ROMAN FEVER

EDITH WHARTON
 GROUP 9

1. Hoang Thi Phuong Uyen

2. Luong Thi Linh Le
3. Quang Thi Kim Giang
4. Hoang Thi Hoai Thuong
 CONTENT

01 02 03 04
INTRODUCTI CHARACTER
THEME SETTING
ON S

05 06 07
PLOT LITERARY
SYMBOLISM
DEVICES
 01
INTRODUC
TION

HISTORICAL CONTEXT EDITH WHARTON &

ROMAN FEVER
 Old New York
 upper class: families such as the Astors and the Vanderbilts
could be found at the height of the social ladder.

 arrivistes: even earned more money than the upper class.

 They entertained themselves by attending the theater and
opera, taking part in luxury house parties, traveling abroad,...

 The education of women just only for the women's need or as

a means to satisfy the demands of upper class marriages.
 American Women in the 1920s and 1930s
 The right to vote.

 Flapper trend - a revolution in women's fashion in the 20th century.

 A woman’s reputation could still be irreparably damaged by a
divorce or an illegitimate child.

Petting Party Cuddle Party

  They are romantic and free

 However, social still remained the concept of American womanhood.

 Malaria
 Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that affects humans
and other. Mosquitos were the vector of yellow fever.

 Perhaps 10 percent of 75 million

people living in the Roman Empire
never recovered. “Like some beast,”
the sickness “destroyed not just a few
people but rampaged across whole
cities and destroyed them.”, a
contemporary wrote
 Author’s biography

 1862: Edith Newbold Jones was born in a Manhattan

brownstone mainson.
 1866- 1872: The family spent 6 years in Euroupe
-> Edith enjoyed a luxurious and cultured childhood.
She received instruction from a series of private tutors and
governess who taught her German, Italian, and French.
 1872 : The Jones return to USA and Edith began writing.
- 1878 : completed a book of poems, Verses
- 1877: She wrote Fast and Loose at the age of 15 1862-
1937
 Author’s biography

 1882: She was engaged to Henry Leyden Stevens, but

the engagement was broken off.
 1885: Edith married Edward Robbins Wharton.
 1913: She divorced after 28 years of marrige.
 1921: Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
 1923: Honorary doctorate degree from Yale University
 1931: Wharton visited Rome for the first time in 17
years; she had spent part of her childhood there.
1862-
1937
 Point of view

 Many of Wharton’s novels are characterized by a subtle

use of dramatic irony in the upper-class in New York.

 Wharton produced a wealth of short stories and is

particularly well regarded for her ghost stories.
(haunted by the death and destruction of World War I)

 Her characters often lived in a world with relatively rigid

social codes and norms but they can't get out of there.

1862-
1937
 Roman Fever

 “Roman Fever” is among Edith Wharton’s last writings

and caps off her noteworthy career.

 ‘‘Roman Fever’’ was written in the 1930s and is set in

the 1920s, but the story's characters and values reflect
the attitudes of upper-class society in New York in the
last half of the nineteenth century.
 Theme

1. Power struggle in the upper class:

Roman Fever” is an example of realism, reflects the real lives of high-class women.

 Marriage was crucial for women, and it usually defined them.

-They tried to find a husband who could bring them financial benefits as well
as solid social status.
- Besides, a woman’s reputation could be damaged by a divorce or an
illegiltimate child.
=> Characters lived in a world with relatively rigid social codes and norms.
They get married to conform to social expectations, even if that is not what
they really want
 Theme
2. Betrayal and deception:
Wharton understood that friendships between women in turn-of-the-century New
York high society had an undercurrent of competition for social supremacy.

 Slade
As a young woman, Mrs. Slade perceives Mrs. Ansley’s exceptional beauty
as a threat to her relationship with her fiancé, Delphin, so she plans a cruel
trick: she uses a forged letter to lure Mrs. Ansley to the Colosseum at night,
with the hope that Mrs. Ansley will fall ill as a result.
 Theme

2. Betrayal and deception:

 Ansley
• Mrs. Ansley acted selfishly and dishonestly when she had fallen in love
with her fiance Delphin Slade as well as decided to meet Delphin at the
Colosseum, betraying the trust of her friend.
• After discovering her pregnancy, Mrs. Ansley rushes into a marriage with
Horace, and goes on to convince him that Barbara is his daughter,
betraying the love of her husband, again.
 Theme

3. Jealously:

 In the opening pages of the story, the two women compare their
daughters and reflect on each other’s lives.

