and insignificant for the others. He has no one to call.
Twain’s work characters always have something new to learn, while in The rich boy, Anson seem to stack at one place. The only thing that develops is his career but his personal life is tragical.
The thing that the two works have in common is that thair endings are open.
TOPIC N8:Discuss nineteenth-century American poetry, giving examples from the work of the following poets: Philip Freneau, William Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allen Poe, Sidney Lanier, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Walt Witman and Emily Dickinson
Freneau’s reputation as “The Poet of the Revolution”proved mixed blessing. His poems and essays were considered interested only as long as their subject matter remained in the national spotlight; his work was quickly forgotten once independence was won and the struggle to establish a new government was resolved. In terms of style Freneau’s poetry is at the point of transition between neoclassicism and Romaticism. Some critics suggest that Freneau’s poetry about the sea anticipates the one of Lord Byron and Herman Melville, while his poem “The House of Night”andticipates the writings of Edgar Allen Poe. Critical assessment of such Romantic poems such as “The Hurricane”miss the fact that Freneau’s other works reflect a very old classical tradition the “ship of state’poem. Some other critics suggest that Freneau’s work was outdated even during his lifetime because it was political rather than personal. One of Freneau’s most political poem “The British Prison Ship”has drawn a great deal of critical attention. The events that inspired the poem a turning point in Freneau’s life and career. Not only did Freneau’s political philosophy change considerably from a rather passive observers of the American Revolution to a supporter of it but his personal view of the world was altered. The optimism and idealism that characterized his early work was replaced by illusionment, even bitterness.
One of Freneau’s major concerns was the British cultural dominance over America, and he is considered the first American poet to reverse this trend in literature.
But Freneau managed to find his own voice at times and wrote some of the finest most timeless poems in American literature.
William C. Bryant
Bryant’s colloquial voice and celebration of nature were hailed as poetic innovations upon publication of his debut collection “Poems” and confirmed his reputation as the most eminent American poet of the day. His status generally went unquestioned until the middle of the 19th century, when some critics began to observe that his lyrics lacked flexibility and depth of subject and theme’; that his versification failed to display poetic virtuosity and breath of conception; and that his poetri railed too much on didactic endings and lacked passion. He was being reduced to a poet of historical significance. Bryant’s early poems represent his best work, critical assessment of his work has declined considerably in the 20th century and is largely limited to debates about whether Bryant’s poetic sensibilities are more Puritan or Romantic.
Sydney Lanier
Lanier was considered a noteworthy post Civil War southern writer – probably based on his artistic dedication and earnestness that on his literary chievments. Later 20th century critics agree that Lanier was a significant if figure in post-Civil War literature of the American South
John Greenleaf Whittier
His early critics expressed admiration for the emotional impact and effectiveness of his verse but pointed to numerous technical flaws such as clumsy prose and faulty rhyme schemes; of Whittier’s boldness and sincerity, yet never considered him a first-rate poet. Similarly, Edgar Allen Poe called Whittier a “fine versifier” but would not include his name in the ranks of premier American poets. Whittier was popular and respected writer, the overwhelming popularity of his poem “Snow Bound”marked the beginning of the second phase of critical reaction, which lasted until 1920’s . During this period Whittier was esteemed as one of America’s most admired literary figures. His personal life, described as saintly and and become inseparable from the evaluation of his work. His death prompted an outpouring of loving remembrances. Attitudes towards Whitier’s poetry changed when critics took him as to task for being overly moralistic reformer; a paradoxical blend of success and failure’ and maintain that he should be remembered as a significant historical figure rather than for his contributions to literature. His early works survive as historical documents that represent an era in America’s history, but a few of his best loved pieces such as “Snow Bound”, endure as nostalgic.
Henry W. Longfellow
Longfellow’s later poetry reflects his interest in establishing an American mythology. His other works include “The Courthship of Miles Standish”. “Tales of a Wayside Inn and “Christus – a Mystery”, a trilogy dealing with Christianity from its beginning, which was intended to Logdellow’s masterpiece
Walt Whitman.
In New York, Whitman witnessed the rapid growth of the city and wanted to write a new kind of poetry in tune with mankind’s new faith, hopeful expectations and energy. A theme in “Song of Myself “is suffering and death. The edition of “Leaves of Grass”was about the writer himself . In 1855 appeared “The song of Hiawatha”- another great American epic. The edition of Leaves of Grass was greeted with warm appreciation, although at first his work was not very popular. Ralph W. Emerson was among his early admirers. “Leaves of Grass”also include a group of poems entitled “Calamus, which has been taken as a reflection of the poet’s homosexuality, although according to Whitman they celebrated “the beautiful and sane affection of man for man. According to some sources, Whitman had only one abortive attempt at sexual relationship presumably homosexual with a young soldier whose leg was amputated. Whitman’s letter to Doyle were published in 1897 under the title “Calamus”In England Whitman’s work was better received among his admirerers were Alfred Tennyson and Dante Gabriel Roseth. Whitman transcended the self and self and spoke for the mass to bridge the nations.
Emily Dickinson
Later feminist critics have challenged the popular conception of the poet as a reclusive, eccentric figure and underlined struggle and passive aggressiveness. Her verse is full of allusions to volcanoes, shipwrecks, funerals and human violence, which she hide into her writings. Plain and extreme psychic feelings were among her central themes; she may have been epileptic. Dickinson read poetry voraciously. She spoke of the soul or souls in her poems. Soul was for her a lost boat, and internal lamp, a storm within, an emperor. “The soul into itself is an imperial friend / or the most agonizing spy/ an enemy could send. She wrote genious poetry of nature, love, loss and grief.
TOPIC 6: Compare and contrast the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, giving specific examples from their short stories and novels.
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