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Roman Fever
There are two main characters in this story, Mrs. Alida Slade and Mrs. Grace Ansley. However, since the story is told largely from Mrs. Slade's point of view, and since her revelation drives the...
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Roman Fever
In this short story, Mrs. Ansley is the only one of the women who knits. Knitting symbolizes her self-possession. Mrs. Ansley is a woman content with her life and able to produce good work....
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Roman Fever
In Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever," the two women have secrets they've kept from each other for years. The dramatic irony is that the reader has access to each woman's inner thoughts, so we know that...
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Roman Fever
Both Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have daughters of about the same age, though Mrs. Ansley's daughter is slightly older. Jenny, Mrs. Slade's daughter, is described as a "perfect" young woman, very...
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Roman Fever
During their second trip to Rome, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley sit on the terrace overlooking "the outspread glories of the Palatine and the Forum" and reveal to each other the treacheries of long...
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Roman Fever
Delphin Slade was the husband of the now-widowed Alida Slade. We know from the conversation between Alida Slade and Grace Ansley that he must have been a very attractive man, since both of the...
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Roman Fever
While the text doesn't tell us, I believe Grace Ansley never revealed to her husband that Barbara was Delphin's daughter. I believe this for two reasons: first, Grace and her husband seem to have...
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Roman Fever
Wharton's story contains several tone shifts. 1. At the beginning of "Roman Fever," Wharton is reminiscent. She might even imagine herself as Mrs. Slade or Mrs. Ansley. The two women enjoy their...
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Roman Fever
In ancient Rome, the Forum was the center for rituals and civic and political events. Also, because there were citizens of all levels present for these events, the forum was the heartbeat of Roman...
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Roman Fever
When Mrs. Slade was younger and her husband Delphin was still alive, every day was exciting; however, after her husband's death, she finds being Slade's widow a "dullish business." Mrs. Slade's...
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Roman Fever
The setting of this story, both the present narrative and the flashback, is Rome. In the present narrative, the two ladies are on the terrace of a restuarant and are overlooking the ruins of the...
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Roman Fever
The story is set in Rome, but there are many references to the ladies' homes in New York and the other various places where their high society life takes them. The reason the setting of Rome...
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Roman Fever
A most significant setting to Wharton's story, Rome is a city of passions much different from upper society's Victorian New York. Far removed from their own society, in Rome the Ansley and Spade...
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Roman Fever
"Roman fever" is a term for malaria. People used to believe you could catch it from being out in the cold. The "fever" aspect of the word has another meaning, referring to the reputation Italians...
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Roman Fever
The moral lesson of "Roman Fever" is that often one misjudges a person who is close. In the exposition of Wharton's story, Mrs. Slade, with dramatic irony, remarks, "Grace Ansley was always...
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Roman Fever
I think that one of the most critical themes of Wharton's work is how friendship can move into the realm of vengeful rivalry with such ease. The process in which the friendship between the two...
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Roman Fever
The power struggle that occurs in the story "Roman Fever" begins some time back when Mrs. Ansley was a young and single "Ms. Grace" and Mrs. Slade was a young and engaged "Ms. Alida". Alida was...
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Roman Fever
In Edith Wharton's short story "Roman Fever," Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have a couple of things in common. It takes a while for the reader to figure out what these things are, though. The story...
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Roman Fever
The main conflict in "Roman Fever" is between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley over Delphin Slade. When the two women were young they were both in love with the same man, even though he was engaged to...
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Roman Fever
In a story reflective of Old New York's stifled Victorian society, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade are thrown into intimacy simply by their social class because they differ markedly in personalities and...
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Roman Fever
The answer to this question can be found in the second section of this story, following the background we are given of these two women and their friendship. As they sit there watching the view...
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Roman Fever
This is an excellent question as it identifies how closely the setting is tied in with the action of this wonderful short story. Repeated references are made to the view in front of these two old...
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Roman Fever
Above all, Alida Slade seems to be a character who is characterised by the disparity between what she once was as Delphin Slade's wife and what she now is as Delphin Slade's widow. As the narrator...
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Roman Fever
This quote is important because of the insight it gives the reader into the life of Mrs. Slade and how she is struggling with the change in her social circumstances now that her husband has died....
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Roman Fever
The term "Roman Fever" is an old one for malaria. The title is a form of verbal irony because "Roman Fever" has a dual meaning: on the surface, it means malaria but it also symbolizes Alida's...
