The Ballerina and the Psychopath:

A Psychological Analysis of Anais Nin’s “Winter of Artifice” and Zelda Fitzgerald’s “Save Me the Waltz” Demonstrates Narcissistic Psycopathy.

Michelle Ewens

June 20, 2011

A Princess in the tower will live in a state of exigency when she waits for her Knight but transforms to a narcissistic Ballerina when she battles him.

The knight in shining armor is chivalrous and charming when he is needed, but he turns into a psychopathic, narcissistic soldier when he competes.

The writings of Anais Nin and Zelda Fitzgerald portrayed the disenchantment that they

experienced in their relationships with men. During the early 20 th century, gender roles were

changing. Ideal gender roles were transforming or decaying. Women were being called into

active duty by the state while men were being sent overseas to fight in World War I. The

American economy became vulnerable as did the ideals which were held in place by tradition.

Women took jobs in order to support their families as well as their country. As a result, the

feminine role was transformed from the traditional one of wife and mother to that of bread

winner and head of household. Competition between men and women manifested itself into

romantic relationships where egoism became most demonstrative.

Zelda Fitzgerald was born in 1900. She witnessed Southern traditions crumble and was

an active participant in its destruction. Prior to 1920, women wore long skirts and corsets. They

were expected to be virtuous housewives or coquettish princesses. Zelda popularized the

flapper; Rebellious and Independent. The flapper was a dancer who cut her hair into a bob,

adopted a more masculine style of dress, was sexually free, spoke her mind, laughed out loud,

drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes. She mocked traditional values and had fun doing so.

The women and men that admired this icon did so because she brought excitement to the

world. She expressed what everyone was thinking but was too inhibited to say themselves. The

flapper brought about anarchy to the old culture of sexual repression and gender expectations.

Zelda’s diaries reveal these social changes and probe into the psychology of egoism. At that

time Sigmund Freud’s new theories on the nature of human beings was becoming popularized in

the media. Human weaknesses and hidden agendas were exposed for all to bear witness. Freud’s

psychological revelations into the hidden intentions of the modern western psyche made the

traditional beliefs of societal expectations of gender roles appear absurd and hypocritical. He

claimed that most people do not want freedom because freedom requires responsibility. In order

to understand Zelda Fitzgerald’s literature, it is necessary to have some background information

of her life. The context in which she wrote, the social climate in which she lived, and her

psychological state of mind must be discussed in order to analyze her writings accurately.

Zelda Fitzgerald was the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was rebellious, beautiful, and

considered to a very brilliant conversationalist. Her husband used her as a muse in his writings.

He popularized the flapper in his literature and characterized her as a charming but egotistical

free spirit. He used many of her ideas in his stories and sometimes copied direct words from her

diaries and letters to him. How this must have affected her must have been profound because

throughout her life she struggled to create her own identity and failed in her attempts at

achieving her own success as a writer. Scott told Zelda that he wanted her to stop writing fiction.

“I told you if I came in and found you writing, I would crumble it up” (Milford, 1970, p. 272).

She refused to stop writing so they came to a compromise which was dictated by Dr. Rennie her

psychiatrist, “If you write a play, it cannot be a play about psychiatry, and it cannot be a play laid

on the Riviera, and it cannot be a play laid in Switzerland, and whatever the idea is, it will have

to be submitted to me first” (Milford, 1970, p. 273). Since she was forbidden to write about

things which she knew about from first-hand experience, she was greatly handicapped as a

writer. While she saw this as unfair, there was little she could do about it since he was a very

powerful man and she took on the role of being the weaker sex who was dependent upon him.

Her sense of identity was created by her husband through his interpretation of her in his works.

While some may argue that Zelda was driven to madness by her husband, she was

diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 30 by Dr. Joseph Breurer who was Freud’s mentor.

