Tender is the Night Love Quotes

Thought: In this conversation with her mother, Elsie, Rosemary expresses the movement of her love, which she’s got on the brain. She seems eager to embrace everything and everyone is pleasing to her. That she moves so quickly from loving many to loving Dick Diver raises the possibility that she wants a special love most of all. Or does it? This is the beginning of the novel, for one thing, and the beginning of Rosemary’s jump into the world of sexual affairs. It’s probably safe to say she’s not sure what she wants. And Rosemary doesn’t really say she stops loving the group when she says she loves Dick, now does she? What do you think? How does she feel about the group and Dick by the end of the novel? How does she feel about love?

Thought: This is from Campion, one of the novel’s gay characters. What do we make of the way his sexuality is handled in the novel? Dick certainly has some interesting opinions, as we see in his interactions with Francisco Pardo y Ciudad Real. What do you think though? Is Campion right? Is the possibility of a deep love worth the risk of pain?

Thought: We never see this kind of excited intimacy when Dick and Nicole are presented directly. This side of them remains mysterious throughout the novel. It’s a mystery to Rosemary, too. She goes shopping with Nicole after this and when 4pm rolls around and Nicole isn’t rushing to meet Dick, Rosemary wants to remind her, or offer to go in her place. Was it all an act (possibly for Rosemary’s benefit)? Is Dick waiting impatiently for Nicole in some hotel room? Is the answer buried somewhere in the text? This passage resonates even more when we find out Dick and Nicole’s history in Book Two.

Thought: Here Dick seems utterly sincere. He really is trying to do the right thing. He takes his love for Nicole seriously, and he takes Rosemary’s well-being seriously, too. And did you ever get the feeling when reading this book that Rosemary loves her mother a little too much? Who uses pickup lines like that? Oh darling, I love you even more than I do my mother. So let’s get a room. Not the most dignified approach. But Rosemary is barely 18 and her mother has told her to do this, regardless of who gets hurt. And, her love for Dick never wavers, even though it doesn’t seem to work out. So who needs dignity?

Thought: Man, Rosemary’s techniques worked. By this time, Dick’s feelings for her are getting stronger and stronger. However, as the novel makes clear, they are not as strong as his feelings for Nicole. From here on out he’s in deep conflict because he is trying to love both women without hurting either of them.

Thought: Now that’s some heavy-duty love. Maybe too heavy-duty, as the novel seems to suggest. Nicole spends Book Three of the novel figuring out how to disentangle her own personality from Dick’s. This passage demonstrates also how deeply they are connected. The novel questions whether people so wrapped up in each other can live together happily in the long run.

Thought: When we read this, we don’t know about Dick and Nicole’s history at all. We’ve had an inkling or two that Nicole might have some issues, but we have no idea what they are. When we do find out about her past? At this moment, she really does believe she’s spoiled goods, and that Dick’s must be motivated by something other than love – money, pity, duty, etc. She doesn’t get specific. Nicole is also clearly threatened by Rosemary’s appearance on their scene. Having to help Dick tamper with a crime scene to save Rosemary’s reputation, really hits her hard.

Thought: This is a line from one of Nicole’s letters to Dick. The "that night" she’s talking about must mean the first and only time she met Dick before initiating correspondence with him. It’s not clear what he said he’d teach her to play. What is love to Nicole though? She says she loves her father, but he raped her. She has a very serious view of love, whatever she thinks it is. Does she maintain this serious view throughout the novel or does her position change?

Thought: Ah, such pretty lines. More proof of just how deeply Dick loves Nicole. When he leaves without a fight, and doesn’t try to stop her relationship with Tommy, has his love for her lessened? Does he, by not trying to stop her from finding love with Tommy, demonstrate a deeper love?

Thought: Interesting that Nicole uses loved here, the past tense of the world. This could mean a variety of things. She could be saying that she used to, but no longer loves Dick. Or she could simply be stating that she really did love him before, without commenting on her present feelings for him. Do we have other evidence in the text that might help us sort out what she means?