“Roman Fever” – Edith Wharton – A Critical Appreciation

Edith Wharton was born near Washington Square to wealthy and distinguished parents rooted in colonial times. She was educated privately at home and abroad acquiring an early command of foreign languages and an easy familiarity with English and continental society. Her first writings were poems published anonymously in 1880. At 23, she married Edward Wharton of Boston. They lived, at first, in New York city, then successively in New Port, Rhode Island and Lennox, Massachusetts, with frequent visits to Europe. In 1907 she settled permanently in France.

Her ethical sense, her poetic sensibility and compression were evident in her first collection of stories – The Greater Inclination (1899). Her other works include – The Valley of Decision (1902), The Descent of man (1904), The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), The Fruit of the Free (1915) and The Tales of Men and Ghosts (1910). The Tales of Men and Ghosts contains some of her best stories of the supernatural. During the war years she gave much of her energy to the organisation of relief activities. Fighting France (1915) and The Main (1918) are war novels. After the war Edith Wharton returned to New York. The Age of Innocence (1920), her greatest novel, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and has remained a landmark.

Edith Wharton’s stories were centered upon the changing society of New York city during her own lifetime. She viewed this genteel, formalised society with a woman’s eye; and being primarily a satirist, she was interested in the dynamics of the society itself.

The setting of the short story “Roman Fever” is important, simply because it symbolises the emotional state of the two principal characters – Mrs. Alida Slade and Mrs. Grace Ansley. The setting revives memories for “two American ladies of ripe but well-cared for middle age.” They have come back to Rome for a holiday in the company of their younger daughters.

“What different things Rome stands for to each generation of Travellers,” says Mrs.Slade. “To our grandmothers, Roman fever, to our mothers, sentimental dangers – to our daughters, no more dangers than the middle of Main Street.” The setting, Rome, with its bewitching skies that turn gold in the afternoon and purple at sunset once again affect the two matrons, latterly widowed. Sitting on the lofty terrace of their Roman Restaurant they are visibly stirred by the “Spring effulgence of the Roman skies”. They contemplate the view in silence with a “diffused serenity,” each lost in her thoughts.

From where they sit they can see and still be impressed by the cold mystery of the sprawling buildings – The Forum, and the Colosseum where secret trysts were kept. The two ladies go back into the past when Roman fever stalked the streets, “when it was comparatively easy to gather in the girls at the danger hour-.” The spell of the Roman fever, twenty-five years later, sends Mrs.Anley into a reverie as she gazes upon the Palatine, murmuring that it would always be the most beautiful view in the world to her. But the same reverie brings out all the latent feelings of frustration, hatred and violent dislike Mrs. Slade has for her friend.

The city of Rome transcends its particular locale and becomes a symbolic representation of places where truths about human experience and weaknesses are applicable not only to Rome, but also to the many places human beings choose to live in.

Eudora Welty, the American story-teller says, “Fiction depends for its life on place – place is the cross-roads of circumstances, the proving ground of what happened.”

The plot of Roman fever is simple. Two friends meet at a Roman holiday resort, each bearing the burden of a guilt. Mrs. Slade’s secret was that she played a cruel trick on her friend, because she was terrified that Grace with her winsome charm might lure her fiancé away from her. She sends a letter signed D S (Delphin Slade) to Grace asking her to meet him after sunset in the cold Colosseum. Mrs. Slade had hoped that Grace, who was susceptible to colds, would catch the chill of her life and would be abed the rest of the season. The plan works, Grace was bed-ridden and soon after taken away by her mother only to be married off to Horace Ansley.

Mrs. Ansley’s secret was that she cherished the memory of DElphin whom she did meet that night, and Barbara, her brilliant, vivacious daughter, was the outcome of the meeting.

The plot is based on the conflict and struggle between these two women who love the same man for different reasons. Reminiscences form the background information that builds up in intensity, leading to a crisis or a moment of great tension. The story’s climatic moment occurs simultaneously with its ending, with little or no formal resolution.

Wharton employs third person narrative to let us know what Mrs. Slade and Mrs.Ansley feel, but has restricted the narrative to the consciousness of Mrs.Slade, almost never allowing us to see or hear what Slade herself wouldn’t notice or understand. Our knowledge of Mrs. Ansley is filtered through Mrs.Slade’s observation and inferences. Mrs. Slade tells us that twenty-five years ago, Mr. Ansley, “had been exquisitely lovely – far more beautiful than her daughter Barbara-.”

It is a story with an objective point of view the writer knows what happens, without directly stating more than can be inferred from the dialogue. Wharton gives us the inside view of characters. The omniscient narrator makes use of multiple perspectives. She lets us see what each character experiences and shows us the different perceptions of the same situation. And we rightly sympathise with Mrs.Ansley and feel that justice has been meted out to the other.

The device of characterisation used by Wharton is that of revealing the character’s state of mind through surface details. She lets us enter their consciousness by making us aware of what they think and feel. The two characters that dominate the story are Mrs.Slade and Mrs.Ansley. What matters most is their relationship. These well-wrought characters come alive for us as we read, and live in our memories.

Mrs. Grace Ansley is small, pale and easily embarrassed and Mrs.Alida Slade is taller, fuller, higher in colour “with a small determined nose supported by vigorous black eyebrows.” Mrs.Slade is proud, opinionated and bereft of charm. She is brilliant, well-dressed and makes a perfect wife for her equally brilliant lawyer husband. In their heyday Mrs.Slade was the cynosure of all eyes. But now her widowhood has made her a non-entity, something she cannot reconcile to. For all her money and success Mrs.Slade is an unhappy woman, something rankles in her soul – her deep inveterate hatred for her life-long friend. Mrs.Slade’s suspicion that Mrs.Ansley nursed tender feelings for her husband is not unfounded. Mrs.Slade is a disappointed woman, having lost her son, her only daughter turns out to be a plain Jane. She has none of her only daughter turns out to be a plain Jane. She has none of Barbara’s vivacity or brilliance. Mrs.Slade is certain that Barbara would make the catch of the season by marrying the rich Italian aviator, while Jane hangs about in the periphery. So violent is Mrs.Slade’s disappointment that she wonders aloud with a touch of asperity – “how two such exemplary characters as you and Horace had managed to produce anything so dynamic!”

Mrs.Ansley, quiet and more resigned to her fate than Mrs.Slade, knits to cover the emotional tumult caused by her surroundings. She treasures the memory of Delphin Slade and is visibly crushed by the purposeless wound that Slade inflicts on her. But she recovers to pay back Mrs.Slade in her own coin.

The other characters who are merely mentioned and do not appear are Jane and Barbara, Horace Ansley and Delphin Slade.

We just hear the snatches of a conversation by the young girls sufficient to tell us that they are smart, with minds of their own. While Jane, good and caring, earns the name of an angel, Barbara, brilliant and lively is called an angel too, but with "Rainbow wings."

Horace, the husband of Grace Slade is just a duplicate of his wife: "Museum specimens of old New York, good looking, irreproachable and exemplary."

Delphin, married to Mrs.Slade, had probably been in love with Grace. Even when he was engaged to Alida, he was not averse to keeping a tryst with Grace at the Colosseum. It is with a great sense of satisfaction that Mrs.Ansley hints, at the end of the story, that the beautiful vivacious Barbara, whom Mrs.Slade admires, is actually Delphin's daughter.

[the entire essay by Professor Radha Bhat, will be made available shortly…]