Edith Wharton is an American novelist, short story writer, and designer of the end of nineteenth – beginning of the twentieth centuries. She is known as a three-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the first female owner of the Pulitzer Prize. Stories of Edith Wharton brilliantly show psychological and social insight of America’s privileged classes; they are written with humor and incisiveness. One of the late short stories written by Edith Wharton is Roman Fever (1934). The plot of the story concentrates around the meeting of two old friends, Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, their relationship and conversation. The main intrigue of Roman Fever is an affair between Grace Ansley and Delphin Slade that happened many years ago, in times when Alida was engaged to Delphin, but they were not married yet. Wharton makes her readers becoming sure that the affair really took place, and, moreover, Mrs. Ansley’s daughter Barbara is Mr. Slade’s daughter also. However, there are no other evidences of this except Mrs. Ansley’s words. The other possibility is one-sided love of Grace Ansley and lack of feelings to her from Delphin Slade’s side; Mrs. Slade pressures her friend being jealous Grace has such a beautiful daughter as Barbara and having the temptation to see Mrs. Ansley’s reaction about the letter after all these years. Under this pressure, Mrs. Ansley does not want to get defeated in the argument and lies saying that Barbara is Delphin’s daughter. Now, when Mr. Slade is dead, there are no facts confirming he and Mrs. Ansley had a relationship, and the ending of the story remains open.
For a start, it is necessary to give a brief overview of the historical background of Roman Fever. Roman Fever was written in 1934, and its scene takes place in 1920s, but behavior and values of the characters remind about the upper-class society in New York in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade reflect the main features of this society crafting an image of relatively easy and affluent life. In Roman Fever, this image comes alive, and not the last reason to it is Wharton’s belonging to high-class circle. In Wharton’s world, female members of high-class society usually were considered to be moral judges. That was an important role, but most families were sure that girls do not need to be educated, and the only necessary area of education concerned womanly purposes, to comply husband’s or future husband’s needs, for example. A woman role lied in support of the fireside, housekeeping, and making a good marriage. In the 1920s and 1930s, however, the role of American women and their accepted behavior changed significantly. In 1920, the American government ratified the 19th Amendment, and women finally got a right to vote. Lots of young women started to show their increased independence wearing shot hair and working outside the home; however, the idea of the homemaker as a perfect role for every woman continued to remain the ideal of American womanhood, and after getting married every young woman was expected to leave her job and dedicate herself to her family only. In other words, women had nothing to do besides caring about their husbands and families, and spin intrigues in their free time.
Now let’s move to the next step and take a look on the setting of the story. The scene is laid in Rome, a place of Grace Ansley and Alida Slade’s surreptitious rivalry, where they return after twenty-five years. Now, twenty-five years later, the same “Roman fever” that captured two friends in olden times, seems to captivate their daughters, who go out with aviators leaving their mothers sitting in the Roman restaurant and gazing at the moonlight. The interesting moment is a mounting pressure of the story; at the beginning the mood is light and easy, but, with movement, it gets darker and starts to be wrapped with bitter rivalry. At the beginning of the story, the atmosphere is reminiscent; Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley enjoy their Roman vacation remembering about nostalgic past times when they were young and had a lot of suitors. The truth reveals with time, and the atmosphere heats; two middle-aged women that seemed to be so calm at the beginning, are found to be self-righteous and condescending proclaiming themselves “friends” at the same time. Old New York society represented by these two women receives criticism. Old conflicts come out not only by the reason of time or proper situation but mostly due to the fact both women are widows, both of them lost their husbands, and without them they have not got any sense of life, any other purposes to achieve, and the only way for them is to be lost in their memories.
In order to understand the story and its conflict better, it is necessary to pay attention to the character of Mr. Delphin Slade. At the time when the story happens, Mr. Slade has already been dead; however, he is a developing character, and his nature reveals to the reader together with unraveling of the plot. First time Mr. Slade appears in the memories of his wife, Alida. He was a successful and handsome lawyer, and it was great to be his wife: “every day brought its exciting and unexpected obligation” (Wharton 3). Mrs. Slade remembers her entertaining life as “a wife of celebrity” and, on contrary, “a dullish business” being the widow. (Wharton 3-4). In other words, Mr. Slade was an exceptionally eligible bachelor and husband, and it can be said that in her heart Mrs. Slade feels pride for being the one and only woman Delphin Slade chose and married on. But on the contrary, Wharton hints at infidelity of Mr. Slade to his fiancée and his affair with young Grace. This suspicion, however, does not have any supporting evidences; Mrs. Slade knew that her friend had feelings toward her bridegroom, but she could not be sure about his attitude towards that. According to her memories, Mr. Slade was a fair man, a lawyer, and such an iniquity seems to be unusual to him. Adding to this image of Mr. Slade’s character the historical background of the story mentioned above and a noble birth of the women, the told reality of happened occurrences could be questioned.
The story Roman fever is penetrated with the themes of insult and false friendship. Despite visual tranquility, Mrs. Slade feels envy towards Mrs. Ansley. Mrs. Slade thinks that being young Mrs. Ansley was charming and exquisite, and now she has her daughter, Barbara, who even being not as beautiful as her mother was, is more effective, “according to new standards at any rate” (Wharton 3). Lurking hatred that Mrs. Slade has experienced for twenty-five years, finds its way out closer to the end of the story:
" I'd found out! and I hated you, hated you. I knew you were in love with Delphin! . . . So in a blind fury I wrote that letter I don't know why I'm telling you now."
"I suppose . . . it's because you've always gone on hating me."
"Perhaps” (Wharton 9).
Stating she wanted to become sure in her husband, Mrs. Slade underlines her suspicions, however, once again, baseless (Wharton 9). Mrs. Ansley admits that that letter Mrs. Slade wrote on behalf of her bridegroom, was one and only letter she ever got from him (Wharton 9). But at the same time she says that answered him, and he came at the Colosseum, place of their date. Once again, the only evidences of this fact are Mrs. Ansley’s words. Who can prove she is not lying?
The story ends with the shock announcement made by Mrs. Ansley:
“I had him for twenty-five years. And you had nothing but that one letter that he didn't write."
. . .
"I had Barbara" (Wharton 11).
In conclusion, it is worth saying that Roman fever is a many-sided story with an open end. At first sight, the plot seems to be rather simple and clear, but, in very deed, no one of Mrs. Slade’s suspicions has strong evidences. And, due to lack of lookers, will never have. For her, it is important to understand that it is not right to live on memories and turn attention to reality, for example, to her daughter, like Mrs. Ansley does.
Works Cited
Bowby, R. “I Had Barbara”: Women’s ties and Wharton’s “Roman Fever.” A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 17.3 (2005): 37-51. PDF version.
Wharton, E. Roman Fever. New York, NY: Liberty, 1934. PDF version.
