The edition of The Beautiful and Damned that I read was the Wordsworth Classics Edition, published in 2011. The book itself also contains Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, so the page numbers I have included as reference may seem a little odd. I had never read Fitzgerald before, so I was unsure of what to expect. Many reviewers had stated that they found Gloria and Anthony, the novel’s protagonists, impossible to relate to. I did not find this to be the case at all. Fitzgerald’s writing is at times overwhelmingly beautiful and ultimately this is a very sad novel. I was almost reduced to tears by the end, something I had not at all expected. I recommend this novel and will certainly be reading Fitzgerald’s other works in the future.
‘It would not be easy to find a more thoroughly depressing book than this new novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned.’1 So writes Louise Maunsell Field in the New York Times on March 5th, 1922, just after the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel. Two years before he had published This Side of Paradise, a work which quickly made him rich and famous. While The Beautiful and Damned is often considered to be ‘Fitzgerald’s least accomplished novel’2 there is still a lot of material available for analysis. In some ways, it is a difficult novel to get along with – I believe most people struggle to some extent in reading a novel whose characters are so very difficult to identify or sympathise with. Of course, the directionless existence of Anthony Patch could be considered touching, but his arrogance and laziness make this quite difficult, especially because one tends to wince slightly at the complaining of those whose lives are actually relatively privileged. Nonetheless, the relationship of Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert is of interest, as is their miserable descent into alcohol fuelled ruin, made all the more sad for the fact that both feared ageing and all that goes with it. This fear of ageing and having nothing to show for it, as well as the terrible boredom and lack of direction experiences by those who lack any responsibility at all, is what I intend to look at in the following few paragraphs.
One of the most interesting elements of Anthony and Gloria’s relationship is the idea that they have about being soul mates that are very much alike, apparently in spite of the fact that in many ways they want different things. In addition, each faces their struggles differently; in the darkest hours Anthony becomes a tragic, rambling, angry drunk, while Gloria tries desperately to cling to her youth. In the early days of their love, Anthony declares “We are twins,” while Gloria tells him that “Mother says that two souls are sometimes created together and – and in love before they are born.”-p.359 These sentimental youthful declarations precede a time when Anthony and Gloria are driven further and further apart by the disintegration of their lifestyles and indeed their very identities. Both require money to maintain the latter and in its absence Anthony loses his dignity and Gloria’s beauty begins to fade away.
The things that the couple want from life could be said to be entirely opposite. Throughout the novel, Gloria’s self-absorption is pointed out time and time again, for example when Anthony asks her “Aren’t you interested in anything except yourself?” – Gloria’s answer is simply “Not much.”p.350 Later, as Gloria’s life falls apart around her, only one element of her fall seems to really cut her to the core – the loss of her youth and beauty. Gazing into the mirror she goes to pieces with the words “Oh my pretty face! Oh, I don’t want to live without my pretty face! Oh, what’s happened?”p.552 Only then does her situation truly dawn on her. Gloria often asserts that her chief aim and purpose in life is to preserve her beauty; she has no desire to do anything else, especially if it will in any way hinder her aim. One thing which she feels would, is motherhood, so when she believes she may be pregnant she is beside herself. Her husband has little sympathy, failing to understand that Gloria is not like ‘other women’. He tells her “You’d think you’d been singled out of all the women in the world for this crowning indignity.” Gloria’s telling response is “What if I do![…] It isn’t an indignity for them. It’s their excuse for living. It’s the one thing they’re good for.”p.411 Thus, while Anthony feels he ought to be treated as any other member of the aristocracy, Gloria feels she is entirely one of a kind. In life, Gloria has no desire to achieve anything at all, something which she makes clear several times. When asked if she wants to do anything she replies, “I want to sleep… I want to just be lazy and I want some of the people around me be doing things, because that makes me feel comfortable and safe – and I want some of them to be doing nothing at all, because they can be graceful and companionable for me.”p.311-312 Anthony obviously expects his grandfather’s money. However he does desire ‘something else’ and it is the struggle to identify what this is, let alone find it, that leads to his ultimate downfall. Anthony lacks any motivation or discipline. He bemoans the ‘fact’ that “There used to be dignified occupations for a gentleman who had leisure, things a little more constructive that filling up the landscape with smoke or juggling someone else’s money.”p.345 All the while, he uses this as an excuse. Anthony has many excuses for not working; he blames Gloria, he blames the world, he even blames not knowing when his grandfather will pass away, telling Gloria “It’s not that I have any moral compunction about work[…] but grampa may die tomorrow and he may live for ten years.”p.415 Anthony worries that he is not as good as his peers, he lacks direction or purpose and ultimately needs a partner to keep him as grounded as possible, for as long as possible. This is in contrast with Gloria; she does not need to be kept from flying away, instead she needs comfort and safety while she floats above the rest of the world.
