“The long roads to forgotten regretted nostalgias”: Traumatic Wounds in the Letters of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Abstract

When twenty-five-year-old Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald asked her husband Scott Fitzgerald to resume her ballet lessons, he saw no objection to it. Fitzgerald thought the lessons would keep Zelda busy while he focused on his novel Tender is the Night (1934). Little did he know then that strenuous dancing rehearsals would lead Zelda to her first mental breakdown. While confined at several mental institutions from 1930 to 1948, Zelda used the epistolary form in an attempt to move from victim to artist. It is through her letters to Scott Fitzgerald that we discover her inner struggles and her longing for a career of her own. This article analyzes a selection of Zelda Fitzgerald’s letters in order to determine whether the epistolary form allows Zelda to overcome or perpetuate her traumas while confined at several mental institutions.