F. Scott Fitzgerald is being acknowledged as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His novel “Tender is the Night” is actually his last work, which depicts the deterioration of a respectful doctor. Fitzgerald gives an important insight into the rich world of the life of the characters in this story, subordinating all the devices to this objective, like, for example, using the broken composition of the text in the middle of the book, where the memory flashes back to the past time. The author is so skillful in this work that none of the characters, enclosed in it are useless or their acts are meaningless. All of them starting with the principally major to the minor characters are performing some function in the text, bringing it home to the reader and to the other characters the vital lessons to be taught.
The profile of Mary North is one of many characters within the book. And this very character is often been unfair moved aside to the periphery of the reader’s attention. De jure belonging of Mary North to the minor characters does not mean her not importance to the story in general and to the conclusions the reader might come to in particular. I believe that the reason, this character is being put within the story is obvious, i.e. to illustrate the strengths of this character to teach the other ones and the reader to be driven by the right motifs, like Mary was. Mary North is presented to the reader as a wife of protagonist’s friend Abe North, an alcoholic who is bringing his life to his own grave doing that. She does nothing to change this situation, watching her husband doing that. Later on, when her husband dies, she remarries a wealthy man. She is often thought of as a shallow woman, who has nothing to teach the other person, nonetheless, in some situations, she managed to show strengths of the character, which she possessed. It would be great to cultivate some of her traits within some people. So, I am sure, that Mary is a complex character, who is to be considered and analyzed closely.
Throughout the text the reader finds a contest between the protagonist of the novel and Mary. Dick Diver is thinking about Mary’s intentions to get married too soon again as the wrong ones. They are becoming foes or if not foes than are becoming two people too far to be friends. Sometimes, Mary seems to be a really shallow woman in the text of the novel. Of course it is up to a widow to choose the terms of remarry. Her ex-friend Dick considered this period to be too short. I do not think one can judge this particular situation, but what is ore important about her character is that she later could maintain good relationship with Dick. It is a very important theme, the theme of forgiveness, which is brought up by the author in his book. Overcoming oneself to remain good relations with another person is worth respect to the characters. Mary is shown is this respect as a free soul, meaning that she takes the life as it is today. When she needed Dick’s help she received it. And again this situation might be looked at from two points. The first which occurs is: of course when one needs help, why not ask for it? And the second thing, which occurs that it is not so easy to put one’s arrogance aside and to ask for help, as a seemingly easy request might turn into a big problem for some people. Mary North is not among those, who are too arrogant to ask for help, and that is evidently her strength.
Then it comes to the comparison of the women within the text. The reader comes across the major women characters, like Nicole Diver and Rosemary Hoyt and the minor as Mary North. These women are different according to their life philosophy, background and character. They also differ in their relation to either their husbands or lovers. Like Nicole is concerned with her husband’s infidelity and is highly discontent with it, Rosemary seeks to satisfy her desires by means of her search for men. And Mary is depicted as the woman of another kind, she seems to barely care what her husband is doing, not preventing him from drinking. But actually, this might be taken from another angle as each man is to decide for himself what to do in the life. Everyone is responsible for his own or her own deeds, regardless the age and gender. Considering Abe’s age, he is able to understand what is good and what is wrong. The portrayal of Mary somehow contradicts the other two women, as being seemingly indifferent to her husband she still was faithful to her husband and consequently, the moral qualities and standards of this woman might be somehow higher than those of the other two. Finally, the way she takes the strikes of life fascinates somehow. When her husband dies she decides, that she would get married again. This might be a debatable question, but being able to take a strike and still being able o maintain a good attitude to the life is a great quality for women as well as for men. And while, Nicole is suffering from the strikes she has in life, cultivating the strength within herself, Mary seems to have an inborn resistance to the turns and twists of life.
Making a conclusion, it might be said that F. Scott Fitzgerald is a truly outstanding novelist of his time, who is being acknowledged to be one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The novel “Tender is the Night” appears to be his last creation, where the writer embodied the high rate writing skills. All the characters found within the text, starting with the principally major and finishing with the most minor are useful for the plot extension and to the reflection on the themes presented in the text. One of the minor characters found in the novel, namely Mary North, is being unfairly put aside to the periphery of the reader’s attention as it is a complex character, which needs to be considered and analyzed more closely. Even though the character generally appears to be a shallow woman, there are some evident strength the author puts to her profile, like overcoming one’s own arrogance, maintaining friendship and even a life wisdom if it can be called so. The author illustrated on the Ann North’s profile that character of the personages of the book can not boil down to some statement of facts, but rather needs a closer look as the human nature is dual.
Works Cited
F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender Is the Night. Scribner: English, 1995