F. Scott Fitzgerald was a prominent American novelist and short story writer who is known for his work in the 1920s, which is often referred to as the "Jazz Age." Fitzgerald is perhaps most famous for his novel "The Great Gatsby," which is a classic of modern American literature and is often taught in high school and college literature courses.
One aspect of Fitzgerald's life that has garnered significant attention is his alcoholism. Fitzgerald struggled with alcohol addiction throughout his adult life, and it had a profound impact on his personal relationships, his career, and his overall health.
Fitzgerald began drinking heavily during his time at Princeton University, where he was known for his partying and heavy drinking. After he graduated, Fitzgerald's alcohol consumption continued to increase, and it often interfered with his work. He would frequently go on binges that lasted for days and would miss deadlines or turn in subpar work as a result.
Fitzgerald's alcoholism also had a negative impact on his personal relationships. His wife, Zelda, was also an alcoholic and their tumultuous marriage was often fueled by their alcohol abuse. Zelda's own struggles with mental illness were exacerbated by her alcohol consumption, and the couple's relationship was marked by infidelity, jealousy, and verbal and physical fights.
Fitzgerald's alcoholism also had serious consequences for his health. He suffered from numerous physical and mental health issues as a result of his alcohol abuse, including liver damage, depression, and anxiety. In the later years of his life, Fitzgerald's health declined significantly, and he died at the young age of 44.
Despite the negative effects of his alcoholism, Fitzgerald's work has had a lasting impact on literature and continues to be widely read and studied today. His portrayal of the excess and decadence of the Roaring Twenties, as well as the tragic consequences of the American Dream, has made "The Great Gatsby" a timeless classic.
In conclusion, F. Scott Fitzgerald's alcoholism was a major factor in his personal and professional life and had significant negative consequences for his health and relationships. While his work has had a lasting impact, Fitzgerald's struggle with alcohol addiction serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of substance abuse.
Hemingway, Fitzgerald: Did alcohol help or hinder the great writers?
A badly recovering alcoholic, Fitzgerald drank and smoked himself into a terminal spiral of cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease, angina, dyspnea, and syncopal spells. He titled them The Crack-Up. Ideals meant to stand for something greater had no place in the Prohibition era. I am not a great man, but sometimes, I think the impersonal and objective quality of my talent, and the sacrifices of it, in pieces, to preserve its essential value has some sort of epic grandeur. The Fitzgeralds were known for their intelligence, liveliness, and love of a good party. Predictably, his excessive drinking sapped his health and creative energy. Within this time, the robust economy was booming with stocks increasing rapidly, causing people to get rich quick.
Professor Ross Fitzgerald » Alcoholism
The temptation, and Fitzgerald is clearly not one readily to refuse temptation, must have been to present this as a … Ross Fitzgerald is today a prolific writer; a distinguished historian and a well-known public figure. Fitzgerald sweated over them. His father had been an alcoholic, as had other members of his family. There was two types of wealth though, there was the "old wealth", people who had been born into families of excessive wealth and the "nouveaux riches", people who had made their money through crime and bootlegging. At the age of 25 he was a broken man who, in a few short years, had gone from being an honours graduate from Sydney University to a man who, after many admissions to mental hospitals, living on what few wits remained to him, and having exhausted the patience of his many friends, had reached the nadir of his life with death closing fast upon him.
Alcoholism In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
When he was writing Tender Is the Night, F. It must have taken a lot of guts for a well-known political commentator and academic like Fitzgerald to write such a brutal account of his struggle with alcohol. The qualities associated with F. Do you see any congruence between that curve, the quirky research behind it, and the excesses of the therapeutic community movement? Throughout his life, Scott made a drunken fool out of himself at parties and public venues, spewing insults, throwing punches, and hurling ashtrays—behaviors followed by blackouts and memory loss. To reveal so much of himself in such candor show Professor Fitzgerald was deadly serious in his stated aim to help and encourage other alcoholics in their struggle with the demon drink. American Psychological Association, 2013.
