Tender is the Night Innocence Quotes

Dick is suggesting here that Rosemary’s innocence, or naiveté, can hurt others. As the novel makes clear, she’s walking into the Divers world without thinking of anyone’s feelings but her own. Maybe if she knew what was going on, she might tread a little more lightly. Dick is cautioning her not to get fixated on himself or the people around her. Good advice, but, we must wonder, is Dick innocent to the irony here? Isn’t he doing exactly what he’s telling Rosemary what to do when he "works over" the people he meets? With what we know about Dick, it’s highly doubtful he’s blind to the parallel. He seems to know exactly what he is at that time in his life, even as he knows it’s not very nice.

This is when they are touring World War I battlefields and Dick is talking about physical damage to the land and people and the psychological impact of the war on those who lived to remember it. All in all, World War I represents a shattering of innocence in the novel. Why does he use the word love? Wars are often fought in the name of love – the love for a country, the love of humankind. It’s ironic that something done in the name of love can wreak such destruction and death. And what about Rosemary’s reaction? It’s almost as if she’s become more innocent as a result of being with Dick. But is it innocence to lose yourself in another person? This is an important question in the novel.

This passage is important for obvious reasons, including the fact that it describes the shattering of the innocence of both a father and a daughter in one horrible moment.

Dick’s innocence here seems rather ironic. The tone suggests that he is innocent to the fact that he’s chosen to deal with people who have, in one way or another, lost their innocence.

Though Nicole’s innocence has been shattered by her father, she still seems like a very innocent young woman when Dick meets her (and possibly throughout the novel). Yet here, Dick sees himself as the innocent one. He seems to see Nicole as a pathway to becoming less innocent.

This can be seen as a return to innocence for Nicole. She sounds like some kind of mythic goddess, basking in the moon. Think about this. Her home is called Villa Diana. Diana is "the goddess of the hunt." She is later transformed into the moon goddess and is also a symbol of chastity. We could also look at her as an adulteress and her liaison with Tommy as a deeper fall from innocence. What do you think? Can sexual freedom constitute a return to innocence for Nicole?

As far as we know, this is first time Dick has committed physical violence against another human being and it’s the first time that he’s been on the receiving end of it. We can see this as a serious loss of his innocence.

We know this is the last sentence of the chapter where Dick is beaten by the cops in Rome. Baby Warren has the last world in it, and with it she loses innocence in most readers’ eyes. She seemed sincere, genuine and even innocent in her desire to help Dick get out of jail. But now we see it was just the opportunity to further ownership over him. She relishes his downfall with a profound lack of innocence. But perhaps you see it differently. Can you make an argument for Baby Warren’s innocence in this moment?

Is that you, Tommy Barban? The guy whose only home is "war?" Perhaps this is Tommy’s moment of regained innocence – the simple innocence of a man and a woman together, loving one another. Go ahead - call him a home wrecker if you want. But we are content, for the moment, to bask in his happiness.