This leads nicely on to questions of the couple’s motivations for marriage. Both are searching for something and both believe they have found a kindred spirit of sorts. Anthony believes that ‘if he did not marry her his life would be a feeble parody of his own adolescence.’p.350 He needs Gloria to love him and he seems to subconsciously believe that responsibility and commitment of a marriage will prevent his life from spiralling out of control, or worse, becoming boring. On the wedding day we are told that ‘The blood was moving in his veins now. A languorous and pleasant content settled like a weight upon him, bringing responsibility and possession. He was married.’p.376 Poor Anthony, believing that marrying Gloria will bring him comfort! While Anthony is experiencing this joint happiness of responsibility and possession, Gloria is glad of the safety of this marriage. ‘She was beyond all conscious perceptions. Only a sense, coloured with delirious wild excitement, that the ultimately important was happening – and a trust, fierce and passionate, burning in her life a prayer, that in a moment she would be for ever and securely safe.’p.377 Unfortunately for both, their expectations of marriage are not met.
Both Anthony and Gloria have deep-seated fears of growing old. Initially, Gloria’s fears centre on ideas of marriage and children - ultimately, of responsibility. However, after her marriage to Anthony, while still abhorring the idea of child-bearing, Gloria’s fears turn to her beauty and the effects of ageing. It really is the only thing, aside from money, that she values. She is disgusted at the idea of settling into a typical lifestyle, and hates the notion of being a typical wife, asking Anthony “Don’t say ‘wife’. I’m your mistress. Wife’s such an ugly word. Your ‘permanent mistress’ is so much more tangible and desirable.”p.378 Gloria is horrified at the prospect of ever living in normal house in a normal town, saying “That’s just what I don’t want[…] a hot stuffy bungalow, with a lot of babies next door and their father cutting the grass in his shirt sleeves -”p.388 For Gloria, growing old does not bring fear for the same reason as it does Anthony; her fears are entirely about her looks. She does not even want to live without her good looks, and at the prospect of eventually running entirely out of money, she suggests that they both go to Italy for three years to live and then just die. For Anthony, there is more to it. He needs to have something to show, to have made some mark, for ‘It worried him to think that he was, after all, a facile mediocrity, with neither the poise of Maury nor the enthusiasm of Dick. It seemed a tragedy to want nothing – and yet he something, something. He knew in flashes what it was – some path of hope to lead him towards what he thought was an imminent and ominous old age.’p.303 He looks to Gloria to fill the void that his lack of purpose and direction creates. When he is about to meet her for the first time ‘His day, usually a jellylike creature, a shapeless, spineless thing, had attained Mesozoic structure[…] He dreaded the moment when the backbone of the day should be broken, when he should have met the girl at last, talked to her, and then bowed her laughter out the door, returning only to the melancholy dregs in the teacups and the gathering staleness of the uneaten sandwiches.’p.302
In order to have the money which Gloria and Anthony believe will grant them everything they need to be happy, Adam Patch, Anthony’s grandfather, must die and leave them an inheritance. The narrative has this thread running all the way through it, this ‘waiting for grampa to die’. This is eventually replaced by another waiting game, as they await the outcome of contesting the will. All hopes and possibilities hang on attaining the money, but neither Gloria nor Anthony feels any affection for the old man. Gloria even complains “I wish he’d died last week […] inconsiderate old fool!”p.464 In waiting for the death of Adam Patch, Anthony and Gloria are in essence awaiting their own deaths as well. They are unable to enjoy