Beautiful Fools: The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald
Mental illness in one partner fractures both halves of a couple. Zelda Fitzgerald reverses roles by trying to institutionalize Scott; we see his declining health. In his fury, what is considered healing for one is punishment for another. Women are his electroshocks. Well and unwell prove hard to delineate. Scott is Zelda’s “only company,” yet she blames him for her isolation. These destructive artists cannot recognize each other’s pain as not their own to claim. Scott feels “lost destiny, which would and always would be her fault”; her illness is obstacle for him. Simultaneously, he wants to be her caretaker, not relinquish her to strangers, though he does. She feels illness as sin, hospital as penance. One flaw is these intricacies are explicitly told. Scott cautions Zelda against “speculating wildly.” Spargo pursues distinctions of “marital love and eros, obligation and desire,” but this theme never engages as deeply as scenes where small events—such as celebrating new shoes, or a hand’s touch—are imagined as capable of healing enormous issues. --Cynthia-Marie OBrien