"Head and Shoulders" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

. It was his first story to be published in the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

'', with the help of Fitzgerald's agent,

Harold Ober Harold Ober (1881–1959) was an American literary agent. In 1907 — two years after graduating from Harvard with a degree in literature — Harold Ober became a literary agent at the Paul R. Reynolds Literary Agency. By 1908 he was representing ...

. The story appeared in the February 21, 1920 issue and was illustrated by Charles D. Mitchell. It later appeared in his short story collection ''

Flappers and Philosophers ''Flappers and Philosophers'' is the first collection of eight short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. All of the stories had been published earlier, independently, in either ''Saturday Evening Post'', or ''Scribner's Magazine''. ...

''. The work tells the story of a young prodigy at Princeton who falls for a spirited dancer in spite of himself. The same year it was adapted into a silent film ''

The Chorus Girl's Romance ''The Chorus Girl's Romance'' is a 1920 American silent comedy film directed by William C. Dowlan and starring Viola Dana, Gareth Hughes, and William Quinn. It is based on the 1920 short story " Head and Shoulders" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.Goble ...

'' starring

Viola Dana Viola Dana (born Virginia Flugrath; June 26, 1897 – July 3, 1987) was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent films. She appeared in over 100 films, but was unable to make the transition to sound films. Early lif ...

as Marcia Meadows and

Gareth Hughes Gareth Hughes (23 August 1894 – 1 October 1965) was a Welsh stage and silent screen actor. Usually cast as a callow, sensitive hero in Hollywood silent films, Hughes got his start on stage during childhood and continued to play youthful lead ...

as Horace Tarbox.

Plot summary

Horace Tarbox is a young and prospective intellectual, completely absorbed in his studies. Marcia shows up at his door one day (the "rap" alluded to in the story's ending) and takes to showing Horace another side of life. It quickly snowballs into an improbable pairing between a philosopher and an actress. Marcia talks Horace into watching her in the theater, and he finds emotions and appreciation for a beautiful woman. And she returns the affection, being drawn to their connection as "infant prodigies", as she calls them. The story concludes as a role reversal of the two characters, for the better or for the worse, as Horace becomes a successful entertainer using gymnastics and Marcia becomes a successful writer. The title comes from Marcia's idea that she represents the shoulders as a "chorus girl" known for shaking her shoulders during her dance routine in order to support the couple, and Horace as the head for all the ideas and thinking. Towards the end of the story, this dynamic reverses: Horace's athletic shoulders financially supporting Marcia's writing, as she becomes the supposed "head" or thinker in the family, as an acclaimed writer.

Themes

Fitzgerald weaves in several themes that he would later hone—and become famous for—in his short stories and novels. One of his recurring themes is the odd matching of love interests, of people not supposed to find love with each other, as in the novel ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious mil ...

''. But in the short story the mismatch is hopeful. Horace is from the intellectual elite, born and bred to think instead of live. Marcia represents the adventures of life, the passion of art and a steaming sexuality. The second major theme is the adjustment of a career goal for love, especially in the beginning stages of romance, which would be taken up again in the novel ''Tender is the Night''. Horace admits to having trouble thinking with the idea of Marcia in his head. That sense builds until he finds himself being consumed by passion. The third major theme is the mildly-bitter end. At the end of the short story, Horace says that he should not have answered the door. He has given up something for romance: Marcia has gained fame from it. This anticipates Fitzgerald's dispute with his wife, Zelda, who he thought kept him from writing more and better.: "She wanted me to work too much for her and not enough for my dream." "I always felt a story in the '' aturday EveningPost'' was tops", Zelda later recalled, "But Scott couldn't stand to write them."

References

Citations

Works cited

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External links

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''The Saturday Evening Post'' — "Head and Shoulders"
(

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

) {{Fitzgerald Short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald 1920 short stories 1920s short stories Works originally published in The Saturday Evening Post Short stories adapted into films