Oppression Of Women In Roman Fever By Edith Wharton

means Daisy’s death from Roman fever also suggests her death from sociality. Besides, by not

Everybody in their life has made mistakes, but there is a difference between the small mistakes that people make on a daily basis, and those that can cause life-altering events. In the three Zora Neal Hurston stories, “Sweat,” “Spunk,” and “The Gilded Six Bit,” characters all make terrible mistakes that affect the people that they love most. The outcomes of each story though are very different as the characters face tough choices and deal with them in very different ways. Though these situations deal with many of the same issues, the ability or inability for those in the stories to forgive individuals shows their true character and values.

In the beginning of Roman Fever you will notice how Alida Slade is exceedingly envious towards Grace Ansley’s overall life. Slade states, that Grace and her husband Horace where “Museum specimens of old New York. Good looking, irreproachable, exemplary.” As you read you find out that Alida seems to have the perfect life with her lawyer husband Delphine yet, she still craves her lifestyle. While having their escalating conversation, to avoid the awkward silence Grace begins to knit. Slade states “She can knit in the face of this! How like her.” This infuriates Slade that Ansley can hold a conversation while remaining knitting at the same time. She fantasizes to live her “old-fashioned” life style that Ansley illustrates.

Despite the indignities she endures, Delia remains steadfast in her commitment to her work, finding solace and purpose in her labor even as her marriage unravels before her eyes. The introduction of the rattlesnake into Delia's home serves as a chilling metaphor for the toxic dynamic between her and Sykes. As Sykes revels in Delia's fear and helplessness, he demonstrates his willingness to go to any lengths to assert dominance and control over her. The snake becomes a symbol of the venom that courses through their relationship, poisoning Delia's spirit and threatening to consume her entirely. Throughout the story, the villagers serve as silent witnesses to Delia's suffering, their gossip and speculation reflecting the pervasive nature of domestic violence within the community.

Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” are the result of two “realistic” writers wishing to change the perspectives of how women should be viewed and treated. In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin writes about Mrs. Mallard who is a woman desperate for her own thoughts and identity, at the time this concept was untraditional and not accepted. Like Chopin, in “Roman Fever” Wharton calls emphasis to the hidden secrets and feelings held by women at the time. In her writing, Chopin uses various literary devices to play an important role in conveying her message, these devices are also used by Wharton in “Roman Fever.” Irony is a predominant literary device used in both of these works, for example when Chopin states “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of joy that kills” (1611). This is ironic because the reader knows she didn’t die of joy, but rather from seeing the glimpse of her husband and knowing she had lost the freedom she so desired. The first sign of irony Wharton uses is in the title, “Roman Fever,” which is an old name for malaria. However, that’s only the surface meaning as the deeper meaning symbolizes Mrs. Slade’s disease-like jealousy she has hidden for years over Mrs. Ansley. Both Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin were very influential authors of the time and brought out suppressed issues in their works to be acknowledged and challenged by society.

In “Sweat” adoration and hatred continuously go back and forth and Delia even “attempted friendliness, but she was repulsed each time” (1092). The despair and isolation Delia felt in the end of the story, perhaps even more than the straightforward and steadily building anger, is what caused her to allow him to die in the end.

One theme in the story is physical and emotional abuse. Delia is quite often trying to work or simply minding her own business, when her husband, Sykes decides to pick a verbal fight with

Societies’ Masks Situational irony occurs when the actual result of an action is different from what was expected. Using situational irony, Edith Wharton highlights the theme that appearances can be deceiving in “Roman Fever.” She does this with her portrayal of Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, the jealousy of Alida for Grace’s daughter Barbara, and the backfired attempt Alida made to keep her fiancé away from Grace. Although acquainted with each other most of their lives, Wharton states, “these two ladies visualized each other, each through the wrong end of her little telescope” (1699). Alida has a greater presence than Grace, “fuller, and higher in color, with a small determined nose supported by vigorous black eyebrows” (1697) and had a busy social life until her husband’s death.

