Paper 2

This passage demonstrates liberation from internal conflict. Nicole’s struggle is not just with Dick, but with the entire structure of her life that had been dictated by male control.

While he did not answer she began to feel the old hypnotism of his intelligence... she achieved her victory and justified herself to herself without lie or subterfuge, cut the cord forever.

Suggests a toxic interdependency—Dick is no longer a healer but a participant in Nicole’s illness.

But somehow Dick and Nicole had become one and equal... he could not watch her disintegrations without participating in them.

Illusion vs. reality: This is the illusion of permanence in a clearly unstable situation.

I don't ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember. Somewhere inside me there'll always be the person I am to-night.

Perhaps the most chilling portrait of despair—Dick has internalized failure so deeply it becomes ontological.

Dick’s rage had retreated... he was hopeless

Good/Bad quote

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. - Hamlet

A villian Quote

“A villain kills my father… and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.” - Hamlet

Truth Quote

This above all: to thine own self be true. - Polonius Ophelia Father

Madness Quote

Madness in great ones must not go unwatched - Claudius King of Denmark; Stepfather

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

“I don't ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember.”

Both reflect the subjectivity of emotion and morality. feeling and perception rather than truth—use for identity or emotional response

2. “A villain kills my father… and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.”

“Dick’s rage had retreated... he was hopeless.”

These quotes reflect psychological unraveling, injustice, and moral ambivalence. Both men respond to emotional trauma with spirals of internalized rage. Use for suffering, character change, or the influence of others.

3. “This above all: to thine own self be true.”

“She achieved her victory and justified herself to herself without lie or subterfuge.”

This pair explores self-justification and identity. Nicole’s moral and emotional reckoning echoes Polonius's ideal—but in a modern, disillusioned way. Works for identity, inner conflict, or love/fate.

4. “Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”

“But somehow Dick and Nicole had become one and equal… he could not watch her disintegrations without participating.”

Both highlight the danger of internal collapse—of psychological co-dependency and how emotional instability infects others. Ideal for suffering, society, or character transformation.

Universal Thesis

In both Hamlet and Tender is the Night, Shakespeare and Fitzgerald use emotional fragmentation, moral ambiguity, and psychological deterioration to portray characters whose internal struggles ultimately mirror the collapse of their identities, suggesting that personal truth is shaped not by clarity, but by memory, perception, and the inevitable erosion of control.