• Slade: “I always wanted a brilliant daughter... and never quite understood why I got
an angel instead."
• Ansley : "Babs is an angel too.“
 Theme

 Mrs. Slade wishes her daughter, Jenny, were as vivacious as Mrs.

Ansley’s daughter, Barbara, and she reveals her insecurity through snide
comments that disparage both Barbara and her parents.
• “ Well, as a girl she (Ansley) had been exquisite; far more beautiful than her daughter,
Barbara, though certainly Babs, according to the new standards at any rate, was
more effective – had more edge, as they say. Funny where she got it, with those two
nullities as parents. Yes; Horace Ansley was—well, just the duplicate of his wife.
Museum specimens of old New York.”

 The peak of jealousy is the fake letter.

=> After 25 years with Delphin, Alida never stopped feeling jealous and insecure.
SETTING
 SETTING
The current Rome city In the Colosseum Rome of the past

$12 $20 $26

 SETTING
The current Rome city

 On the terrace of a restaurant in

the current Rome city, two women are
talking to one another. The terrace
overlooks the Roman Forum and the
Palatine.
 SETTING
The current Rome city In the Colosseum Rome of the past

$12 $20 $26

SETTING

In the Colosseum

 In Rome of several decades ago,

when they were younger, after Mrs.
Slade was engaged to Mr. Slade, a
major event is set in the Colosseum.
 SETTING
The current Rome city In the Colosseum Rome of the past

$12 $20 $26

 SETTING
Rome of the past

 Rome of the past is a

significant setting in the story
because it is where the major
events took place before they
are revealed in present-day
Rome.
CHARACTERS
 CHARACTERS

MAIN CHARACTERS MINOR CHARACTERS

 Delphin Slade
 Alida Slade (Mrs. Slade)  Horace Ansley
 Grace Ansley (Mrs. Ansley)  Jenny Slade
 Barbara Ansley
 MAIN CHARACTERS
Alida Slade Grace Ansley
 MAIN CHARACTERS
Alida Slade
 Middle aged rich American woman.
 Widow of Delphin Slade.
 Mother of Jenny Slade.
 Fuller and higher in color than Grace.
 Determined and cunning woman.
 Envious, jealousy and resentful.
Grace Ansley
 Middle aged rich American woman.
 Widow of Horace Ansley.
 Mother of Barbara Ansley.
 Smaller and paler than Alida.
 Capable of betraying her best friend
for the love of a man.
 Capable of lying to her loved ones
and keeping important secrets.
 MAIN CHARACTERS
Alida Slade
 She spent all her energy living up to
Delphin-a husband all her abilities had
been engaged.
 It is a big drop from being the wife of
Delphin Slade to being his widow.
 She still wonders if she will “never cure
herself of envying” Grace.
 She admits her feelings when she tells
Grace “I hate you…I knew you were in love
with Delphin- and I was afraid”
Grace Ansley
 She married with Horace just a few
months after her one night with Delphin.
 More comfortable with her current role
as widow and mother.
 She has taken up knitting. She appears
calm while she knits.
 She drops her knitting after Alida’s
admission about THE LETTER, it’s a
signal of real pain: “her bag, her knitting
and gloves, slid in a panic-stricken heap
to the ground”.
 MAIN CHARACTERS
Alida Slade
 The more disturbed Alida becomes.
 When Alida Slade “burst out with
violence” in her voice.
 While Alida may have had Delphin for
25 years, she never stopped feeling
jealousy and insecure.
 When compared with Barbara, Jenny
Slade is “a little boring” and she calls
Barbara is “brilliant and dynamic”.
Grace Ansley
 The calmer Grace seems.
 Grace Ansley’s voice “grew clearer”.
 Grace, faces life calmly and
confidently.
 When Grace reveals the truth about
Barbara, she simply turns and began
to move ahead of Alida. She ends the
story ahead of her rival.
 MINOR CHARACTERS
Delphin Slade
 Alida’s husband.
 A famous lawyer,
 Successful: always with an
international case or two on hand.
 Delphin was such a celebrity, he was
known among the elite as the Slade.
Horace Ansley
 Grace’s husband,
 Good-looking, irreproachable,
exemplary.
 The couple he formed with his wife
was representative of upper class
society in New York.
 While he was a good man for Grace,
he wasn’t the object of his wife’s
passion, in the way that Delphin had
been.
 MINOR CHARACTERS
Jenny Slade Barbara Ansley

