Review of Roman Fever

Roman Fever tells the story of two old women, who completely misunderstand and misjudge each other. The story is very long and boring, leading to a ending that is meant to shock readers. Mrs. Ansley reveals that she had an affair with Mrs. Slade’s husband. Overall, I did not enjoy the story. The story includes two women who never accomplished much at all. Instead, the women spend their time judging each other. This reinforces the idea that women are meant to compete with one another, rather than having bonds and loving one another. The women’s success in the story depended on the women’s relationships with a man. The lack of strong or successful female characters in the story bored me and reinforced ancient stereotypes. Some may enjoy Edith Wharton's thoughtful and old-fashioned story but I did not.

Roman Fever Organization and Setup

Edith Wharton's short story, Roman Fever, is exceptional for its organization and the overall setup of the story. The story is very different from the rest of the collection that the class is reading due to the real slowness and ambiguity of the beginning. The introduction and the first part of the story doesn't really draw the reader in as most of the other stories do. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley are two women who are recently widowed and are vacationing together in Rome. The two seem to be friends and are out on a veranda-type area enjoying each others company. As I read, I didn't find the story that compelling. Then, in the middle of the story, the two characters begin to think about their relationship and, the story becomes very interesting, and shocking, from that point on. Even though Wharton starts slowly, I think that her method of engaging the reader is great. The change of pace really propels the story and creates a change in perspective that begins to introduce new thoughts and new interpretations. This all culminates with the twist at the end where Delphin, Mrs. Slade's husband, is actually Barbara's, Mrs. Ansley's daughter, father. The change of pace and the twist at the end of the story both helped to created a terrific story.

Love of “Roman Fever"

The best part about this story was that, despite its seemingly boring setting, the plot itself was very interesting. In Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever,” she writes about two middle-aged women who are visiting Rome with their daughters. One of the women’s name is Grace Ansley, mother of Barbara. And the other woman is Alida Slade, mother of Jenny. And in the story, there is a bit of a rivalry going on between the women over their daughters as well as over the affections of Delplhin Slade.

At the end of the story, when Ms. Slade reveals that the letter Ms. Ansley received from the Delphin was actually from her, I was shocked. And when Ms. Slade brags that she was able to be with the Delphin for 25 years, Mrs. Ansley responds, “ I had Barbara.” When I first read this line, I was so surprised. What a bombshell at the end! 

I think this story definitely shows that love is a double-edged sword. In almost any Disney princess movie, true love always solves everything. But in “Roman Fever,” love is instead used as an instrument for destruction. Alida loves the Delphin and is afraid of losing him. So, she writes a letter pretending to be Delphin telling Grace to meet him at the Colesseum. It was Alida’s hope that Grace would show up and be dissapointed. Because of her love for Delphin, Alida was willing to wreck her friendship.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and its characters. I believe that Edith Wharton did a wonderful job of brining these characters to life.

When in Rome...

Words can hardly describe my love for "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton. This story, this little slice of fictitious cake, consists of nothing but the purest drama a lover of literature can find. Reading this story is like listening in on the greatest wine mom gossip you've ever listened in on. Reading this story is like drinking the concentrated juice of the juiciest scoop that the guy who's got the dirt on everyone ever dished out. "Roman Fever" is like manifesting the very concept of "guilty pleasures" into a short snippet of great literature. It's the ultimate 411 to end all other 411's. It's enough to make any half-decent scuttlebutt tear up with pure, unadulterated joy. Simply put, "Roman Fever" is the hottest goss to ever grace the canon of short American literature.

From the very start, you can tell that this dirt is gonna be good. The story begins with two women, Slade and Ansley, who see one another "through the wrong end of her little telescope," as the author says. It's clear that each entirely misinterprets the other. By the end of the story, we find out that: a) Slade's husband cheated on her with Ansley, b) Slade wrote the letter that set up Ansley's date with her husband, with the intention of Ansley getting sick from the cold, and c) that by doing so, Slade inadvertently arranged the conception of Barbara, Ansley's daughter that she's so envious of.

Like I said - some super high quality dirt.

When I read the story for a second time, I was amazed by the hints Wharton left for the reader. In the beginning of part II, Slade says, "I always wanted a brilliant daughter... and never quite understood why I got an angel instead," to which Ansley responds, "Babs is an angel too." This is our first hint that Barbara and Jenny (Slade's daughter) shared the same father.

The second big hint to Barbara's parentage is when Slade recounts that "...you were married to Horace Ansley two months afterward [after the affair with Slade's husband] ...As soon as you could get out of bed your mother rushed you off to Florence and married you." This is implying that Ansley's mother was in a hurry for her to get married because she was already pregnant with Barbara.

The beauty of this story is that in the beginning, it seems that Slade has all the information. She has the upper hand when she reveals to Ansley that she wrote the letter Ansley believed to be from Delphin. However, Ansley soon reveals that she in fact is the one with more information. The power dynamic slowly but very decidedly shifts from one woman to another. Because of the hints Wharton worked into her dialogue, the reader guesses what Ansley is withholding from Slade (namely, that Barbara is Delphin's daughter) before Slade ever finds out. This creates an interesting situation where Slade thinks that she is in power when both Ansley and the reader know that the opposite is true.

