Change in Roman Fever by Edith Wharton Essay

Roman Fever is a short story written by Edith Wharton. The story is very descriptive with the settings and characters. At the beginning, the reader is introduced to two old friends, known as Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade (Wharton, 873). The two widows are in Rome and deal with old wounds from their younger days. The story ends with a jaw-dropping ending, because Mrs. Ansley’s daughter, Barbara, is also Mr. Slade’s daughter (Wharton, 881). Although the ending is a shock, to the audience, Edith Wharton left context clues to foreshadow that Barbara was Mr. Slade’s daughter.

Edith Hamilton was born on August 12, 1867 in Dresden, Germany while her mother was visiting relatives. Hamilton started to study Latin at the age of seven, memorized passages from the Bible and could also recite poetry. Even as a young girl, she was a "natural storyteller." She was determined to get a good education. After receiving her B.A. and M.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1894 she studied the classics in Germany. From 1896 to 1922 she was the headmistress of the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. Among some of her works are The Greek Way (1930), The Roman Way (1932), Mythology (1942), and The Echo of Greece (1957). Her books are so revered that Mythology remains the foremost introductory textbook about its subject.

Can a true friendship honestly exist if the so called two friends secretly despise one another? In Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever,” (rpt. in Greg Johnson and Thomas R. Arp, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 12th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2015] 259-266) “… two American ladies of ripe but well-cared-for middle age.” (389) seem to consider their friendship as sincere. Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, however, somewhat loathe each other, as Wharton exhibits throughout the story. Not only do both Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade share particular ironic similarities, but they also have various differences in their personalities.

She also lets the readers know what the characters are thinking and their thoughts. The mood at the beginning of the story is light, but as more events from the past of Mrs. Ansleys and Mrs.Slades lives are revealed, the mood of the story darkens and changes. Wharton, does a nice job describing, the thoughts inside these women’s heads. We are able to see that the feelings they have for each other is not friendship. In fact, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley seem to barely like each other.

As with The Devil is an Ass, my piece takes place over the period of a single day, and reflects upon the complex plot and constant conflicts within the play. As with most short stories, there is no break in the plot of my piece, each element of it shows the continuous conflicts between the characters and highlights the theme of corruption throughout it. However, it not only shows the progression of events within the day, but also the chronological progression of Fitzdottrel’s feelings of love/lust for the woman that mirrors the emotions of the narrator of Merciless Beauty. It is through this that I have created moral to my story, which links my piece to the genre of a parable, as it shows how Fitzdottrel is given a moral dilemma and makes a bad decision which in turn leads to him facing the consequences of this at the end of my piece. It makes a clear point about life lessons and follows religious teachings of the sanctity of

Edith Wharton tells a tale about two old friends who finally reveal secrets which the other did not know. “Roman Fever” takes place in Rome while the two childhood friends come across each other while on vacation with their daughters. The daughters decide to hit the town, thus leaving the old friends to talk about life. The two ladies named Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley start talking about what their daughters are possibly doing. The plot gives us the ladies true thoughts on their companion. Mrs. Slade is envious of Mrs. Ansley’s charm and beauty, and Mrs. Ansley feels pity for Mrs. Slade. Throughout the story Mrs. Slade implies what girls can do while in Rome, for example, Mrs. Slade mentions that lovers would meet at the colosseum, and Mrs.

Circumstance shapes people’s initial personalities, while chance decides their destinies. For instance, the two threads running through this book may be the best representatives of chance. When Mr. Shelby decided to sold Harry and Tom, both of them have chance to escape. However, Eliza chose to seek freedom with her son, while Tom did not catch this opportunity and was sold to the South. Eliza and Tom are affable and loyal at first, but the sharp contrast between Eliza and her family’s immigration to the North and

Diana Prescott had a bad history of being with the wrong man. And here she was again. Desperate to make friends in Gull Harbor, she’d agreed to come to the Firemen’s Ball with Cole Campbell, who was crazy about Kate Kennedy. Sarah and Chili, her new book group buddies, had been so persuasive. “Pobrecita, Kate needs to realize how much she loves Cole, no?” Chili had pleaded. “They see each other at the dance and boom! They will know.”

“... the truth suddenly darted into her mind... she cried out, "Good heaven! My dear Isabella, what do you mean? Can you—can you really be in love with James?" (Austen, 2006b, p. 1019).

