The Envious Role in “Roman Fever”

When a story is used to compare the social and moral standards found in human society, the writer typically adapts either a pessimistic or optimistic stance. Despite the pessimistic outlook, these two short stories, “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton, and “A New Leaf” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, both successfully accomplish revealing a fact of human moral standards. Of the two stories I believe that “Roman Fever” gives a superior perspective into significant human values however “A New Leaf” deserves to be ranked higher in respect to the thematic message.

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.

young man can look forward to a time when he ultimately can spend raising his family. It was not

The Gladiator epic directed by Riley Scott (2000) is based on real life events of the Roman Empire, their society, as well as the role of gladiators. Scott tried to portray the Roman culture as accurately as he could, and even went further to ensure his authenticity by hiring several historians to do so . It is supported by the findings of historians’ research. The film is historically accurate in most parts, including the role of gladiators; gladiatorial games and the aspects of Roman society such as the religions and beliefs. Some characters such as Commodus, Lucilla and Marcus were loosely based on the real life characters. However some parts of the film were exaggerated such as the battles in the arena, where gladiators fought to

The tale of forbidden love binds itself within many famous works of literature in order to provoke the human mind into situations similar to those of Adam and Eve of the Bible. The “forbidden fruit” plays an important role in the books of Ethan Frome and Jane Eyre in the form of unattainable but beloved women, where two men, Ethan Frome and Mr. Edward Rochester, share common distinguishable attributes. Their serene sensitive nature soon explodes into a passionate cause, later revealing a bare, desperate soul that longs for their beloved “forbidden fruit.”

Opposites don’t always attract. In Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever”, the two main characters seem to be almost complete opposites of each other. In fact, it can be argued that they are actually foils of each other. Foils in literature are described as “a foil is a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character with the objective to highlight the traits of the other character” (LiteraryDevices Editors). Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade seem to at first be foils of each other, but only on the last page and in the finale act of the story do we see that Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade may not be so different after all.

Tiberius, who served as emperor from 14 to 37 AD, began his rule after the death of his father-in-law, Augustus. Tiberius was a weak ruler, and he understood that ruling Rome was like “holding a wolf by the ears.” When conflict arose in Europe, Tiberius sent his nephew, Germanicus, to deal with it. Germanicus did his job, and this resulted in Tiberius fearing the newest war-hero. To avoid the issue, Germanicus was appointed governor of the remote eastern provinces by his uncle. After the sudden death of Germanicus, people believed that Tiberius had poisoned him. He denied this, but the accusations never died. When he was in need of advice, Tiberius sought the assistance of Sejanus, a cavalry officer and town cheat. Tiberius sought the

Essay #2: Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever “Mrs. Slade gave an unquiet laugh… ‘I had him for twenty-five years. And you had nothing but that one letter that he didn’t write.’

Rome became a powerful empire engulfing much of Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia and what seemed like this great entity called the Romans were always in the search of more territory and land to conquer and assimilate into their ever growing vast empire. However, this was not always the case, before Rome became one of the greatest empires in all of history, Rome was a republic. They were government consisted of a Senate who much like our country today represented certain classes of the citizens of the Republic. During the growth and rise of the Roman republic conquering neighboring territories and competing for land grabs was not Romans primary objectives. Romans

I am now going to discuss Cassius. I would say that Cassius was a very

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

Deceit runs rampant in the lives of these two women leaving behind a path of destruction, just as Roman fever did though Rome. Frightened she was going to lose her fiancé, Mrs. Slade took vengeance on Mrs. Ansley constructing a plan that would expose Mrs. Ansley to night of cold that sickens her, therefore, separating her from Delphin. In this plan, Mrs. Slade writes a letter to entice Mrs. Ansley to go to the Colosseum to meet Delphin thinking he would not know of the letter and never show up. Even after constructing this deceitful arrangement and causing Mrs. Ansley to get sick, Mrs. Slade still pretended to be her friend for the next twenty-five years. In the end, after all her plotting and deceit it appeared her happiness with Delphin only came from her social status due to his Fame, not from love. Consequently, Mrs. Slade became irrationally jealous as she allowed the hurt to simmer for decades causing her to envy the lifestyle of Mrs. Ansley. Mrs. Slade even devolves deep feelings of resent towards Mrs. Ansley’s daughter, Barbara, because she

“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.

The setting of the story was in a Roman restaurant, where down you can see the “glories of the Palatine and the Forum” (Wharton 1). Wharton’s placement of the setting enhances the readers understanding that in the short story the two women are living in a “patriarchal civilization” where women are being forced to compete for their social statuses (Rankine 1). The two protagonists envy and jealousy begin over one man. Mrs. Slade feared that Mrs. Ansley would steal Delphin from her because “I was afraid; afraid of you, of your quiet ways, your sweetness…your…well, I wanted you out of the way” (Wharton 9). She then developed an idea to eliminate the competition, which shows how jealous of Mrs. Ansley she was. Mrs. Slade uses a similar method that Mrs. Ansley’s great aunt, Harriet, used on her sister to get her out of the way, because “they were in love with the same man---“. Harriet confessed before she

The plot of Edith Wharton’s novella “Roman Fever” is straightforward with a consciously casual setting. Words in Wharton’s work are careful and calculated, each paragraph requires an in-depth scrutiny of content from their original context. In ways “Roman Fever” encourages readers to dig through the advanced syntax in search of the conveyed messages. Hence, the story focuses mainly on Mrs. Ansley's knitting and its significance in the novella. When the author addresses Mrs. Ansley's "twist of crimson silk"(69), the descriptive imagery is intentional in the sense that knitting symbolizes Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade’s relationship and foreshadows the dramatic revelations later in the story. The use of frame story to structure the narrative of their ill-matched friendship illustrates the author’s intent to invoke thought and ideas in the reader's naïve minds. Thus, although knitting is an unconscious habit of Mrs. Ansley, it is actually significant because it is an attempt to weave back the disrupted relationship between the two friends. Hence, knitting as a “crimson” alludes to the intensely passionate love and closure that blinds the two from truly understanding each other and gives a glimpse of the unstable nature within the upper middle class in society.