The Representation of Male and Female Power in Keats’ Poetry and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night. Madeleine Hilditch 11th Grade

The theme of gender and power is prevalent in both Keats’ poetry and Tender is the Night. The power wielded by men and women within both Keats’ poems and Fitzgerald’s novel is often conflicting; Keats writes of beautiful and destructive seductresses, whilst also pens poetry about pure, submissive young girls. He has male characters of astonishing naivety, but also of outgoing and opportunistic natures. Tender is the Night has a similar spread of powerful and weak characters of both sexes. While both Keats and Fitzgerald largely and blatantly represent female power as a force for bad, and male power as more suitable and appropriate, there is some confusion in their depictions of male and female power. A theme running through both texts is the destruction of potentially great men by women with power, exemplified by Dick’s downfall at the hands of Nicole and Lycius’ destruction by Lamia in Lamia. Additionally, both texts depict feminine power as unnatural, and unattainable unless the woman in question behaves in a way that imitates a man. However, in contrast to the condemnation of female power, Keats and Fitzgerald also convey the dangers of patriarchal figures and they control they have over other women in their lives. In this...