What would be expected from the personality of a woman who had an affair with her best friend’s fiance? Certainly not a dull mother who enjoys knitting, as is the case in the short story “Roman Fever.” Edith Wharton effectively makes use of direct and indirect presentation to create two round, yet static characters in her short story to escalate the powerful and surprising climax. Edith Wharton uses mostly direct presentation to describe Alida Slade and Grace Ansley in the beginning of her short story; “Roman Fever”; however also successfully incorporates indirect presentation to create even more realistic characters. In the first several paragraphs of the story the author tells readers “straight out, by exposition...

Throughout the book of Romans, Paul addresses a number of different issues that can be applied to one’s life. More specifically, Romans 1 through 8 talks about issues that involve the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and cultural issues. As a bible believing Christian, I believe that even though it was written in a different time period, it can and should still be applied in people’s daily lives. Paul’s letter to the Romans is a great reference that can help with a wide range of problems that people still go through today.

“Roman Fever” is a short story written by Edith Wharton in 1934. The story is about two old friends Alina Slade and Grace Ansley reconnecting. Alina and Grace run into each other while on a trip to Rome with their daughters. The two women grew up in Manhattan and were childhood friends. A romantic rivalry led Alina to get feelings of jealousy and hatred against Grace. In the first part of the story, the two women talk about their daughters and each other's lives. Eventually, Alina reveals a secret about a letter written to Grace on a visit to Rome long ago. The letter was addressed from Alina’s fiancé, Delphin, inviting Grace to meet at the Colosseum. Alina had written the letter, to get Grace out of the way of the engagement by disappointing her when Delphin didn’t show up. Grace is upset at this revelation, but reveals that she was not left alone at the Colosseum. She had responded to the letter, and Delphin went to meet her. Alina eventually states that Grace shouldn’t pity her because she won by marring Delphin while Grace had nothing but a letter Delphin didn't even write. Then, Grace reveals that she had Barbara, Grace’s daughter, with Delphin. “Roman Fever” uses a lot of dramatic irony and has many events that contribute to thematic conflict. Wharton uses the letter Alina writes to Grace to trigger all the deception between them, which shows readers that when people are being deceitful with one another nobody wins. Alina sends the letter to Grace to get her out of the picture, but it gives Grace the chance at Delphin that she wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, and Grace takes advantage by writing back to Delphin without Alina’s knowledge. Both characters are keeping secrets about their relationships with Delphin and they both think that they won when neither of them did.

Edith Wharton, author of Roman Fever, illustrates self realization within a person through someone else. The story follows two women, Grace Ansley and Alida Slade and their daughters, Barbara Ansley and Jenny Slade. As the story continues the author gives the reader insight of the women past to their future and how their personalities changed throughout a few obstacles in their lives; especially through Mrs. Alida Slade. On page 123, Mrs. Slade points out how “different things Rome stands for to each generation.” Her grandmother went through the ‘Roman Fever’ era, her mother went through the “sentimental dangers” while her daughter is missing out by not taking risks. Mrs. Slade sees an increase of dullness in herself that she does not want

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a well-written novel with many diverse themes. The first impressions of different characters played a large role in the story. For every character, there was a positive and a negative impression. These impressions changed the way characters treated each other. Elizabeth’s first impression on Darcy was based on his vanity and quiet nature. Darcy’s first impression on Elizabeth was based on her appearance and her vulgar family. Moreover, Elizabeth’s impression on Lady Catherine De Borough was based on her harsh and rude personality. Jane Austen, in the novel, expresses how the plot of the story was influenced by the first impressions of major characters towards each other.

Jane Austen’s Emma is a novel dominated by obvious themes like romantic love, gender roles, and family. These themes structure the novel wholly, but deeper down, there are less noticeable themes that are significant in themselves. In Emma, the overlooked theme of characters’ encounters with strangers plays a critical role because of its addition to the reader’s perspectives to multiple aspects of the novel. Encounters with strangers are important because, first, it demonstrates that strangeness, when unsettling the conditions of society’s communication, makes familiarity more attractive to an individual. Second, after evaluating the society’s treatment of strangers in the setting of the town of Highbury, it becomes clear that the theme and novel endorse a conservative, simple society. The instances of encounters with strangers in Emma are used to manipulate the reader in order to convince them that Highbury’s entire society needs new faces or new news to gossip about. Upon evaluating Emma’s two most prominent strangers, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, and their encounters amongst society highlight the importance of which positive qualities are more attractive when temporary, and which qualities are more attractive over time.