摘 要

《夜色温柔》是美国"迷惘的一代"的代表作家菲茨杰拉德的长篇小说。十年磨一剑，这是作者寄予很大希望，投入满腔热血和精力创作的小说。该小说反映的社会生活画面的广度和思想内容的深度超过了其它所有的小说，是他最充满个人情感的一部作品，表现了他对爵士时代最深刻的反省与思考，以及他的真知远见。《夜色温柔》是他吟唱的一曲爵士时代的悲歌。小说多处运用了象征主义手法，将某些抽象的精神品质化作具体可感的形象。本文将小说运用的象征主义手法和小说主人公迪克的悲剧命运结合起来，为主人公最终的命运走向提供充足的证据。

关键词：《夜色温柔》；菲茨杰拉德；悲剧命运；象征主义
 
Abstract

Tender Is the Night was written by Fitzgerald, a representative of the Lost Generation. After nine years’ hardworking, the writer pinned high hopes on it with great efforts and enthusiasm. This novel was the best embodiment of the tragic fate in the Jazz Age for its comprehensive description of the society and a deep reflection of the age, as compared with Fitzgerald’s other novels. It showed his most personal emotion and social care. It was regarded generally as the most biographical novel of Fitzgerald and the most tragic elegy. In this novel, symbolism can be found in different aspects. That the writer turned abstract quality into a specific image can be perceived. This thesis combines symbolism with the tragic fate of the main character Dick and provides plenty evidence for the way in which the life of the protagonist was eventually played out.

Keywords: Tender Is the Night; Filzgerald; tragic fate

Chapter 1 Introduction
When Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night was first published in 1 934, several kinds of negative reviews were formed, and it was not greeted enthusiastically until Fitzgerald’s 100th  birthday, on which his works and memorabilia were displayed at a massive exhibition at the University of South Carolina honoring the centenary of both himself and his works in 1996. Many seminar groups have been established to study Fitzgerald and his works. The past and present criticisms have mainly revolved around the special style, the multiple themes, the rich symbols, the characterizations, the complicated structure, and the historical meanings of the novel.
As for the structure of the book, critical essays could be found in many kinds of magazines or book reviews. At the very beginning of its publication, some renowned writers praised the novel highly as follows: “It’s amazing how excellent much of it is,” Ernest Hemingway said to Maxwell Perkins. “I will say now,” John O’ Hara wrote to Fitzgerald, “Tender Is the Night is in the early stages of being my favorite book, even more than This Side of Paradise.” and Archibald MacLeish exclaimed: “ Great God, Scott⋯You are a fine writer. Believe it, not me.” But some readers showed less interest in this novel than in his other novels or short stories of the 1920s: Their dissatisfaction was partly because of the structure of the novel, which was the book’s lack of integration, and partly because of the dated and irrelevant material in the depths of the depression as some critics condemned. The boom had give way to the worst and longest depression the United States had ever experienced, and critics as well as readers were anxious for literature which dealt directly with the important political and economic problems of the day.