Roman Fever

Plot summary

Roman Fever is a 1934 short story by American writer Edith Wharton, first published in the magazine Liberty and later included in Wharton’s final short-story collection, The World Over. Focusing on a pair of middle-aged American women on a trip to Rome with their daughters, it explores a long-time rivalry between the women and the way their conflict has shaped their lives and the lives of their daughters. Over the course of the trip, long-held secrets are revealed that call into question all the beliefs they’ve held about their conflict and their lives. The story explores themes including female relationships and the tensions lurking underneath, societal norms and expectations, marriage, conflicts between generations, hypocrisy, and the evolution of relationships and society. Like in many of Wharton’s stories, the location, in this case Rome, plays a prominent role and is seen by many as a character in its own right. The story begins with two American women, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade, enjoying the view in Rome. Their respective daughters, Barbara and Jenny, are having fun and preparing to go socialize among the Romans. However, the older women are content to simply enjoy their beautiful surroundings. Mrs. Slade sees her friend as old-fashioned, and reminisces about their time together in Rome when they themselves were teenagers. The two reminisce and wonder if their daughters will choose to stay in Rome, as both are being courted by handsome Italian aviators. Mrs. Slade thinks to herself that she and Mrs. Ansley don’t know each other very well. They knew each other since they were young, and lived near each other during their married life. They became widows roughly the same time, left to raise their daughters. Mrs. Slade, whose husband Delphin Slade was a prominent lawyer, regrets that her husband’s death has robbed her of the social prominence she used to have. Mrs. Ansley pities her friend, and the two women muse about what Rome means to them and means to their daughters. They see a lot of themselves when they were young in their daughters now. The two talk about their daughters, and Mrs. Slade says that she sees her daughter Jenny as merely an enabler for the more dynamic Barbara. She states that she’s amazed that Mrs. Ansley and her late husband Horace were able to produce a daughter as extraordinary as Barbara. Mrs. Ansley tries to play it off, but Mrs. Slade continues to talk glowingly about the Ansley girl. They discuss romantic rivalries in their family, and the so-called “roman fever” that makes people fall in love in Rome. They continue to reminisce, and their conversation turns to a knight when they were young that Mrs. Ansley snuck out of the house and caught a chill. Mrs. Ansley denies remembering, but is clearly hiding something. Mrs. Slade bursts out that she knows that Mrs. Ansley once snuck out to meet with Delphin Slade while he was already engaged. Mrs. Ansley tries to calm her friend down, but Mrs. Slade recites the words of a letter that Delphin sent to Mrs. Ansley one night, asking her to meet him at the Colosseum. Mrs. Ansley says this is impossible, because she burned the letter and Mrs. Slade shouldn’t know it. Mrs. Slade reveals that she was the one who wrote it, not Delphin. Mrs. Ansley is devastated and confesses that she did go to meet Delphin when she got the letter. Mrs. Slade, her anger fading, admits that she saw Mrs. Ansley as a threat, and tried to get her out of the way with the fake letter. She asks if Mrs. Ansley thinks she’s a monster. Mrs. Ansley doesn’t answer, although she states that she still treasures the memory of the letter even if it wasn’t real. Although Mrs. Slade feels pity for her friend, she can’t help but gloat and remind her that she wound up with Delphin. She assuages her guilt by saying that Mrs. Ansley wound up with Horace anyway, so her infatuation with Delphin didn’t hold her back for long. She says she wrote the letter as a joke and was amused by the idea of Mrs. Ansley trying to sneak into the Colosseum for a tryst and winding up alone. Mrs. Ansley reveals that Delphin did actually meet her at the Colosseum. Mrs. Slade accuses her of lying, but Mrs. Ansley reveals that she sent a reply to the fake letter and Delphin responded. Mrs. Ansley states that she feels sorry for her friend, but Mrs. Slade expresses disbelief. After all, she says, she had Delphin for twenty-five years, and Mrs. Ansley had nothing to remind her of Delphin besides a letter that Delphin didn’t actually write. Mrs. Ansley’s final cutting reply is “I had Barbara.” before she walks away, revealing that Delphin was the father of both girls. Edith Wharton is a three-time Nobel Prize nominee for Literature who is considered one of the most successful and accomplished American novelists of her era. In an era where female novelists were still rare, especially in the United States, her novels achieved success and many are considered American classics today. She was also an extremely prolific writer despite not publishing her first novel until she was 40, writing twenty-three novels in her life including Pulitzer Prize winner The Age of Innocence, as well as three collections of poetry, sixteen short story collections including The World Over, and nine volumes of nonfiction, the majority based around interior design and architecture.

Setting

The setting of the story takes place in the afternoon, in the city of Rome. Two wealthy middle-aged widowed women are visiting Rome with their two unmarried daughters. The exotic setting illustrates the power and class from which the women hail, but the Old Rome context, such as the Colosseum, insinuates Roman Empire-style intrigue.

