Literary Analysis Of 'Rome Fever, And Edith Wharton'sRoman Fever'

Analyzing literature is one of the most important steps to understanding the author’s purpose for writing a novel. When students analyze literature or write an analytical essay, they often mistake it as summarizing the plot of the book. However, analyzing literature is more in depth than just summarizing because many key aspects go into finding the hidden messages of a book. When students summarize the plot of a book, they are often missing many literary devices, such as metaphors, foreshadowing, and imagery.

This pessimistic message is that human kind is manipulative and does not change. It accomplishes this by having a trio of dysfunctional main characters. A female lead that is only willing to be with someone she knows she can’t fix, Phil who is a manipulative monster that uses the tragedy of Dick’s death to influence Julia’s emotions, and Dick a drunkard who is unfaithful to Julia after being apart for a few measly weeks. The reason I believe that this story deserves to be “ranked higher” than “Roman Fever” is that through amazing characterization it both allows the readers to become immersed in the story and understand the deep thematic meaning of the story. A second reason I believe that this story deserves to be ranked higher is that in addition to the stronger thematic message and characterization, this story also makes expert use of literary devices such as irony. For example, the catastrophic paradox in the fact that in order for Dick to be happy, he must be with Julia, in order to be with Julia, he can’t drink, and if he can’t drink he can’t live which ultimately destroys him. The use of this paradox is a perfect example of tragic situational irony. This also greatly contributes to the story by further developing the characters and the thematic

Roman Fever" is an outstanding example of Edith Wharton's theme to express the subtle nuances of formal upper class society that cause change underneath the pretense of stability. Wharton studied what actually made their common society tick, paying attention to unspoken signals, the histories of relationships, and seemingly coincidental parallels. All of these factors contribute to the strength and validity of the story of Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley.

When we want to look for New Historicism in a novel or in a movie it is important to first have a look at the author’s biography as well as the social background and it is lastly important to look at the ideas that was circulating the cultural era of that time as well.

In our contemporary civilization, literature plays an important and impacting role in our daily lives. Adapting to the different likes and tastes of modern day society, books and novels have different types and genres, all having in common the objective to please the reader and to convey morals and themes to the audience. In the 20th century were written 2 novels, The Chrysalids and Animal Farm, which will be compared and contrasted in the following essay, demonstrating the fact that they both target the general audience and not one particular group of readers. The comparison between both novels will be done via the contrast of specific literary elements such as the plot and the moods of the novels,

Ever since the invention of language, humans have been obsessed and intrigued with the aspect of storytelling. Each story, whether written or spoken, holds an important theme within its creative words and exciting plot. While each story is special and unique, over the course of history, different periods of literature have formed where authors tend to focus on similar themes and messages. One of which was the American Romantic era, where authors used their stories to challenge the boundaries of society, and delve deeper into what makes people inherently human, both the flaws and perfections. Some of America’s greatest works of literature were born in this period, like those of Poe, and Hawthorne. A very common literary theme during the romantic period was that of good versus evil, in both individual characters and society as a whole; this theme is especially evident in works such as The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven, and Young Goodman Brown.

Several Novels such as The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925), Orlando (Virginia Woolf, 1928) and Slaughterhouse-five (Kurt Vonnegut, 1969) can be compared in a synthesis paper based on their elements of analysis. These texts have a lot in common but also have some dissimilarity. A noticeable resemblance is found in the theme of death in both Slaughterhouse-five and The Great Gatsby. In addition to a similar development of the two characters: Jay Gatsby and Orlando. Virginia Woolf, an English writer, establishes a magical novel about time-travel and love, which the central character, Orlando, changes sex and lives through 300 years of human antiquity – From the Elizabethan era until the year 1928- and this is compressed into a hundred pages.

There are different forms and examples of exemplary and classic literature which have been deemed as significant works that are highly esteemed worldwide. These examples of literature would awe the world with how much literary skill they entailed when they were composed and written: attention to details as to formation of characters, the most crafty of plots, the most eloquent speeches and lines, the most astounding of twists of scenes, and most of all, the most universal and meaningful of themes. The theme of any literary work is what makes it great as it should be able to encompass the immense diversity of the world and as it would be able to transcend the boundaries of religion, age, race, gender, etc. Two examples of this great and

Throughout “Roman Fever” Grace is a woman of very few words. She seems to keep a majority of her thoughts to herself, unlike Alida. Mrs. Ansley is compared to her late husband as the couple being “Museum specimens of old New York.” (389) “Grace Ansley was always old-fashioned,” (388) Alida articulates at one point. Nonetheless, another example of irony is revealed considering Grace happens to be conservative, yet unveiling her past defeats moral code. Wharton displays Mrs. Ansley and her daughter having a stronger bond than Mrs. Slade and her daughter by presenting the fact Grace knew the girls’ plans for the night while Alida is left in the dark. Toward the conclusion of the story, Mrs. Ansley derives from her shell and makes her thoughts known to Mrs. Slade as to what actually happened the night she arrived at the Colosseum. After she reveals one of her most cherished memories, “Mrs. Ansley rose, and drew her fur about her. ‘It is cold here. We’d better go… I’m sorry for you,’ she said as she clasped the fur about her throat.” (397) Grace seems to be kind of sympathetic to Alida’s pathetic attempt to rid of

The short story, “Roman Fever” illustrates the shocking relationship between two women, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade, by a chance meeting in Rome. As the story opens the two women are sitting on the terrace of a Roman restaurant that has an astonishing view of the Colosseum and other Roman ruins. While the women sit in silence and enjoy the tranquil view from the terrace they notice their daughters down below running off to spend a romantic evening with two young men. This triggers Mrs. Slades memories of her and Mrs. Ansley’s quixotic adventures in Rome as young adults and their first encounter with “Roman fever”. Wharton uses the term Roman fever to illustrative the women’s past relationship that is embedded with destruction,

The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and

“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.

As the era of literature slowly declines, the expert critiques and praise for literature are lost. Previously, novels were bursting at the seams with metaphors, symbolism, and themes. In current times, “novels” are simply short stories that have been elaborated on with basic plot elements that attempt to make the story more interesting. Instead of having expert critical analysis written about them, they will, most likely, never see that, as recent novels have nothing to analyze. Even books are beginning to collect dust, hidden away and forgotten, attributing to the rise of companies such as Spark Notes. An author deserves to have his work praised, no matter how meager and the masses should have the right to embrace it or to reject it. As

“Roman Fever”, written by Edith Wharton, is a short story with an unpredictable ending. Two “middle aged” widows, Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, have come across each other unexpectedly in a Roman restaurant. The outcome of envy and jealousy on each other began with wanting to conquer one man, Delphin Slade. A conversation has begun once the daughters “leave the young things to their knitting”, later leaving the reader astonished (Wharton 1). In “Roman Fever”, the strained friendship results from the envy and jealousy of one another.

This paper will draw analysis of the film in the view of its genre, plot, themes and contexts from the movie itself and various scholarly articles. The film will be analysed drawing lessons and historical contexts of the Roman Empire and the 1st Century. Lastly, this paper will offer an