Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Beautiful and Damned was the second novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that was published in 1922. Just like his first novel, The Beautiful and Damned was also inspired by his own life. The characters of this novel are also complex, selfish, and materialistic and they suffer difficulties in their social and personal relationships. The story again depicts the Jazz Age in a bad light. The novel was based on Fitzgerald’s own experiences in the early days of his marriage to Zelda Fitzgerald. The Beautiful and Damned follows protagonist Anthony Patch, who is set to inherit a sizable fortune. The story follows his service in World War I, his courtship with his future wife Gloria Gilbert, their post-war life in New York, and his addiction to alcohol later in life. Because both Anthony and Gloria are selfish, they experience many difficulties during their relationship.
Characters:
Anthony Patch is the protagonist of the novel. He represents the Lost Generation of the Jazz Age. He is the heir to his grandfather’s large fortune. Being unambitious, he is not motivated to do any work to earn a living on his own while he continues to squander his grandfather’s fortune. He is drafted into the army for World War I but he doesn’t offer any patriotic service. Having no vocation, he gets addicted to alcohol and squandering at parties. Richard Dick Caramel is a college friend of Anthony Patch. He is an aspiring author and he published a novel titled ‘The Deamon Lover.’ Gloria Gilbert is a cousin of Richard Caramel. She is a selfish beautiful girl who wins the heart of Anthony Patch. Gloria agrees to marry her while breaking the hearts of other suitors. She too engages in wastefulness, alcoholism, and too much partying with no purpose along with Anthony Patch. Maury Noble is another college friend of Anthony and Richard. Unlike Anthony, he is a careful student and becomes a successful businessman. Yet, his experiences in business make him cynical. Joseph Bloeckman is a Jewish young man who pursues Gloria but Gloria chooses Anthony over him. He is attentive, ambitious, and careful. He changes his name to Joseph Back to avoid discrimination and succeeds as a movie producer while Anthony continues to waste all that he had. Adam Patch is Anthony's grandfather. He is a Civil War veteran who made a fortune as a wolf on Wall Street. He is a hardworking, caring, and morally strong man and he wants the same from Anthony but gets disappointment. Edward Shuttleworth is the secretary of Adam Patch. He has some moral transgressions as he falls for alcohol and salon but manages himself when Adam pushes to reform Anthony. While Adam fails to bring any positive change in Anthony, Edward goes through a positive change. As a result, Adam leaves every bit of his fortune to Edward after his death. Dorothy Dot Raycroft is a 19-year-old girl whom Anthony meets while training for the war in the army and begins an extramarital affair with her. She is a lost soul looking for someone to share her life with. She falls in love with Anthony despite learning that he is married, causes problems between Gloria and Anthony, and spurs Anthony's decline.
Summary of The Beautiful and Damned
The story begins in 1913 before the First World War that began on 28th July 1914. Anthony Patch is a Harvard graduate who has accomplished nothing else other than his degree. After the death of his parents, he was raised by his grandfather Adam Patch, a Civil War veteran who made huge fortunes on Wall Street through his shrewd business sense. His grandfather is a morally strong man who wants his grandson to prove his place in high society through his work. Although Anthony has no interest in any vocation and he just enjoys partying and killing time with his friends. As his grandfather pressurizes him to look for a career, e falsely claims that he is working on a book. He spends most of his time thinking about writing a book (rather than actually writing anything). He is leading a luxurious lifestyle at the expense of his grandfather’s money and hopes to be the only heir and owner of his grandfather’s fortune after his death. In New York, he is living in an extravagant villa with a luxurious bathroom and most of his time is spent in the bathtub of his bathroom while he thinks of what to write.
Dick Caramel is Anthony’s roommate at Harvard. He takes Anthony to a party where he introduces him to one of his cousins named Gloria Gilbert. Gloria is a sensational beauty, a society girl who uses her beauty to persuade young rich men to pay for her meals and spending. Anthony gets fascinated by her. Although he comes to know that Gloria is already dating a movie producer named Joseph Bloeckman, he tries to develop a relationship with her. Gradually, he comes too close to her and realizes that they have much in common. Both of them are afraid of the fleeting nature of youth and life. Anthony decides to propose and marry her. He is absolutely obsessed with her. When he proposes to her and says that he wants to marry her, she immediately accepts while rebuffing Bloeckman.
