Roman Fever

Rome is an inexplicably seductive and enticing city. The lure of Rome is unexplainable and yet there is an innate desire to understand the Eternal City, to let Rome slowly and sweetly divulge all of her secrets until you intimately know Rome. Authors use Rome because of this very fact, because Rome is not explainable and yet everyone feels that they somehow know Rome. To me, Roman Fever is a perfect example of how an author can use Rome to give more meaning to their story. In Roman Fever, Edith Wharton uses the Roman Forum to help set the stage of the intricate play between past and present.
Roman Fever is a short story that contrasts the mistakes of the past with the lies and deceit of the present. The girlish impropriety of Mrs. Ansley has forever haunted Mrs. Slade and her own error in writing the forsaken letter has torn at her over the years. Both women are aware of the errors of their past, but are unaware of their consequences in the present. As the two women sit staring over the Forum- Mrs. Slade contemplates the letter she wrote, while Mrs. Ansley is reminded of her midnight romp with Mr. Slade. Both women hold the secrets of the past yet sit together in the present with the unspoken truth permeating the air. Mrs. Slade only intending to injure the pride of her “dear” friend and possibly right the wrongs of her past mistake finds that her whole life has been a lie-beginning and ending with Mrs. Ansley. The Forum is the beginning and the end of their relationship.
The Roman Forum is a testament to the past-the ruins of the once great political hub of Rome. The Forum is the heart of Rome-a place that is shrouded with mystery and inexplicable seduction. Overlooking the Forum from a rooftop restaurant near Trajan’s Forum, as Edith Wharton’s characters would have been, one would be able to see the whole expanse of the Roman Forum. The women would have been surrounded by many of the ancient sites of Rome: the Colosseum, the Palatine, and the Capitoline. These sites have specific relevance for Wharton’s story. The Palatine and the Capitoline gain their significance as the birthplace of Rome because of the myth of Romulus and Remus. The jealousy of these two brothers ended in one’s demise. This is the same in the case of the two women- Mrs. Slade’s jealousy is the catalyst for the tryst between Mrs. Ansley and Mr. Slade. By using the Roman Forum as the setting for her short story Edith Wharton is able to use metaphors and myths regarding the Forum to enhance her story.
The Forum is also linked with the concept of Roman fever. Roman fever is malaria and at one time plagued those who spent their evenings in the Forum. The characters in Wharton’s Roman Fever talk about this illness and how their parents warned them to stay away from the Forum at night or they would catch the terrible disease. I think that Edith Wharton plays with the idea of Roman fever and uses it as a metaphor for the feverish passion that Rome unleashes in all of those who come here. Mrs. Ansley may have caught Roman fever, but it was not the illness of malaria that she was taken by, she was captured by love and the madness of love.
By choosing the Roman Forum for the setting of her short story Wharton chose to use the seductive mystery of the Forum to enhance her tale. As Ovid states in looking for a partner one might venture to “the courts of the law, the bustle and noise of the forum…” (Smiles, 27) Even in the time of Augustus the Forum was a place where love might be found. It seems that now the Forum is still alive with that passion-alive with Roman fever.