Schizophrenics do not exhibit a sense of self in the typical sense, but they are demonstrative of

other people who they have relationships with. To this day, nobody really knows exactly what

schizophrenia is. In my opinion, they are vessels for energies and demonstrate the

spiritual/mythical world. They take on aspects of other people and portray imaginative displays

of their family and/or culture. It is not uncommon for schizophrenics to believe they are

possessed by demons. They commonly report that they talk to angels and other spirits. In

indigenous cultures, schizophrenics are revered as shamans who reflect the tribal group to the

spiritual world and vice versa. Zelda frequently stated that she felt like she had no identity. In

her journal she wrote, “I am losing my identity here without men” (Milford, p. 206. 1970) Scott

loved her deeply, but he was also an egoist like so many other modern American men. Their

relationship portrays a new sort of mythological union of opposing energies which come together

in a creative force, and demonstrates their competition with each other.

Zelda was an artist whose main medium was dance. She was a living work of art more so

than she was a talented writer or painter. In her letters and journals, her writing is superb.

However, her fictional work is not nearly as captivating or revealing. This may be due to the fact

that she was stifled. She was most lucid when she was able to be free and honest.

After suffering from a mental breakdown for the first time in 1930, she wrote “Save Me

the Waltz” in two months while in a mental institution. At the same time Scott was struggling

with his writers block. It was her first attempt at writing fiction. Prior to this she had been

practicing ballet for a few years. Her book is titled, “Save Me the Waltz”. It is challenging to

read because the setting frequently changes abruptly and there are many misspelled words. The

first draft no longer exists but we do know from her letters that there were many revisions of it.

During the two months that she was writing letters to Scott and writing the book, Scott was not

aware that she was writing “Save Me the Waltz”. Two years later he would write “Tender is the

Night” which closely parallels her work. They quarreled competitively over their writings.

He encouraged her to revise the book because he wanted to write the story of their

experiences in Paris. For her to publish the same story he wanted to write before him was a

severe blow to his ego. Zelda wanted it to read like a true-confessions story but in the end she

edited it. It probably would have been much more appealing if it had been written in the same

way she wrote her letters. It is perplexing to see how such depth and insight which is vividly

expressed in her letters and diaries is almost nonexistent in “Save Me the Waltz”. The writing is

poetically descriptive at best and awkwardly obtuse at worst. She wrote many profound letters

during the same time she was at the hospital writing the novel. Here is one of the letters which

she wrote to her doctor:

“I am forced to bear the hopeless months of the past and God knows what in the

future. Why do I have to go backwards when everybody goes on...If you do cure me

what’s going to happen to all the bitterness and unhappiness in my heart. It seems to me a

sort of castrations, but since I am powerless I suppose I will have to submit, though I am

neither young enough nor credulous enough to think that you can manufacture out of

nothing something to replace the song I had” (Milford, p.185. 1970).

“Save Me the Waltz” did not express such clear perception. Scott wrote to the publisher after he

proof read the work, “Zelda’s novel is now good, improved in every way. She has largely

eliminated the speak-easy-nights-and-our-trip-to-Paris atmosphere” (Milford, p. 170. 1970). On

the first page of the book it reads, “…his towers and chapels were builded of intellectual

conceptions” (Fitzgerald, 1932). This is just one example of the many misspelled words and

incongruent contexts that were never edited. To see it on the first page set off an immediate

negative impression. On page 42 there is the most absurd error, “David David Knight Knight

Knight for instance couldn’t possibly make her put out her light till she got good and ready”

(Fitzgerald, 1932). This oversight is almost comical in hind-sight for it is so contrary, like a

mythological joke which makes one turn inward to reflect.