 While Jenny plays everything safe.  Barbara, like her biological father , is
the center of attention all the time.
 While Jenny’s safeness emphasizes  Barbara’s confidence serves to make

Alida’s agitated. Alida has always her mother Grace seem more self-
played it safe herself, and as a result assured and content.
has led a boring “sad life”.
 PLOT

RISING ACTION
 Both women
start to bring back
memories of their
past . CLIMAX
INTRODUCTION
 Two middle aged  Mrs ansley
women who have revealing the fact
know each other all that Delphin is the
their lives. biological father of
Barbara
 PLOT

FALLING ACTION RESOLUTION

 Grace is crushed after learning that
 Mrs Anley reveals
the only letter she ever had from
one last secret by
Delphin was fake but then she turns
answering ‘ i had
the tables on Alida and confesses that
Barbara ‘
she had answered the letter and that
Delphin had actually been there that
night with her .
 POINT OF VIEW
 Third person omniscient. An all
knowing narrator that knows not only
the story but also what is going on
inside the character’s mind.
.
 LITERARY DEVICES

A C
Metaphor Flashback

B D
Imagery Irony
 Metaphor

 Roman Fever is a metaphor for the

potential romance has to destroy
relationships and sever friendships.

“the flame of her wrath had already

sunk.”
B
Flashback
 Throughout the story the women will talk about
the past giving the reader a kind of flashback
 These flashback give the reader an insight on how
the women know each other .
 It also creates an intense plot twist when you learn
the truth about Barbara.
 C
Imagery
 ‘ The luncheon hour
was long past, and the two
had their end of the vast
terrace to themselves. ‘

 ‘Lets leave the young

things to their knitting ‘
 D
IRONY
 Verbal irony : when the two daughters refer to their
mother as ‘young things ’
 Situational irony :
1. When Alida Slade reveals that she wrote the letter to
Grace Ansley telling her to meet Delphin at the Colosseum
instead of Delphin himself.
2.When Alida tries to regain her superiority again, she says “I
had him for twenty-five years. And you had nothing but
that one letter that he didn't write. “
 Dramatic irony : The 25-year-ago letter and Mrs. Ansley's
illness.
 SYMBOLISM

Presented by: Hoang Thi Hoai Thuong

 SYMBOLISM
There are 5 main points:
1. Forum, Colesseum
2. Roman fever
3. Sunset
4. The letter
5. Grace’s knitting
 1. Forum, Colosseum

Emphasize the establishment of social order, the

secret revelations of the two widows as pathways
towards social superiority.

Mrs.Slade repeatedly demonstrates a desire to

dominate Mrs. Ansley.
The Forum also reinforces how dominance or
the perception of dominance changes over time.

At the beginning, Mrs. Slade appears to be

more brilliant than Mrs. Ansley. At the end,
Mrs.Ansley dominates while Mrs. Slade is in
ruins.
2. Roman Fever

Refers to a particularly deadly strain of malaria.

Symbol of the passionate secret relationship

between Mrs.Ansley and Delphin.

Roman Fever strong emotions, and the disease of

jealousy.
 3. Sunset

The darkness outside parallels the direction of their

conversation.

It implies the entry into each character's dark secrets.

 4. The letter

The heart of the deception that Mrs.

Slade believed she perpetrated on Mrs.
Ansley.

To hurt Mrs.Ansley, resulted in the

affair that Mrs.Slade had been worried
about.
 5. Grace’s knitting

Knitting gives her a veneer of civility and respectability.

When Mrs.Ansley’s knitting fall to the ground, she reveals her

true self, filled with passion, pity, and fear.

It represents the repression, indirectness, and deceit of high

society life.
 Roman Fever - Group 9

THANKS FOR
YOUR LISTENING

Have a good day my bae