Abstract Tender is the Night is Fitzgerald’s another important novel after The Great Gatsby. It is regarded as one of his best books, and is known as the last elegy of “Jazz Age”. This novel describes the broken love between a young psychiatrist Dick Diver and his wife Nicole Warren, after he met a beautiful young actress Rosemary by chance, and he finally turned to alcoholism and dissipation. Based on the study of the characteristic flaws of Dick and the social circumstance , this thesis tries to reveal the reasons for Dick’s tragic fate.59087

Key words: Tender is the Night; tragic fate; characteristic flaws; social circumstance

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。

毕业论文关键词：《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.源[自*优尔^`论\文"网·www.youerw.com/

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.