Abstract

Fitzgerald is well-known as the symbol of the faithless jazz generation, while I consider he is a spender as well as a moralist who can contemplate and retrospect constantly. Tender is the Night is the novel that Fitzgerald poured nearly a decade of his time into. Unlike the commercial potboilers, it is worthy of deep dig and further meditation. But where should the reading and thinking start? I believe it is the title that facilitates and casts lights on the integral understanding of the novel. Consequently, firstly, regardless of the novel’s content, I will discuss the meaning of “tender” and “night” respectively connected with the Chinese philosophical classic Tao Te Ching and The Holy Bible. It turns out that “tender” is only seemingly gentle and vulnerable and is in fact forceful and long-lasting and “night” is more encompassing yet more jumbled and dangerous. As a whole, a tender night that gives the first impression of innocent and flawless could be deceptive and the expression has a chance of being an irony. And since the night boasts two magic weapons, the moon and the dreams, it triggers a cascade of sentimental emotions and a wild imagination. 

Moreover if we look back of the title after a thorough reading of the novel, we will find the title’s intimate relation with the themes, comprising of the failure of American Dream and gradual degeneration and also, from my point of view, the salvation theme. Finally, since comparison can set off the excellent title, I trace back the naming process of the Tender and Fitzgerald’s other novels. Every title of these novels, used or abandoned is existed out of reason and these adopted are apt to be delicately made with aesthetic as well as functions of indicating the themes or implying something. Interestingly, I also draw some conclusions on Fitzgerald’s orientations when making titles.

Keywords: Fitzgerald; Tender is the night; title; theme

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

Introduction-1

1.-The information we get from the title before we read the novel-1

1.1.-The direct information given by the title-1

1.2.-The imaginations bring by the title-2

2.-The information we get from the title after we read the novel-4

2.1.-The first part of information gotten from the title---the popularly recognized themes-4

2.2.-The second part of information gotten from the title---a less recognized theme-5

3.-The comparison with other titles-7

3.1.-The titles made for Fitzgerald’s other long novels-7

3.2.-The earlier titles made for Tender-9

Conclusion-11

References-12