life, unable to achieve anything; both are entirely miserable. Boredom envelopes them both. While Anthony’s drinking has always been problematic (an early lover, Geraldine Burke, remarks “you have something to drink every day and you’re only twenty-five.”p.327), his habit quickly causes havoc with his and his wife’s lives. Geraldine’s urge to “think what you’ll be at forty?”p.327 proves inaccurate by a decade, for Anthony disintegrates long before then. His ability to perform a job sags under the weight of his addiction, as ‘His determination to stay in at night during the week did not survive, and a good half of the time he came to work with a splitting, sickish headache.”p.430 While he is ‘overcome by one of those attacks of moody despair to which he periodically succumbed’p.430 Anthony quits his job. In the end he becomes like any alcoholic – nasty, embarrassing and in denial. He is stripped of his class as Gloria is stripped of her youth. Money problems and alcohol are inextricably linked, evident in the fact that ‘Things had started to slide perceptibly. There was the money question, increasingly annoying, increasingly ominous; there was the realisation that liquor had become a practical necessity’p.463. Gloria is not immune to problematic drinking; meals are paid for, leases signed while under the influence. Gloria’s attempt to defend herself by saying she won’t drink during the day is met with scorn by Anthony.
The further that Anthony and Gloria’s lives slip into chaos, the less their love for each other seems to matter. When Gloria falls ill with ‘flu, she is no longer under the illusion that Anthony can keep her safe. Instead, ‘All she wanted was to be a little girl, to be efficiently taken care of by some yielding but superior power, stupider and steadier than herself’. Trying to avoid an argument, Anthony reminds Gloria that “We’ve got nothing but each other, after all,” to which Gloria simply replies “We haven’t even that, most of the time.”p.466 This contrasts with her treatment of him after he quits his job, when she ‘felt sorry for him, and kneeling down she stroked his head, saying how little it mattered, how little anything mattered so long as they loved each other.’p.430 Gloria and Anthony’s lives are ultimately ruined by their inability to look after themselves, look after their money, or look after each other. As Gloria puts it “Gee whizz! Haven’t we got enough troubles taking care of ourselves?”p.390
One final interesting point to note is the way in which images and notions of theatre litter the novel. This is something Fitzgerald clearly intended, as at times he uses the structure of a play when describing certain dialogue. In addition, the characters, Anthony in particular, frequently make reference to life being as a play, or game. Anthony mentions that he likes New York, as “I always feel as though it’s a performance being staged for me.”p.467 These images suggesting that the world revolves around him go some way to highlighting the worst elements of his personality, elements which eventually assist in bringing about his downfall. That Anthony’s day is ‘marching along surely, even jauntily, towards a climax, as a play should, as a day should,’ is another example of this life as a game, which ties in interestingly with the notion of love as a distraction for Anthony.
The Beautiful and Damned is another very depressing novel – reading it between The Return of the Native and The Old Curiosity Shop was perhaps not wise of me! This novel affected me far more than I had expected. In fact, I did not even expect to enjoy it particularly. Nonetheless, it’s an enjoyable book (if that’s the right word) and an interesting one too. My next blog post will be on the subject of The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, focussing primarily on the death of little Nell and its cultural significance. As always, thank you for reading and feel free to contact me with any thoughts or suggestions of your own.
Thanks,
- - K
Twitter: @00KVortex
E-mail: greeninliterature@gmail.com
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