Analysis Of Roman Fever

Torres 1

Marlon Torres
Professor; Canton
English 103
15 January 2018
Roman Fever
The analysis of Roman Fever, authored by Edith Wharton necessitates consideration of the story’s setting. The story mainly takes place in the early 1930s and concerns two friends that have extensive knowledge of each other over a considerably lengthy period. The two ladies, Grace Ansley and Alida Slade each have a daughter, Barbara, and Jenny respectively. The story’s setting of Rome tends to be crucial due to the romantic aspect of the city. Such is evident when both Grace and Alida converse concerning the relationships that they have had over the years and how they relate back to Rome. Additionally, where both Grace and Alida found love within the walls of the

In the Roman Fever, allusions to the classical culture are strongly evident in the letter from “Delphin.” The letter from “Delphin” tends to prove oracular in its production of a future event. Moreover, the setting of the story above the ruins of Rome tends to play a significant role in the provision of the background for the emergence of considerably long-buried stories for the gladiatorial violence of Mrs. Slade.
The concept of allusion is strongly evident in the text in the fact that it appears more like a modern-day version of Oedipus the King. As in the Sophocles’ drama, the happenings are not so much a new action as a conversation that, driving to its painful denouement proceeds over the ancient events depicting their significance as entirely different from the imaginations of the participants. Oedipus finds that the man that he murdered sometime back was instead his father while the man that he previously regarded as his father was

Ansley and Mrs. Slade tend to have both lived the considerably conventional feminine lives of a widow, mother, wife, and girl. Their identities have primarily been based on those of their husbands then lost. Mrs. Slade is evidently proud of the admiration that she received as “Slade’s wife” (Wharton, 13). However, there is the necessity for noting that after her husband’s death, there is nothing left but to mother her daughter. The fact that the lives of the women tend to feature less meaning after the death of their husbands is depicted in their reduction to the somewhat jaded sightseers and conversations serve as their primary way of killing time before it turns lady-killing violently. The allusion is evident in the fact that the story serves as a female version of Oedipal