2130_american lit module 2 _f. scott fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company

F. Scott Fitzgerald


The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams”


• In the end one loves one’s desire, not the thing desired. — Friedrich Nietzsche

• There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. — Oscar Wilde

“Winter Dreams”


“Had he been as calm inwardly as he was in appearance, Dexter would have had time to examine his surroundings in detail. He received, however, an enduring impression that the house was the most elaborate he had ever seen. He had known for a long time that it was the finest on Lake Ermine, with a Pompeian swimming pool and twelve acres of lawn and garden . . .”

“Winter Dreams”


• “As so frequently would be the case in the future, Dexter was unconsciously dictated to by his winter dreams.”

• “Now, of course, the quality and the seasonability of these winter dreams varied, but the stuff of them remained.”

• “Even the grief he could have borne was left behind in the country of illusion, of youth, of the richness of life, where his winter dreams had flourished.”

“Winter Dreams”


“For the first time in years the tears were streaming down his face. But they were for himself now . . . ‘Long ago,’ he said, ‘long ago there was something in me, but now that thing is gone. Now that thing is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more.’ ”

“Winter Dreams”


• “She was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm. Perhaps from so much youthful love, so many youthful lovers, she had come, in self-defense, to nourish herself wholly from within.”

• “She had insulted him, and she had ridden over him, and she had played his interest in her against his interest in his work—for fun.”

“Winter Dreams”


“Babylon Revisited”


“Sudden ghosts out of the past: Duncan Schaeffer, a friend from college. Lorraine Quarrles, a lovely, pale blonde of thirty; one of a crowd who had helped them make months into days in the lavish times of three years ago.”



“He believed in character; he wanted to jump back a whole generation and trust in character again as the eternally valuable element. Everything wore out.”



“ ‘I want to get to know you,’ he said gravely. ‘First let me introduce myself. My name is Charles J. Wales, of Prague.’ ‘Oh, daddy!’ her voice cracked with laughter. ‘And who are you, please?’ he persisted, and she accepted a role immediately: ‘Honoria Wales, Rue Palatine, Paris.’ ‘Married or single?’ ‘No, not married. Single.’ He indicated the doll. ‘But I see you have a child, madame.’ Unwilling to disinherit it, she took it to her heart and thought quickly: ‘Yes, I’ve been married, but I'm not married now. My husband is dead.’ ”



“He would come back some day; they couldn't make him pay forever. But he wanted his child, and nothing was much good now, beside that fact. He wasn't young any more, with a lot of nice thoughts and dreams to have by himself. He was absolutely sure Helen wouldn't have wanted him to be so alone.”



• Why does Fitzgerald favor the predicament of the hero on the edge of the glamorous life, looking at it with these conflicting emotions, suffering from and in an odd way delighting in his exile?

Fitzgerald’s Protagonists


• Are Fitzgerald’s narratives unique because they tell stories of growing up? Or is it that the major characters in them never grow up as much as they tell themselves they have?

Fitzgerald’s Protagonists

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F. Scott Fitzgerald

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