Roman Fever

The reader learns little about the husbands—Delphin Slade and Horace Ansley—beyond the most basic facts. Why? What does Wharton accomplish by withholding details about them?

Shortly before the final portion of the conversation between Alida and Grace, the narrator introduces a brief digression that includes a “stout woman” with a tattered guidebook. Given the radical circumscription of the story’s scene, this woman’s presence is somewhat surprising. What does her presence add to “Roman Fever”?

One could argue that “Roman Fever” is a story about female community, with its emphasis on mother and daughter pairs, female friendship, and generations of women. What are the shared values, or dangers, that emerge in these communities? What might Wharton be suggesting about female communities, in both the past and present of the story?

Much of this story turns to the past, but throughout there are references to modern technology such as electric lights and airplanes. What is Wharton suggesting with these brief references to technology?

Many stories that take Rome as a setting, or that focus on the Colosseum, stress its role in Christian martyrdom or consider the city’s relationship to the history of the Catholic Church. By contrast, religion is not an important consideration in “Roman Fever.” If religion is used by some to ground morality, what replaces religion in this story?

Both adults praise Barbara’s vivacity, but it was the “prudent” Grace who behaved in the most audacious way. Could the mothers be mistaken in their evaluation of Jenny, the angel? How does the emphasis on the mother’s shared past shape, or misrepresent, their daughters’ futures?

The narrator says that both Alida and Grace “visualiz[e] each other […] through the wrong end of her little telescope” (753). How do you interpret this image? How do the two main characters perceive each other? What do they understand and misunderstand in the other?

At the end of the story, Grace tells Alida that she is sorry for her, an expression of pity that opens onto the final revelation. Which appears to be more dangerous in the story, pity or fear? What evidence can you marshal to support your answer?