The Tragedy of Zelda Fitzgerald It Not As Clear As it Seems
One of the great American classic novels, that most of us have read in High School, The Great Gatsby is a whirlwind of affairs and parties. The book was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but even that is arguable. When diving into the pure talent that was needed to write The Great Gatsby, it’s important to dissect who wrote it. The relationship between Scott and Zelda, his wife, was unstable, to say the least. The toxicity that spurred from the relationship was ultimately the downfall for Zelda. However, the question on my mind since reading The Great Gatsby is: Who wrote it? There have been myths behind the romance between the two, but the truth of it all lies in the margins of their relationship.
The couple first met in 1918 and only a few years later became engaged. In 1920, Scott’s novel, The Side of Paradise, became a best-seller, and shortly after he and Zelda were married. Scott’s drinking started to pick up around the time his second best-selling novel was published, The Beautiful and Damned, as well as when Zelda gave birth to their first child, Scottie. The drinking got increasingly worse for Scott after his novel The Great Gatsby got mixed reviews. At
this time Zelda had several nervous breakdowns, leading her to become hospitalized. A tragic story, but it’s not as clear as it seems.
Zelda Fitzgerald wanted to be a writer. During her stay at a mental hospital, she wrote a novel and sent it to Scott’s publisher. Ultimately, leading Scott to be angry at her for doing this. Since the book was semi-autobiographical, there were many comparisons to Scott’s novels. The parallels within the novels were extremely similar. Her book, Save Me The Waltz, was perceived extremely poorly, receiving bad views and poor sales. The fault and whether or not Scott had a part in this up for interpretation. Zelda’s writing is known to be very poetic and lyrical, her letters even are comparable to the visual aspects of Emily Dickinson’s. Zelda wrote several short stories and articles to sell, some of them even being published.
The Great Gatsby, however, has far too many similarities to Zelda’s writings. It’s said that many of the excerpts from The Great Gatsby can be found straight from Zelda’s journals. This means Scott must’ve looked through them and copied words from them. A lot of the journals have been destroyed, so it’s not quite clear how much of the work has been taken. In The Great Gatsby, one of the main characters Daisy says, “I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.'" You’ve probably heard this line before because it’s one of the most famous in American literature. More importantly, it came straight from Zelda Fitzgerald. She said a line about a “beautiful little fool” after the birth of her daughter, Scottie. The importance of this is clear, Scott took lines from his wife, Zelda, to create The Great Gatsby.
Perpetuating the stereotype of the “crazy woman” is extremely harmful, but that’s exactly what Scott did to Zelda. When Zelda accused Scott of plagiarizing his work, he made her out to be “crazy”. No one believed her at this point. The essence of Scott and Zelda’s shared
experiences seep through the pages of The Great Gatsby. This makes it hard to argue whether or not Scott did plagiarize from Zelda. The toxicity of this relationship drove Zelda into a mental hospital, which had a lot to do with Scott’s encouragement. She ended up dying in a fire at this hospital. The stereotype of the “difficult” and “crazy” woman continues to this day. If women do anything to speak out against men or the stereotypes that have been placed on them, society attacks them.
Zelda was diagnosed with schizophrenia, however, many modern day psychologists say bipolar disorder would better match her symptoms. Regardless, she was not this crazy person everyone made her out to be. It was Scott who was perpetuating this stereotype onto her, arguably because he could’ve been stealing her work. Whatever it is, it’s impossible to argue the contributions Zelda had to The Great Gatsby. Whether you believe it or not, maybe you’ll look at the book from a different perspective. Maybe you’ll even see Zelda differently. It’s time to stop ignoring the advantages men use to push down women. It’s been shown too many times just in the relationship between Zelda and Scott.
There is no clear answer to whether or not The Great Gatsby was completely plagiarized, but it’s clear that Zelda deserved better than Scott. The answers lie solely in the graves of Zelda and Scott. A novel we all know and love has a deeper, tragic story than any of us could ever imagine. The difficulties in relationships are not to be ignored. Loving someone with a mental illness can be difficult, just as loving an alcoholic can be difficult. There is much to be said about the strength they had carrying on the relationship for as long as they did. Through stealing, drinking, mental hospitals, and more Scott and Zelda made it out of the relationship, but not alive. Looking into the depths of this relationship only makes The Great Gatsby a lot more interesting of a story, especially when you start to notice the truth unfolding.
