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Important brush strokes: the significance of two biblical episodes in Fitzgerald's 'Tender Is the Night.'(analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel)

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From: ANQ
Date: 19960922
Author:Tucker, Kenneth

Two episodes involving healing in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, 'Tender Is the Night,' echo stories from the New Testament. The first allusion recalls Jesus' exorcism of a possessed boy, contrasting it with protagonist Dick Diver's unsuccessful cure of Francisco's alcoholism and homosexuality. The second, in which Devereux Warren, Diver's father-in-law, is inexplicably cured, alludes to Jesus' miraculous healing of paralytics. Both episodes emphasize the scientifically trained Diver's inadequacy as a healer and reinforce the novel's theme that life is often capricious and beyond our ...

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