Why the great love at first sight of the writer Scott Fitzgerald and the "girl with character" ended so sadly

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

They attracted attention to themselves during their lifetime, and their love story is of unrelenting interest even 80 years after the dramatic end. Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayr had incredible vitality. The talented writer and his wife lived as they felt - in full force. But what could lead two bright people, in love with life and with each other, to such a sad ending?

Conquering love

They met at a dance in Montgomery in 1918, when Lieutenant Francis Scott Fitzgerald, along with other soldiers, was waiting to be sent to the front of the First World War at Fort Sheridan. He fell in love with Zelda Seir at first sight and vowed to win the heart of one of the city's first beauties. Graceful and cheerful Zelda enjoyed incredible success with men, but at the same time she was a girl with character.

The girl's parents, respected and wealthy people (her father served as a judge in the state of Alabama), rejected Fitzgerald's proposal in view of his inability to provide for the future of his daughter. Zelda chose not to argue with them, but at the same time continued to accept the lieutenant's advances.

They wrote letters to each other full of ardent passion. Yes, she was a flirt, and while her lover first served in the army, and then tried to somehow get a job in New York, she did not refuse the attention of other men. But her letters to Fitzgerald were gentle and kind, she encouraged, wrote that she meant nothing without him and about her desire to belong to him entirely.

He also intended to prove to the parents of his beloved that he was worthy of their daughter. Working as a literary employee in an advertising agency could not provide a decent standard of living. And the only chance - to achieve success in the literary field - Fitzgerald used to the fullest.

When publishers refused to print his first works, the writer plunged into depression and increasingly began to find solace in a glass of alcohol. Having lost his job, he returned to his parental home, where he nevertheless finished work on the manuscript "The Romantic Egoist", which had previously been rejected.

As a result, he made many changes and sent the manuscript to the publishing house under a new title - “On the other side of paradise …” It was an incredible success, so significant for the writer also because a week after the publication of the novel, his wedding with Zelda took place. He was only 23 years old, next to him was a woman, for the sake of whom he had accomplished the almost impossible.

Fascination with a fairy tale

They were on the same wavelength, Francis and Zelda. According to granddaughter Eleanor Lanahan, who reread all their correspondence, they wanted to become a symbol of new youth who know how to have fun, spend money with pleasure, but do not waste their lives, but are distinguished by their hard work and desire to create, can generate innovative ideas, but do not shine with sophisticated manners. Nothing could prevent them from swimming in the fountain of the Plaza Hotel or riding on its revolving doors, like on a carousel.

In October 1921, the daughter of Francis and Zelda Scotti was born. The upbringing of the baby was immediately entrusted to the nanny, because according to Zelda, children should not be inconvenient. And even more so to prevent parents from shining, living for their own pleasure and being constant heroes of the gossip. By the way, the household shouldn't have interfered with this either.

Francis and Zelda loved each other uncontrollably. At least their letters and some of their actions speak of this. Zelda's curl tied with a blue ribbon is still kept under the cover of the novel "The Beautiful and the Damned", which was published a few months after the birth of the couple's daughter. And there is a dedication in which the writer admits: without the help and support of his wife, he could not write a single book, and he loves his "sweet and charming baby" every day more and more.

Fitzgerald borrowed a lot in his books from their shared memories with his wife and also from his wife's diaries. Later, Zelda, who was tired of being just the writer's wife, decided to realize her creative ambitions. At first she was passionate about ballet. Serious physical exertion could be one of the reasons for the ensuing deterioration of Zelda's mental state. Despite the fact that an attempt to realize oneself at that time was completely atypical for women of the "jazz era".

In 1930, she had her first nervous breakdown, and since then, Fitzgerald and Sayre's tale began to lose its magic.

The flywheel of fate

When Zelda ended up at the Swiss clinic Prangins, Fitzgerald was in Paris, and the couple began to exchange letters again. How different they were from the first letters they wrote to each other at the beginning of their romance. Now the letters were filled with mutual recriminations and thoughts about what made their marriage unhappy.

Zelda was treated with rather cruel and ineffective methods, and Francis coped with bitterness in the usual way - with alcohol. In fact, both of them were not healthy. Zelda's schizophrenia and Francis' alcoholism left no chances for the continuation of the tale. At the same time, Zelda's mother accused her son-in-law of being unable to provide a dignified existence for her daughter, but Francis did not remain in debt: he expressed everything he thinks about Zelda's spoiledness, rooted in family education.

The spouses did not hesitate in expressions and in relation to each other. As it turned out, the writer had not liked his wife's hobby for ballet for a long time, and she, in turn, could no longer see her husband's endless drunkenness. Fitzgerald's daughter would later write that she never shared the opinion that it was her father's alcoholism that drove her mother to madness, and does not hold the opposite opinion about the mother's fault in driving the writer to drunkenness. But even she did not know the answer to the question of who was to blame.

In 1932, Zelda wrote a novel and sent it to the publisher without consulting her husband. Fitzgerald was furious: he thought his wife had no right to use their common autobiographical memories, on which he had already worked in his novel Tender is the Night, especially since she was reading drafts. However, there were reasons for the writer's anger: the similarity of the two works could cause ridicule from readers and, as a result, lead to financial losses.

We must pay tribute to the spouses - they were able to find a compromise, Fitzgerald helped Zelda rework and complete her novel, she also removed from her work passages that intersect with her husband's novel. They were still willing to forgive each other.

And yet the collapse was close. The writer was unable to cope with the incredible emotional stress of trying to raise his daughter and provide medical treatment for his wife. For the last three years, he has had a relationship with Sheela Graham, who surrounded him with warmth and created a homely atmosphere. And he continued to write Zelda touching letters to the clinic and called the best, gentle and beautiful. It seems that until the end of his days he continued to love her, extravagant, spoiled, unpredictable and so dear.

In December 1940, Fitzgerald was killed by a heart attack. Eight years later, Zelda died in a fire in a psychiatric clinic.

Often Zelda is spoken of as "Fitzgerald's beloved", "Fitzgerald's daughter's mother", "troubled wife", "hot-tempered muse." However, all these definitions leave her in the shadows, confirming the statement that behind every great man there is a great woman. But Zelda has never been a female supporting role. Shocking and courageous in her actions, she knew how to attract attention.