Analysis

A deeper reading of Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever” displays a major emphasis on the multiple figurative dimensions of knitting. Wharton establishes this chief theme early on by making sure that the matter of knitting is the first subject to receive any attention: “let’s leave the young things to their knitting.” The first impression of the knitting women is that they are incapable of anything more than the monotonous act of knitting; this sets the stage for the stereotypical mundane middle-aged woman image to be blasted apart.

It is imperative to note that, of the two protagonists, Mrs. Slade does not even knit, while Mrs. Ansley seems devoted to the craft. As the story progresses, one can even make a correlation between Mrs. Ansley’s mental state and the way in which she handles her needles and skeins. When she is nervous, she picks up her project cautiously, as if to draw as little attention as possible. However, something even as simple as the way she stores her work, crimson silk being “run through” by her needles elicits a very provocative response in the reader. The switch between a “half guilty” extraction of her work to the subtle provocation of the passionate color and style of materials chosen changes the element of knitting from one of complacency to one of increasing complexity.

Mrs. Ansley’s use of knitting in an attempt to blaze a path of forgetting, as she neither wishes to live in the past or the present, introduces an element of dramatic irony in Wharton’s work. This mix is shown in the cautious drawing out of her knitting, indicating feelings of guilt at the mention of the love triangle conversation that Mrs. Slade begins. Thus, her knitting serves two purposes: her knitting allows Mrs. Ansley to refrain from fidgeting and it also serves as an evasion tactic for Mrs. Ansley to avoid uncomfortable conversation. In that respect, her knitting can seem as though it is a psychological weapon wielded against the onslaught of Mrs. Slade’s tongue. It is easy to discern that knitting may be required to dispel the “cold” and “damp” air that has been flowing freely between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley.

Characters

Alida Slade: Middle-aged widow of Delphin Slade, a corporation lawyer. While she is dining in Rome with her old friend, Grace Ansley, the narrator reveals that she really despises Grace, who once was intimate with Delphin before he married Alida.

Delphin Slade: Late husband of Alida.

Grace Ansley: Middle-aged widow of well-to-do Horace Ansley. When Alida Slade reveals her long-simmering enmity for Grace, the latter counters with a shocking revelation.

Horace Ansley: Late husband of Grace.

Barbara Ansley: Vivacious daughter of Grace Ansley. Alida Slade resents her because of her obvious superiority to her own daughter. The last sentence in the story reveals that Barbara is really the daughter of Delphin and Grace, not Horace.

Jenny Slade: Daughter of Alida Slade. She is beautiful but lacks the charisma and charm of Barbara Ansley.

Headwaiter: Supervising waiter at the terrace restaurant overlooking the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and other ancient ruins. After receiving a gratuity from Alida Slade, he invites Alida and Grace to remain at the restaurant to enjoy the view.

Son of Alida Slade: Child who "inherited his father's gifts," according to Alida, but died while still a boy.

Harriet: Deceased great-aunt of Grace. According to a story handed down, Harriet and her sister loved the same man. To get rid of her sister, Harriet supposedly tricked her into exposing herself to Roman fever. She later died of the disease.

Themes

Power struggle for those in the upper classes: Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley vie for engagement to Mr. Slade. The eventual Mrs. Slade tries to remove Mrs. Ansley from the picture with a false letter inviting the latter to a night rendezvous. While the plan backfires for Mrs. Slade because her eventual husband actually meets with Mrs. Ansley, Mrs. Slade still marries her beau, but it seems the soon-to-be Mrs. Ansley actually bears Mr. Slade's daughter, Barbara.

Betrayal and deception: The two chief characters use subterfuge and machination in order to improve their engagement prospects as youths.

Grudges: And in their middle age, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley introduce decades-old surprises, unexpected in characters so similar in proximity, age, and class.

Representation of female relationships

Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade have a bittersweet relationship filled with envy, betrayal, and competition. They compare their lifelong battle for one man, Delphin Slade, and now quarrel regarding who has the more impressive daughter, both of whom, ironically, share the same father.

Critical reception

Although critics called special attention to "Roman Fever" immediately after The World Over was published, the story has received comparatively little critical attention since.

Adaptations

Hugh Leonard's one act adaptation of "Roman Fever" was first staged in Dublin in 1983. Robert Ward's opera Roman Fever which premiered in 1993 at Duke University is based on this work. Hungarian composer Gyula Fekete's opera Roman Fever premiered in 1996 at Budapest's Merlin Theatre. In September 1964, KPFA broadcast a radio adaptation of Roman Fever, with Pat Franklin and Shirley Medina, adapted and directed by Erik Bauersfeld, and technical production by John Whiting.