CONTROLLING THE NARRATOR The Influence Of Scriptwriting On F. Scott Fitzgerald's Narrative Technique

Abstract

<p>This thesis deals with F. Scott Fitzgerald's handling of point of view and narrative technique in his novels. The true area of focus is the influence of his script-writing experiences (both for theater and for cinema) on his novels, from the early This Side Of Paradise to his final, incomplete work, The Last Tycoon. The thesis hopes to show a progression in Fitzgerald's career as he first learned to control his narrative voice, then learned to manipulate it for strategic effect. His work on the play, The Vegetable, for example, seems to have had a great deal of influence upon the writing of The Great Gatsby, the first novel in which Fitzgerald shows the ability and willingness to control his narrator. Tender Is The Night turns out to be the problem novel in Fitzgerald's ouevre in that it contains both the faults of his first two novels as well as some of the promise of Gatsby and The Last Tycoon in the area of narrative control. Tycoon, moreover, would likely have surpassed Gatsby in its control and strategic manipulation of narrative voice had it been completed. The thesis uses the work of Peter J. Rabinowitz as its jumping off point but the approach is generally close readings of the texts rather than a specific theoretical bent. Because of its status as the "problem text", most time is spent on an analysis of the narrative technique of Tender. Tycoon, meanwhile, deserves some attention, however speculative that attention must be, as the possible culmination of Fitzgerald's career, his showcase for the progress he has made as a novelist. Brief analyses of several of Fitzgerald's film scripts, as well as The Vegetable, are also included.</p>