The main character is named Alabama. She is a ballerina/flapper. The story is

autobiographical in many ways. She used one of Scott’s letters in which he repeatedly told her

that he wished he could keep her locked up in a tower like a princess. In the book he is portrayed

as Alabama’s husband. His name is David Knight which is symbolic of the ‘knight in shining

armor’ role. Alabama revolts against the conventional men and women through her marriage

with her husband. They make a mockery of themselves on a cruise ship. Alabama sits in the

dining room with her legs propped wide open on the table. They are joined by another married

couple in which both parties make it apparent that they openly defy proper etiquette and

traditional loveless marriages. David Knight asks Alabama if she would like for Lady Parsnips

to join them for a drink. She replies sarcastically, “All right-but they say she sleeps with her

husband” (Fitzgerald, 1932, p. 60). Later on in the conversation, Lady Sylvia Priestly-Parsnips

invites Alabama to her party in an equally satirical manner, “I am quite altruistic…I’ve got to

have somebody for the party, though I hear you two are quite mad about each other. Here’s my

husband” (Fitzgerald, 1932. p. 61). Lady Sylvia Priestly-Parsnip’s husband is not named. He

says sarcastically, “I’ve been wanting to meet you. Sylvia here- that’s my wife- tells me that you

are an old fashioned couple” (Fitzgerald, 1932. p. 61). It is interesting to see that the man is not

identified with a name and he is whimsically introduced. Zelda appears to be turning the tables

on gender roles in marriage. Alabama mockingly tells them that she and her husband are, “A

Typhoid Mary of time-worn ideals”. The women continue to banter about their messy houses

and parties. They laugh and shower affection on the husbands. The husbands engage in the

jovial conversation with good humor. It is apparent that they are friends as well as marriage

partners. The honesty of the characters is the most lucid and candid part of the book. They are

sarcastic the whole time but their contrary statements reveal that proper etiquette is often veiled

in deceit.

The writing reverts back into obscurity when later in the story the couple begins to drift

apart. David Knight becomes a successful painter and has an affair with another woman.

Alabama says that her dance is “perpetually broken by the wound of love”. She goes on to

become a successful ballerina despite her broken marriage. Her father also dies which shatters

her view of herself. She tries to find meaning in these losses, but fails to reconcile her

relationship with men. Instead she says that her life was like an old ashtray that just discards the

old waste to make way for something new. This imagery reveals a schizophrenic type of

personality in which the schizoid is more of a vessel than an individual.

Anais Nin also shows similar signs of schizophrenia. Many critics suspect that she was

bi-polar so that could be a reason why she slips into schizoid views of herself from time to time.

Anais Nin was born in 1903 and lived through the same social upheavals which transformed

gender roles in America. She was only 3 years younger than Zelda. Like Zelda Fitzgerald, she

was extraordinarily beautiful and a brilliant conversationalist. She had many friends who were

mostly artists and writers. Anais Nin wrote many diaries. She also kept what she called a “lie

box” because she told so many lies about herself that she could not always remember who she

lied to. Because she identified herself according to her friendships, that is suspiciously

characteristic of a schizoid type personality. In her diary she asks herself, “To what extent do

people have an individual life or represent another’s warmth?” (Nin, 1969, p.182). It is not

uncommon for women to merge with men; to adopt an identity from them but it is also a schizoid

tendency. Perhaps a lack of individuality causes this split, or perhaps we are in reality just a

reflection of what others think of us. It is my opinion that personalities are fluid and depending

on the vessel, they differ in how they are filled.

It could be argued that females have more of a tendency to absorb their identities and see

themselves in reflections. This question can be explored in Anais Nin’s “Stella” which is a short

story in the novella “Winter of Artifice”. Stella questions reality, “There was no more Stella, but

a fluid component participating at the birth of the world” (Nin, 1945, P.17). Like Alabama, Stella

is a ballerina. “There is a lightness which belongs to other races, the race of the ballet dancer”

(Nin, 1945, p. 15). Her lover is a married man who is an egoist, much like David Knight. He

resembles her father in that they both display narcissistic behavior. They are emotionless.