"Roman Fever" is ripe with irony of all sorts. Wharton creates dramatic irony when she allows the reader to guess at the secret of Barbara's parentage, although the most ironic element is the fact that Slade accidentally enabled the affair that she wanted to end and caused the conception of the girl she's so envious of.

Ansley obviously follows that age old saying: When in Rome, do it in the Colosseum. 

Mutual Recognition in Roman Fever

      First of all, this story gave me such a shock! Edith Wharton was actually able to make a conversation between two (seemingly) boring middle-aged women exciting. And, aside from being engaged by the plot twists at the end of the story, I also found myself ensnared in Roman Fever due to Wharton's use of the theme of mutual recognition throughout the story.

     The two main characters in Roman Fever, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade, have huge issues with mutual recognition. A big part of the story hinges on the fact that neither of these women view each other as much of anything aside from a stereotype. The both recognize this on page 44, when the narrator of the story says "for a few moments, the two ladies, who had been intimate since childhood, reflected how little they knew each other". The two women don't know each other past the surface of their personalities, and therefore neither of the two fully recognizes the other as an intelligent, thoughtful human being (although Mrs. Slade is much more guilty of failure to mutually recognize than Mrs. Ansley). Mrs. Slade's lack of mutual recognition for Mrs. Ansely is demonstrated when Mrs. Ansley reveals that she wrote a letter back to Mrs. Slade's fiancé. Mrs. Slade was shocked, because she never thought that Mrs. Ansley would reply to her fake letter. This shows that Mrs. Slade never really thought of Mrs. Ansley as an equal, because she was completely caught off guard when Mrs. Ansely did something many other people would do in that situation. Mrs. Ansley also fails to completely mutually recognize Mrs. Slade. Mrs. Ansley always thought of Mrs. Slade's life as sad, and felt sorry for her because she had many failures and mistakes in her life. Mrs. Ansley views Mrs. Slade through a narrow window, and doesn't give her life any credit; Mrs. Slade had plenty of joy in her life, and viewing her life as a failure is very shallow of Mrs. Ansley.

     I found the lack of mutual recognition in this story to be very realistic and engrossing. Roman Fever made me realize that even people who have been friends for years might not actually be true friends; it is very easy to be friends with someone and not truly recognize them as an individual. Just something to think about.

  

Roman Fever Reactions

I thought that Roman Fever was an incredible story. While I was reading it, I was wondering what the main part of the story was going to be. It didn't really have any conflict until the way end besides Mrs. Slade being kind of snippy and thinking mean things. When Mrs. Slade finally confronted Mrs. Ansley, I didn't really think there was anything special about it until the last line. When Mrs. Slade tells Mrs. Ansley that she doesn't begrudge her for that one night with her husband because she had him for 25 years and Mrs. Ansley only had one night, Mrs. Ansley pauses and then says, "I had Barbara." I laughed out loud when I read this. It was such a perfect ending: not only did it reveal that Barbara is Mrs. Ansley's and Delphin's child, but it left us hanging. We are left only to imagine how Mrs. Slade reacted and what happened next between the two women.

I was glad when I read this because Mrs. Slade was being really annoying throughout the whole story. She was so bitter about something that she had caused even when she thought she had triumphed and had left Mrs. Slade waiting in the colosseum the whole night, but in reality Delphin had met with Mrs. Ansley and then they had a kid together. Also she sent her friend there knowing that Roman Fever was killing a lot of people and that she might catch it and die--what a horrible person. I didn't like Mrs. Slade and am glad that the story ended the way it did.

Awfully brilliant... but not as brilliant as she thinks.

In "Roman Fever," by Edith Wharton, Mrs. Ansley's description of Mrs. Slade is "Alida Slade's awfully brilliant, but not as brilliant as she thinks." Mrs. Slade's assumptions about herself and Mrs. Ansley slowly unravel over the course of the story until they're absolutely shattered. Mrs. Slade is "vivid," and she knows it. Mrs. Ansley is respectable, distinguished... boring. How terribly sad for her. No, wait. Charming and distinguished Mrs. Ansley had slept with Mrs. Slade's fiance, gotten pregnant, and then hurriedly married Horace Ansley two months later.

Mrs. Slade is clearly wrong about Mrs. Ansley-- is she wrong about herself as well? Mrs. Ansley certainly agrees with Mrs. Slade's description of herself as edgy/vivid/full of life. But, for the few moments we see her perspective, she says that "on the whole [Mrs. Slade] had had a sad life. Full of failures and mistakes; Mrs. Ansley had always been rather sorry for her..."

Failures and mistakes? Well, as far as I can tell:

• Mrs. Slade's husband was perfectly willing to cheat on her as her fiance, and easily could have been having affairs throughout their supposedly admirable marriage
• Regardless of her husband's theoretical affairs, she still enjoyed the entertaining and traveling the world that came with his job, and after he died she was left with nothing to do
• Her son had died as a child
• She doesn't understand or relate to her daughter

Also,

• Her friend, who she evidently barely knew at all despite going back for years, slept with her fiance and had his child. One would hope she has better friends than that, but it's possible that nearly all her relationships are that superficial. 

Mrs. Slade's thoughts on the surface seem to indicate a mostly happy life marred with a few tragedies, but a closer examination shows that there's a lot more wrong hiding under the surface than she's willing to admit.