Throughout “Roman Fever” Grace is a woman of very few words. She seems to keep a majority of her thoughts to herself, unlike Alida. Mrs. Ansley is compared to her late husband as the couple being “Museum specimens of old New York.” (389) “Grace Ansley was always old-fashioned,” (388) Alida articulates at one point. Nonetheless, another example of irony is revealed considering Grace happens to be conservative, yet unveiling her past defeats moral code. Wharton displays Mrs. Ansley and her daughter having a stronger bond than Mrs. Slade and her daughter by presenting the fact Grace knew the girls’ plans for the night while Alida is left in the dark. Toward the conclusion of the story, Mrs. Ansley derives from her shell and makes her thoughts known to Mrs. Slade as to what actually happened the night she arrived at the Colosseum. After she reveals one of her most cherished memories, “Mrs. Ansley rose, and drew her fur about her. ‘It is cold here. We’d better go… I’m sorry for you,’ she said as she clasped the fur about her throat.” (397) Grace seems to be kind of sympathetic to Alida’s pathetic attempt to rid of

The setting of the story was in a Roman restaurant, where down you can see the “glories of the Palatine and the Forum” (Wharton 1). Wharton’s placement of the setting enhances the readers understanding that in the short story the two women are living in a “patriarchal civilization” where women are being forced to compete for their social statuses (Rankine 1). The two protagonists envy and jealousy begin over one man. Mrs. Slade feared that Mrs. Ansley would steal Delphin from her because “I was afraid; afraid of you, of your quiet ways, your sweetness…your…well, I wanted you out of the way” (Wharton 9). She then developed an idea to eliminate the competition, which shows how jealous of Mrs. Ansley she was. Mrs. Slade uses a similar method that Mrs. Ansley’s great aunt, Harriet, used on her sister to get her out of the way, because “they were in love with the same man---“. Harriet confessed before she

In “The Bloody Chamber,” Angela Carter tells the tale of a seventeen-year-old girl who marries an older, wealthy Marquis. Like many other clever authors, Carter gives the reader an opportunity to determine the outcome of the story before the ending is reached through her symbolism and allusions which foreshadow the ending. In doing so, she not only provides insight into what will happen next but also further develops each of the characters through these complex symbols that she incorporates throughout the story.

Roman Fever" is an outstanding example of Edith Wharton's theme to express the subtle nuances of formal upper class society that cause change underneath the pretense of stability. Wharton studied what actually made their common society tick, paying attention to unspoken signals, the histories of relationships, and seemingly coincidental parallels. All of these factors contribute to the strength and validity of the story of Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley.

The plot of Edith Wharton’s novella “Roman Fever” is straightforward with a consciously casual setting. Words in Wharton’s work are careful and calculated, each paragraph requires an in-depth scrutiny of content from their original context. In ways “Roman Fever” encourages readers to dig through the advanced syntax in search of the conveyed messages. Hence, the story focuses mainly on Mrs. Ansley's knitting and its significance in the novella. When the author addresses Mrs. Ansley's "twist of crimson silk"(69), the descriptive imagery is intentional in the sense that knitting symbolizes Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade’s relationship and foreshadows the dramatic revelations later in the story. The use of frame story to structure the narrative of their ill-matched friendship illustrates the author’s intent to invoke thought and ideas in the reader's naïve minds. Thus, although knitting is an unconscious habit of Mrs. Ansley, it is actually significant because it is an attempt to weave back the disrupted relationship between the two friends. Hence, knitting as a “crimson” alludes to the intensely passionate love and closure that blinds the two from truly understanding each other and gives a glimpse of the unstable nature within the upper middle class in society.

Delia Jones starts off as a healthy religious woman who believes she found the love of her life, but little does she know that she will lose her beloved qualities of freedom. This submissive quality appears two months after their marriage. Considering she has experienced ongoing abuse for fifteen years, Delia has eventually had enough. I say it is because of Sykes’ irony that she develops hatred. Sykes’ selfish demeanor is the cause for Delia’s weak state. He then goes on to humiliate her by saying “Ah 'm so tired of you Ah don 't know whut to do.

shows us that one of the characters, Miss Bingley, lacks completely of virtue. The Aristotelian