Literary Writing In Edith Wharton's Roman Fever

Edith Wharton, a profound author of novels and short stories, in the 20th century, has a significant and unique twist on every page. Her writing style is all her own with the way she uses powerful imagery and ironic endings to create a literary masterpiece. Wharton begins to write at a slow pace, then invites the reader deeper into the plot as they get deeper into the book. The novel Ethan Frome and short story “Roman Fever”, both works of literature by Edith Wharton, show how Wharton layers her information to give the reader the right amount of information needed to delve into the plot. Those who read Edith Wharton’s literary masterpieces become enveloped with a great plot with twists and turns on almost every page, all while seeing distinguished …show more content…
“Roman Fever” is about two elderly American women, Mrs. Alida Slade and Mrs. Grace Ansley remembering their pasts. The two women are both known to have a daughter and husband. Alida has a daughter named Jenny and a deceased husband named Delphin, while Grace has a daughter named Barbara and a husband named Horace. Edith Wharton makes it clear that the two women have a somewhat competitive relationship even they do not really know they do. On a ship going to Europe the two women have the first real conversation in a while and a whole lot of secrets are about to come out into the open when Alida tells Grace that the letter that she had received from Mr. Slade was actually from her. The letter was sent while Mr. and Mrs. Slade were engaged, and it stated the Delphin wanted to meet Mrs. Ansley in the coliseum while Roman fever, a nickname for malaria, was amuck. After hearing this Mrs. Ansley is devastated because she fell in love with Delphin Slade and cherished the letter. At first Mrs. Slade apologizes and says that she feels sorry for Grace. Hearing this Grace tells her not to feel sorry for her because she actually met him that night because she replied to the letter. Alida gets furious over this and tells her meanly, “After all, I had everything; I had him for twenty-five years. And you had nothing but that one letter that he didn’t write [Wharton 12].”As Grace is getting ready to …show more content…
One example of irony is when Mrs. Slade exclaims her aversion for Grace Ansley’s, daughter Barbara.
And I was wondering, ever so respectfully, you understand… wondering how two such exemplary characters as you and Horace had managed to produce anything quite so dynamic [Wharton 6]
Wharton is implementing irony by having Alida Slade share her dislike of Barbara with Mrs. Ansley and it comes out in the end that Barbara is Delphin Slade’s daughter. Another way Edith Wharton exhibited irony is in the letter written by Alida. The letter is ironic in two ways, one of which is because Mrs. Slade wrote it to humiliate Grace Ansley. Now, this is ironic because instead of humiliating her Alida set Grace and Delphin up on a romantically set “date” in the Coliseum at night, which cause the impregnation of Grace. Another reason why the letter is ironic is because Alida wanted Grace to catch “roman fever”, otherwise known as malaria, and instead of malaria Grace caught something else and that’s feelings and a baby from Delphin Slade. One might say, if they read both Ethan Frome and “Roman Fever”, that the backdrop of the story and the characters are somewhat of a reproduction of one another. The theme of cheating and deception is a similarity between the two as well as the personalities and attitudes of the main characters are comparable too. Zeena and Alida Slade both have a sassy attitude and somewhat cause their