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Roman Fever
The first part of the story presents the women in very narrrow ways, usually from the point of view of each other or, alternatively, from the point of view of a narrator who observes a distance...
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Roman Fever
The double meaning of "Roman Fever" is that it refers literally to an feverish ailment to which one is susceptible in the cool air after sunset, and figuratively to a feverish battle for Delphin...
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Roman Fever
In "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton, two matrons sit on the terrace, much as they did many years ago in their youth when they may have thought themselves friends. When Mrs. Slade comments that she...
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Roman Fever
In one of her greater works of fiction, Edith Wharton portrays the class from which she herself came, the social elite of New York, to whom name and social status are all-important. Relationships...
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Roman Fever
Edith Wharton's short story "Roman Fever" concerns the reunion of two old friends, using this term broadly, in Rome. Both women are now widowed, and as a result the marriages of the two are viewed...
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Roman Fever
This quote comes from the short story "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton, and so I have moved this question to the appropriate group. Barbra utters this quote at the beginning of the story, and within...
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Roman Fever
Edith Wharton's short story Roman Fever is just as relevant to contemporary readers as it was when it was first published in 1934. A reader does not have to look far past the main themes depicted...
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Roman Fever
In Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever" it seems odd that such a woman as Grace Ansley would even care to travel to Rome. For, she presents the picture of the proper middle-aged widow, knitting and...
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Roman Fever
Certainly, the coliseum of Rome represents a well-developed society of ancient times, one against which the Gilded Age of America can be reflected as its notably named high society also placed its...
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Roman Fever
The relative presence or absence of literary “realism” in the setting of Edith Wharton’s short story “Roman Fever” is an intriguing issue. The Cambridge Companion to Literature in...
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Roman Fever
It is important to realise that both Alida Slade and Grace Ansley now have a very different social role than they did when they were young and single and travelling in Rome together before. Now...
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Roman Fever
In his essay, "'Roman Fever': A Mortal Malady," Lawrence Berkove writes, Wharton’s genius, it turns out, is moral as well as aesthetic; the story...is a powerful exemplum about the dangerous...
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Roman Fever
Two main themes of "Roman Fever" are developed through the dialogue and characterization of the two main personages, the two "intimate friends" about whom the plot revolves. RIVALRY Although Alida...
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Roman Fever
The themes of rivalry, love, passion and jealousy are important in this story. It does have a very tight plot- a lot is revealed in a short amount of time by very concise dialogue. If you'll...
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Roman Fever
You have a lot of questions here. Wharton typically wrote for the upper class in which she belonged. Her writing often revealed the ugliness of the upper class and their secrets. This is true for...
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Roman Fever
Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have known each other for a long time. When they were young girls both competing for the attention of Delphin Slade, Mrs. Slade had hoped that Mrs. Ansley would catch...
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Roman Fever
It is important to remember in this story that the exposure of feelings and actions that occurred long ago, even though they still have massive impact on the present, was something that was greeted...
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Roman Fever
In Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever," both Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have incomplete information of the events that took place years ago in Rome that one moonlit night. Mrs. Slade feels she has the...
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Roman Fever
The story is told from a third-person, omniscient point of view. This means that readers see and hear what the characters see and hear, and that readers are also privy to their thoughts.
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Roman Fever
The letter is at the heart of the deception that Mrs. Slade believed she perpetrated on Mrs. Ansley many years earlier when they were both in love with Delphin Slade. One of these women married...
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Roman Fever
The climax of "Roman Fever" comes as the two matrons sit watching the Roman sunset, recalling events of their first visit to Rome so long ago, and both friends reveal truths that shock the other....
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Roman Fever
Both stories deal with female competition for men. Aunt Harriet sent her sister out to the Forum hoping that she would catch a chill and die because they were in love with the same man. The sister...
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Roman Fever
At the start of Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever," the characters of Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley are civil with each other but not especially warm. The two women knew each other as young girls and as...
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Roman Fever
A story reflective and yet contrary to the Old New York's stifled society, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade, rather than being truly friends, have been thrown into intimacy by their social class. They...
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Roman Fever
Mrs. Slade is an envious woman, and she is particularly threatened by Mrs. Ansley. She saw Mrs. Ansley as a rival for her fiancee when they were young, and now she sees her as a rival for...
