Roman Fever Was Not Pneumonia

Roman Fever Was Not Pneumonia The short story "Roman Fever" was written in 1936 and traces changes in sexual mores from the turn of the century to the time of the writing. Although sex is never mentioned, sexuality and its rules is clearly the underlying theme of the story. The theme of sex is shown in "secret" clues, the meaning of which suddenly reveal themselves at the end of the story.

In this essay the events of the story will be summarized, the feelings of the two characters examined, some of the clues in the story analyzed, and the author's purpose for writing the story revealed. The story is about two widows, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley, who have been friends since they were young girls. As Mrs. Slade points out, "When we first met here we were younger than our girls are now. You remember?" (p. 36).

While their two daughters are out on a date, they are sitting together on a terrace that overlooks the city of Rome and remembering old times. Meanwhile, their daughters may be competing for the same man on this date ("That Campolieri boy...one of the best matches in Rome" p. 39). Mrs. Slade thinks that Mrs. Ansley's daughter Barbara will most likely "catch" him. She envies Mrs. Ansley because her own daughter Jenny seems to her less interesting than Barbara and rather a boring person.

"She wished that Jenny would fall in love -- with the wrong man, even; that she might have to be watched, out-maneuvered, rescued" (p. 37). Mrs. Slade has always envied Mrs. Ansley. When they were young, it was because Mrs. Ansley was more beautiful and charming than she was. Long ago, Mrs. Ansley had been in love with Mrs. Slade's fiance Delphin. Mrs. Slade decided to play a dirty trick on her. She sent her friend a letter in which she pretended to be Delphin (who became her husband).

The letter said, "My one darling, things can't go on like this. I must see you alone. Come to the coliseum immediately after dark tomorrow. There will be somebody to let you in. No one whom you need fear will suspect" (p. 41). During the course of the evening on the terrace, she confesses this to Mrs. Ansley and tells her she has always felt guilty because Mrs. Ansley got sick that night with Roman fever. She always believed that Mrs.

Ansley must have caught a chill in the evening at the ruins while waiting fruitlessly for Delphin Slade to appear, and the chill resulted in Roman fever afterwards. However, it comes out then that Mr. Slade did, in fact, appear for the tryst because Mrs. Ansley had written back to him confirming the arrangements. At the very end of the story Mrs. Slade gloats, "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." Mrs.

Ansley then tells her, "I had Barbara" (p. 44). This is the bombshell. Barbara, the daughter who is so much more clever and interesting than Mrs. Slade's daughter Jenny, was conceived that night. Their two daughters are actually half-sisters because they both have the same father. Roman fever was not pneumonia, it was pregnancy -- and at a time when an unmarried woman who had a child was society's pariah. She would have been socially ruined and shunned by all, if anyone had found out.

That is why her mother rushed her to the alter to marry Horace Ansley. Mrs. Slade explains to her friend why she did this terrible thing -- sending the letter that day. She was basically insecure about her ability to hold on to Delphin and therefore hated her friend whom she saw as a threat. Mrs. Ansley had been "exquisitely lovely" in those days (p. 36).

"I knew you were in love with Delphin -- and I was afraid; afraid of you, of your quiet ways, your sweetness...your...well, I wanted you out of the way, that's all. Just for a few weeks; just till I was sure of him. So in a blind fury I wrote that letter..." (p. 42). In this passage she starts to say that Mrs. Ansley was more sexually attractive, but then she thinks better of it. The description implies that Mrs.

Ansley had a certain vulnerability that is attractive to men (as Marilyn Monroe was during the 50s). The passage also implies that she believed Roman fever was a sickness, caused by bacteria lurking in the ancient coliseum, that would keep a person out of circulation for a while. Both women had been warned about Roman fever girls, and Mrs.

Slade remarks now that it was easier for their grandmothers to keep their mothers in and protected from it, than it was for their mothers to keep them at home: "I always used to think,' Mrs. Slade continued, 'that our mothers had a much more difficult job than our grandmothers.

When Roman fever stalked the streets it must have been comparatively easy to gather in the girls at the danger hour; but when you and I were young, with such beauty calling us, and the spice of disobedience thrown in, and no worse risk than catching cold during the cool hour after sunset, the mothers used to be put to it to keep us in -- didn't they?" (p. 38). This is a clever use of irony here because Mrs.

Ansley knows well the risk was quite different, with more far-reaching consequences than "catching cold." Awakening sexuality is the Roman fever their mothers were guarding them against. Mrs. Ansley seems to be the more honest character in the story. She admits, for example, that she was not always wise. "The most prudent girls aren't always prudent" (p. 41). It was she who told the story long ago to Mrs. Slade and gave her the idea for the dirty trick. A wicked aunt of Mrs.

Ansley's had sent a younger sister to the Forum "after sunset to gather a night-blooming flower for her album"(p. 40) hoping she would get sick. The night-blooming flower is a metaphor for sexual activity. The aunt and her sister were in love with the same man, and the younger sister got the fever and died. Thus, Mrs. Ansley gave Mrs. Slade the idea that led to the letter.

Afterwards, instead of reporting that she was pregnant, her family told the community that she had gone to the Forum "to see the moon rise" and had caught a chill. Of course, people wondered because Mrs. Ansley had always careful about her health. Mrs. Ansley also seems to have practiced keeping her feelings under control and hidden. When she learns, for example, that Delphin did not write the letter to her that night, she maintains her composure better than Mrs. Slade thinks she ought to be able.

"It seemed to Mrs. Slade that a slow struggle was going on behind the voluntarily controlled mask of her small quiet face. 'I shouldn't have thought she had herself so well in hand,' Mrs. Slade reflected, almost resentfully" (p. 43). Perhaps she learned to control her emotions because of having to keep the secret of her child's conception and father all these years. And she is sorry for Mrs. Slade because she knows that Delphin, the father, was unfaithful that night: "...I didn't have to wait that night" (p. 44).

The way she puts it implies that she takes responsibility for her actions.