Before their marriage, Anthony faces some second thoughts. He realizes that his limited fixed income that comes from his grandfather’s granted assets is already appearing thin to cover his own expenses and after marriage, he will have to take care of Gloria’s social exploits too. Furthermore, he is also worried about sharing his apartment with Gloria after their marriage. However, he pushes away all such doubts. He feels that everything will work out and anyhow, he is destined to enjoy the vast fortune of his grandfather who will soon die someday. Like the alcohol or expensive clothing Anthony is always buying, Gloria is a thing he wants and therefore takes. Soon they get married.
As soon as they marry, both of them come to realize their differences. Anthony is too afraid of dying and takes too many precautions while driving. Gloria can't stand this kind of behavior and thinks it makes Anthony seem cowardly. On the other hand, Anthony expects Gloria to take care of household chores as that would save some money of his but Gloria straightforwardly denies undertaking any domestic activities whatsoever.
Gloria realizes that she doesn’t like Anthony’s large city apartment that much while Anthony considers it his safe haven. Gloria forces Anthony to take a big villa in-country and despite his initial refusal, Anthony accedes to her demand and takes home on rent. However, Anthony likes to live in his city apartment and hence, refuses to give up his apartment for rent. As a result, his expenses further stretch to unmanageable limits. Both of them continue to live extravagant life that they cannot financially afford. Soon they discover that the only way to avoid arguing and worrying about their financial debacles is to through extravagant parties with their friends and drown themselves in alcohol. Socially, Anthony and Gloria become enormously popular because they continue to through parties. On the other hand, they realize that they are being allienated by their friends as their friends are trying to settle in life, working hard and earning and saving money.
Everything comes crashing down when Anthony’s grandfather, a strong proponent of prohibition shows up unannounced at the country house during one of the parties. Disgusted by Anthony’s indulgence in alcohol, Adam Patch disinherits his grandson and replaces him in his will with his secretary, Shuttleworth. This is revealed upon his death which occurs shortly after he changes the beneficiary of his estate.
When Anthony and Gloria come to know about this, instead of controlling their expenditures, they decide to cash in all their bonds while continuing to waste whatever little money they have. While both of them depend on each other, they find each other irritating. At the same time, Anthony gets a draft to join the Army for the First World War. Both Gloria and Anthony enjoy this enforced separation. Anthony begins an affair with a woman named Dorothy Raycroft but feels horribly guilty about it as soon as the affair starts. Anthony is a terrible soldier, but before he is deployed the war comes to an end. He is excited to return home to Gloria, who has missed him too, but soon their old pattern returns and they are unhappy all over again.
Gloria has always dreamed of becoming an actress. She thinks that if she becomes an actress, it will resolve their financial issues. She married Anthony while refusing Bloeckman’s proposal who is a movie producer. She contacts him and asks a favor from him to get a screen test. At the screen test, she learns that she is considered too old to be a leading lady. She is thirty but feels as if her life is over. She prepares herself for death. The only glimmer of hope for her is the lawsuit that she and Anthony have filed against Shuttleworth to get Anthony’s grandfather’s fortune back. She proposes to go to Europe and die there. Anthony suggests that they can stay in America while taking some loans from their friends and wait for the result of the lawsuit.
Anthony decides to meet his estranged best friend Maury Noble who has now settled in as a successful businessman. When he meets Maury Noble, he gets drunk and Maury doesn’t even let him have a chance to ask for a loan. Anthony gets too irritated. At the same time, he sees Bloeckman who is drinking in a very elite drinking club. They get into a fistfight and Anthony is thrown out. A passerby puts him into a taxi but the driver ejects him from the cab because he has no money to pay the fare. Anthony is overwhelmed by the changing situations. He used to be a prospective heir of one of the richest persons in the US and now he is almost penniless. Anthony stumbles home and reflects that he does not even feel drunk anymore, simply frenzied. Anthony descends quickly into life-altering alcoholism. He rarely leaves the house and does not even go to the courthouse with Gloria to hear the verdict of their lawsuit.
Dorothy visits New York to look for Anthony. She visits his apartment but does not receive the reception she had hoped; Anthony is too drunk to process the surprise visit and throws a chair at Dorothy before passing out. That was the day of the final verdict of the lawsuit against Shuttleworth. Gloria and Richard had gone to the court for the final hearing. Anthony wins the case and he gets full rights to his grandfather’s fortune. When Gloria and Dick return home to inform him about their victory, they find him on the floor studying his childhood stamp collection. Meanwhile, Shuttleworth commits suicide as a result of his defeat in court.
In the end, two onlookers talk about Anthony who lost his mind right after the news of Shuttleworth’s suicide. Now he talks to nobody but feels only the sense of victory that he managed to beat an unnamed adversary called "they", and came out on top in the end.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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