How Edith Wharton Manipulates Point of View in the Short Story Roman Fever - Essay Example

Daniel Llanto February 24, 2006 How Edith Wharton Manipulates Point of View in the Short Story “Roman Fever” “Roman Fever” explores sexuality, jealousy and deceit, themes that often run through Edith Wharton’s voluminous literary work that includes 22 novels, 11 collections of short stories and two volumes of poetry. Of her novels, the most critically acclaimed is the “Age of Innocence” which romped with the Pulitzer Prize in 1921,while “Roman Fever” (circa 1936) is considered the most famous short story of this prolific and versatile writer. The story is vintage Wharton, a satirist par excellence and keen observer of the minutia of character. Poignant and provocative, “Roman Fever” exposes the antics of human beings in the comedy and tragedy of being alive and reconfirms the fragility and frailty of friendship. It also tells us that jealousy and envy, though often hidden, always run rampant among neighbors. Here, most of all, is a stark reminder that every woman is capable of treachery and betrayal when her self-interest so dictates. It likewise revalidates the old axiom that you reap whatever you sow. Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, the two protagonists in “Roman Fever,” are childhood friends and good neighbors even into their respective marriages. The Ansley family lives at No. 20 East 73rd St. in New York, the Slades at No. 23 across the street. As such, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade must have thought the world of each other, right? On the surface, yes, but not inside the women’s hearts. And there lies the story. Wharton sets the mood for her story by establishing the social status of the two protagonists and their relationships (well-to-do women friends into middle age and knitting, with not “much else to do”). At first Grace Ansley and Alida Slade are all smiles as they engage in friendly, idle talk about their daughters, the beautiful Roman scenery, a headwaiter that needs to be tipped. Gradually, the author steers the conversation into a situation where, from smiling sweetly at each other, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade begin to bare their fangs. From leisurely conversation to ugly confrontation. And the switch is made by using fictional elements cleverly, putting conditions and the characters’ mood changes in their proper perspective so as to move the story to its surprising climax without showing any strain. Here’s how Wharton did it: She shows Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley to be genuinely friendly with each other at first at a restaurant that commands a view of the Colosseum, one of the eight wonders of the world. They await their bachelorette daughters, Jenny Slade and Babs Ansley, who are going out with two Italian aviators, one of whom is an eligible bachelor indicated to be a prize son-in-law. Wharton gets Mrs. Slade thinking on this. Babs Ansley is better looking than her daughter and Mrs. Slade realizes her Jenny “has no chance beside Babs” in winning the affection of the said aviator. Wharton thus starts to build up resentment in Mrs. Slade against Mrs. Ansley. The fire of Mrs. Slade’s anger at Mrs. Ansley is fanned by seemingly innocuous statements from the latter, such as: “… perhaps we didn’t know more about each other” and comments like the two of them may have to wait until moonlight for their daughters to be back. It was a moonlit night a long time ago when a younger Mrs. Slade, possessed of jealousy,committed an act of treachery against the similarly young Mrs. Ansley. She thought her then fiancée Delphin was casting an eye on her equally interested friend, and so she wrote a letter in the name of Delphin inviting the young Mrs. Ansley to an evening tryst inside the Colosseum. In those days, it was believed that anybody you send down the Forum would catch Roman fever, something akin to pneumonia, because it got “deathly cold after sunset” in that place. And the Colosseum was “even colder and damper.” During pauses in the two women’s conversations, Wharton has Mrs. Slade thinking malevolently that Mrs.Ansley is better off, although she used to be the toast of the town when she was married to a rich and famous corporation lawyer. Mrs. Slade feels that widowhood and old age didn’t change Mrs. Ansley much. With her husband gone, Mrs. Slade thinks she has been reduced to nothing, feeling her “unemployment more than poor Grace could.” Wharton shows her skill in characterization and keen-eyed observation of human foibles by letting Mrs. Slade demonstrate some innate kindness. On at least two instances, Mrs. Slade chides herself for feeling that way about Mrs. Ansley. As a good friend, “there was no one of whom she had less right to think of unkindly than poor Grace.” And so Mrs. Slade steels herself to “make one more effort not to hate her (Mrs. Ansley).” But Mrs. Slade loses control of her anger as Mrs. Ansley remains absorbed in her knitting despite the palpable tension in the air creeping between them. As the feeling of envy continues to gnaw at Mrs. Slade’s heart, she observes wryly: “What was there (for Mrs. Ansley) to worry about? She knew that Babs would almost certainly come back engaged to the extremely eligible Campolieri. And she’ll sell the New York house and settle near them in Rome… and a perfectly peaceful old age among her grandchildren.” Mrs. Slade then lets go of her resentment, deciding to puncture Mrs. Ansley’s reserve and nonchalance and jolting her into feeling sorry for herself. She confesses about the forged letter that she believes sent her on a wild goose chase. To avoid being abrupt, Wharton squeezes into the conversation an incident in the dim past when a wicked aunt of Mrs. Ansley sent a younger sister out to the Forum after sunset to gather a nightblooming flower for her album. “The poor little sister caught the fever and died.” Mrs. Slade maintains her condenscending attitude towards Mrs. Ansley, feeling superior all this time. When it turns out that Grace and Delphin actually met that fateful night because she answered the letter to make him come to the supposed meeting place, Mrs. Slade was even more furious. In the end, Mrs. Slade seeks consolation in the fact that it was she who Delphin eventually married. It turns out to be an elusive one when Mrs. Slade eventually realizes that her treachery backfires on her. Wharton delivers the coup de grace with the unexpected revelation that Babs is actually Mrs. Ansley’s daughter from Delphin, probably from that one night tryst in the Colosseum. This adds to the story’s richness in details that typifies Edith Wharton’s ability to squeeze so much views on the human condition in one brief material. Read More