MARITAL DISCORD IN THE GREAT GATSBY

ABSTRACT

Marial discord in the life of the author spilled over into his work.  This statement is justified if F. Scot Fitzgerald occupies the place of the former and The  Great Gatsby  is placed in the latter position. Marital discord in the novel can profitabily be traced to Fitzgerald’s own married life.  He married Zelda Sayre in 1920. Due to lack of money he had not been able to marry his first sweet heart Ginevra King, and almost managed to lose Zelda.  The publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920 ensured his marriage.  The Fitzgeralds led a high flying life of extravagance   and parties. Besides temperamental differences between Scott and Zelda, the scarcity of money always bedeviled their relationship.Even though Scott earned enormously from his short stories and novels,he was forever in debt .After  ten years of married life spent in a spree of partying and in fashionable resorts of Europe and America the bubble burst in 1931 when Zelda became increasingly troubled by mental illness.  Tender is the Night (1934), the story of Dick Diver and his schizophrenic wife, Nicole, goes some way to show the pain felt by Fitzgerald. Zelda suffered an extreme case of emotional breakdown and was a patient of severe schizophrenia for the rest of her life. Inspite of her telling him to seek his freedom from her, Scott continued to be dedicated to Zelda till his death in 1940.

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