Instead of love they feel sexual desire, or they just feel power they feel they get from being

needed. This is expressed in the knight-in-shining-armor archetype. The negative aspect of the

Knight is that of a soldier. The Soldier/Knight kills and/or rescues. Women who have

relationships with these men are Princesses/Ballerinas. They are perpetually held away from

their own identity. They are not free and happy unless they are rescued by the knight. When the

princess does no longer need the knight, she becomes a potential rival and the soldier comes out

of the shadow. The ballerina is the dancer upon the stage. She is the shadow of the princess.

The ballerina is also an egoist. She craves the spotlight. She is a narcissist at times. She absorbs

the emotional content of the rhythmic interactions displayed by others, and she projects it on the

stage. She is a drama queen who is the star. She does not need to be rescued. If the soldier does

not adore her, she cannot find any sense in the dance. She goes back to the helpless princess role

and he either switches to save her, or they end the relationship. If the role is quitted, a psychic

death occurs in the ego. This Soldier/Knight-Ballerina/Princess archetypal relationship is

demonstrated in “Winter of Artifice”. Stella is an actress who loves to dance. She describes her

inability to have a proper identity because she is portrayed on the screen to be someone who she

is not. She is having an affair with a married man. She is mad at him over some trivial thing

which she cannot even make sense of. She ascends up to her bedroom where there is one

window up toward the ceiling and mopes. The bedroom contains mirrors which “throw aureoles

of false moonlight, the rows of perfume bottles creating false suspended gardens…They were all

made of the invisible material which had once been pawned off on a gullible king” (Nin, 1945, p.

15). Her lover is calling her on the phone. She ignores it. He calls again and she enjoys the

feeling but doesn’t understand why. She puts a musical sort of instrument on the phone and goes

up one more stair to her bedroom. The phone rings again and she begins to lose interest. She

was reveling in the moment when the knight loves the princess the most and she absorbed all that

love from him, but now that she had it, the sound of the phone ‘rang with a dead mechanical

persistence. “The music alone was capable of climbing those stairways of detachment…” (Nin,

1945, p. 15). She recognizes the illusion and in doing so the spell is broken.

Stella also breaks the illusion she has of her father when she sees how he treats his

mistress. “The greater her love, the greater had grown his irresponsibility and devaluation of this

love” (Nin, 1945, p. 25). She describes her father as a ballerina, “He was walking now with

famous grace that the stage had so much enhanced, a grace which made it appear that when he

bowed, or kissed a hand, or spoke a compliment, he was doing it with his whole soul” (Nin,

1945, p. 26). When she sees how he transformed from a psychopath to a ballerina, she sees

through the illusion of his former self thereby enabling her to reconcile her childhood trauma that

caused her to seek out a lover who resembled her father. She is integrating the roles by acting

them out seeing her father act out his transformation after his mistress leaves him. Through this

performance she finds reconciliation.

Anais Nin was a psychotherapist who was familiar with mythology. She often speaks of

mythological tales in her diaries and compares them to relationships. She demonstrated the

individuation process through her unveilings of the roles that people play. Zelda Fitzgerald and

Anais Nin emphasize the word “exigencies” in their works. Stella laughs when her father

complains about “his Don Juan fatigues, the exigencies of the role women impose on him” (Nin,

1945, p. 31). Alabama: “Damp and unconvincingly tenaciously gripped the exigencies of her

role” (Fitzgerald, 1932). Exigency is an urgent call for action which manifests as a call for help.

Princesses in towers need to be rescued in order to have a happy ending, but as times

change, women became more independent. Both authors expressed the changing of ideal gender

roles in Modern America. Zelda’s ballerina died while Anais Nin transcended the gender roles.

Both women were extraordinarily talented and offered much insight into the psychological realm

of male/female relationships.

THE BALLERINA 12

References

Fitzgerald, Zelda. (1932). Save Me the Waltz. Scribners. 1974. New York, NY.

Milford, Nancy. (1970). Zelda: A Biography. Scribners. New York, NY.

Nin, Anais. (1945). Winter of Artifice. Swallow Press. Ohio University Press.

Zelda Fitzgerald Anais Nin