Tender Is the Night

Dick meets with Franz Gregorovius, another psychologist, in Zurich, and they reflect about the war. They also discuss a pretty young woman, Nicole Warren, whom Dick met while on discharge from military service. Dick took an interest in her before realizing she was a patient at the clinic which he and Franz are now visiting. The clinic is a hospital for patients with mental health conditions and belongs to Dr. Dohmler.

Once at the psychiatric hospital, Dick waits while Franz attends to business matters. In Franz’s office, Dick reminisces about the letters he received from Nicole over the course of eight months. The letters are then included in the text. Nicole’s tone, though admiring of Dick, is also sometimes incoherent. Her writing reflects scattered, free-association patterns of thought. Some of Nicole’s other letters are more lucid, but then subsequent letters display regression and relapse. After a period of no letters, Nicole’s letters mark a steady progression toward recovery. Dick notices a developing note of near-clinginess toward him in her letters. Dick reflects on a period of sickness during which he did not write back to Nicole and a brief romance he had at his own practice in France, forgetting Nicole.

At this point, Franz returns to his office. Pulling files from a cabinet, he tells Dick that he wants to discuss Nicole’s case.

About a year and a half before, Dohmler received a call from a man named Devereux Warren, who brought along his 16-year-old daughter, Nicole. Mr. Warren complained of Nicole’s not being well, and this prognosis was obvious to the staff immediately. She was taken on a tour of the grounds while Warren and Dohmler talked in the latter’s office.

Warren told Dohmler that, after her mother died when Nicole was 11 years old, Nicole began manifesting symptoms of psychosis involving paranoia toward men, starting with their valet, whom Warren fired after his daughter complained of inappropriate behavior. She progressively got worse, always suspecting that men she interacted with were intending to harm her. Dohmler listened to all of this carefully, yet also with a mind daydreaming about his own career and life choices.

At last, after Mr. Warren had gone and Nicole had been at the hospital for a few days, the doctors diagnosed her tentatively as having schizophrenia. In the meantime, when Dohmler attempted to contact Warren, he did not answer. This effort to get in touch with Warren continued for several days until he was finally reached at a hotel in Vevey, the staff of which reported to Dohmler that Warren was preparing to leave for America. Dohmler, however, was able to reach Warren and demanded he return to the hospital to provide more information about his daughter.

When Warren visited the hospital this second time, he broke down crying in Dohmler’s office and confessed to something shocking about the nature of his relationship with Nicole. After the death of her mother, Nicole used to crawl into bed with her father, and for a while Mr. Warren thought nothing of it. People who saw them spending time together used to say they looked like lovers. Then, Mr. Warren told Dohmler, one day they suddenly had intercourse and after that, Nicole became closed off and insisted on never speaking about it again.

Dohmler, upon hearing this, scowled at Warren and then arranged a follow-up meeting with him, after which he suggested Warren leave the country.

The scene returns to Dick sitting in Franz’s office, discussing Nicole’s case. Franz explains to Dick that they made an arrangement with Mr. Warren, Nicole’s father, to keep Nicole on at the hospital for at least five years. In that time, she joined an all-girls’ boarding school which, Franz explains, galvanized her into removing from her mind any thought of complicity, so as to safeguard her social standing with the other girls. This removal of the idea of complicity, Franz suggests, is what led to Nicole developing a paranoia toward men.

Franz thanks Dick for writing to Nicole, since her letters became a useful gauge of her improvement over time. Franz gives Dick instructions for seeing Nicole. Then Franz asks him about his own future. Dick tells Franz he wants to be the best psychologist that ever was and that he plans to take a job at another clinic, but Franz advises him not to work at that clinic.

That night, Dick has dinner with Franz and his wife. The veteran doctor’s generosity to Dick is welcoming but also stifling to the young, ambitious psychologist who wants to make a name for himself, and he wonders later at night while unable to sleep: “Am I like the rest?” (133).

Dick meets with Nicole at the hospital and the two of them talk. A third person accompanying them creates a brief distraction, and the pair decide to walk around the grounds. As they walk, Nicole puts her hand on Dick’s arm.

As Dick becomes less sure about the nature of their relationship, Nicole seems to increase in confidence. Dick sees her as youthful and happy. She confides in Dick that she has a stash of records which she will play for him next time he sees her.

A week later, Dick visits Nicole at the hospital again at night. The two sneak away together, and Nicole plays the music records. She even sings a little to Dick. Dick feels himself gradually falling for Nicole’s charms.

Dick finds himself slowly becoming possessive of Nicole. He convinces himself at first that he is only interested in her well-being as she forms new relationships and grows on her own. However, once she begins focusing her attentions on him, it becomes harder for Dick to see the relationship as purely platonic.

Near to finishing his research paper and coming to the end of his scheduled stay in Switzerland, Dick meets with Franz to discuss Nicole. After Franz tells Dick that Nicole is in love with him, the two psychologists go to see Dohmler.

At the meeting, Dohmler, aware that their patient has fallen in love with Dick, suggests that the two be separated. When asked for his own stance on the issue, Dick suddenly breaks and confesses to the two men that he is in love with Nicole and has contemplated marrying her. Franz immediately advises Dick against marrying her and tells him he should leave now. Dohmler agrees.

As Dick leaves, he meets Nicole unexpectedly in the main office. She tells him her sister, Beth, is coming in a few weeks to take her somewhere, but then she will be back for one more month before being released.

The two sit and talk in a woodshed. In order to pull himself away from her, Dick suggests to Nicole that, upon her release, she could go to America and fall in love and start a family. Out of a sense of hurt, he even brings up her mental illness, praising her for her recovery but nonetheless summoning to her memory painful truths about her past. Nicole, wounded, nearly fires back a doubled-down affirmation of her independence, but she cannot bring herself to trample over the raw, sincere emotion she has for Dick, even in the face of his letting her down. The two walk back to the clinic in the rain.

Later that night, Dick calls on Nicole to have supper with her, planning to make a clean break from the situation, but she does not come.

The next day, Dick calls Franz to let him know he never had a chance to officially end things with Nicole. Franz answers that she seems to have gotten the idea anyway and appears fine. All things considered, the breakup has gone smoothly, Franz assures Dick.

Dick sinks into a depression about the way things ended with Nicole. He sees Nicole once about the town with another woman (Beth, her sister), but they only see each other for a moment in passing. To alleviate his pain, Dick calls on another girl, secures his ticket back to America in August, and prepares his book for publication.

Aboard a funicular, Dick runs into Nicole and another man, whom she introduces as the Count of Marmora. The pair are flirtatious with each other, and Dick wishes he could get away. When the car stops, Nicole inquires if Dick is staying at the same hotel as them. Nicole’s sister joins them, and Nicole asks Dick if he will accompany them for dinner. Dick says he will, and then leaves and goes to his hotel room.