Roman Fever

This picture depicts Mrs. Ainsley and Mrs. Slade together remembering the incident with the letter. Out the window is the Colleseum.

Roman Fever 

By Edith Wharton

Analytical Response B.

Roman Fever has many different symbols or other meanings between the lines of the text that are hard to find and have many possible meanings. I am going to give 10 interpretive  discussion question about the symbolism and the plot itself to add to a discussion about this story. 

1)What do you think the significance of Mrs. Ansley's knitting throughout the story is? Does it have a deeper meaning?

2)Why do you think that Mrs. Slade is so annoyed or affected by her knitting, and what does it mean?

3)What is the difference between the two generations that Rome had on them?

4)Why do the women start to confess about their pasts now and how is their visiting Rome a factor in this?

5)Describe the difference between Jenny's perfectness and Babs' brilliantness, how are those two qualities similar and different. 

6)Why do you think that Mrs. Slade is somewhat disappointed with Jenny being a perfect daughter?

7) Do you think that Roman Fever can also symbolize something deeper than just a sickness? If so, state why. 

8)Do you think that Rome has had a good or bad effect on the women as friends and as people?

9)Why does Mrs. Slade wish that Jenny would have to be taken care of instead of it being the other way around?

10) What do you think Mrs. Slade's reaction might of been after she found out that Mrs. Ansley had an affair with her husband, and how do you think it would effect their daughters?

 

Roman Fever Poem

This is a story about two women in Rome,

They were on vacation, not at home. 

Mrs. Slade had always been jealous of her friend, 

A jealousy that would never seem to end. 

She was jealous of Mrs. Ansley and her daughter Barbara too, 

Mrs. Slade never really thought her plans through. 

She also judged her own daughter way too hard, 

she wanted to protect her, be her guard. 

So when the women were siting on the deck over viewing the city, 

Mrs. Ansley thought of how Mrs. Slade deserved pity. 

Then Mrs. Slade brought back old memories of their youth, 

The women were both about to find out the truth. 

Mrs. Slade wrote a love letter from her husband to her friend, 

To meet him at the Colosseum, the night together they would spend. 

She was trying to hurt Mrs. Ansley's feelings, 

but that is not what happened with Mrs. Slade's dealings. 

Little did she know that Mrs. Ansley would write back, 

When she found out that he really met her that night she almost had an anxiety attack. 

She never knew that Mrs. Ansley loved the Delphin so much, 

so rubbing their marriage in her face was clutch. 

But she had Barbara with the Delphin, she implied, 

the girl who always made Mrs. Slade green-eyed. 

This story shows that women can get ferocious, 

and sometimes situations can turn out atrocious!

ROMAN FEVER-Lizzie Spaulding

My group had to read the short story Roman Fever, written by Edith Wharton, and i was assigned to write a short review of it.

"Roman Fever" was a rather sad short story about two women reminiscing on memories they once shared together in Rome. Like many short stories this one does have a very definite meaning or message behind it. One of the meanings behind this short story is never judge someone based on old feelings or rumors because you never know if they are judging you right back. In other words, just don't judge a book by its cover. Another main idea of this story is girls are ferocious sometimes, girls in love especially. This is actually said by one of the characters, Mrs. Slade. I think this is very true and an important point in this story, almost every women once in her life has had an encounter with a ferocious girl and knows from her own experience girls can be mean, especially when love is involved, and in this story love is definitely involved. I personally did not enjoy this story but i would recommend it to someone who likes sad stories involving love, broken hearts and backstabbing friends. It is very well written with an ending that literally will make you gasp and stop! One complaint i have towards this story was the beginning was alittle tedious to read. Practically the first three pages is unnecessary information that the reader could due without. It was particularly hard for me to get threw and understand the first couple of pages. This story, for me, related to the short story "Good Country People", by Flannery O'Connor, in the sense that it was not enjoying for me to read at all but both contained deep messages, that are vital in life.

Ross and Aristotle

Ross was the shy and quirky one of the six main characters in the very popular t.v. show Friends. Ross may have been shy and quirky but his over all personality type, according to Aristotle, is virtuous, but he also has some incontinent qualities. Ross has a hard time lying to people and goes out of his way to tell the truth. These qualities are why he is virtuous. The main reason why he is sometimes incontinent is because he makes mistakes sometimes, or he does something wrong when he knows it is wrong. The good thing about Ross though is that when he does something wrong he tries really hard to fix it and make it right. This type of situation happens in the episode "The One In Barbados -Part 1". When Ross kisses Joey's ex-girlfriend, he goes crazy trying to find Joey so they can talk about it because he doesn't think it is fair to Joey. The incontinent quality about him though is that he did kiss Joey's ex-girlfriend a few hours after they had broken up, so he did something bad even when he knew it was wrong. Ross is also virtuous because he is always trying to help his friends when they are in need by giving them advice on their problems or even giving them a place to live. Another reason why Ross is virtuous is because when Rachel tells him she is pregnant in the episode "The One Where Rachel Tells...", he says that he will fully support her and the baby and be there for them. 

Joey From Friends and Aristotle

Joey from Friends is both continent and incontinent. Continent means that a person is able to judge right from wrong, has appetites that are not in the line of reason, and the person does the right thing. Incontinent means the same thing but the person is does not to do the right thing. Joey is continent and incontinent because he sometimes does the right thing and sometimes does the wrong thing, but his appetites are never in the line of reason. In "The One with the Ride Along" episode, Joey appears to be trying to save Ross from a supposed gunshot wound, but it was actually his sandwich he was trying to save, which was next to Ross. This is an example of being incontinent because Joey loves food too much and it controls his life. He is also doing the wrong thing because if a person hears a gunshot one should check to see if their friend is okay, not if their sandwich survived. In another episode of friends, Joey starts to work at a coffee house because his acting career is in a little bit of a slump. He is not very good at this job because all he does is give attractive girls free food. That is another appetite of his that is out of reason; his love of beautiful girls. However, Joey gets a big audition and ditches work completely. When he realizes that he did this he is really embarrassed and never wants to go back to the coffee house. But, Joey does the right thing and goes to the coffee house to apologize and get fired. Joey compares most to Fez from That 70's Show because they both know right from wrong but they usually do the wrong thing. However, they both occasionally do the right thing too. That is why Joey is continent and incontinent.

Rachel and Aristotle-Lizzie Spaulding

I examined Rachel, from the popular TV show "Friends". Rachel is a good person, deep down, she does have virtue imprinted on her heart just like Rousseau believes but she does have some serious flaws. Like most people, Rachel is a little selfish, actually more than a littler selfish. She is not exactly virtuous because she is always thinking about herself rather than others. For instance in one episode titled "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt, Phoebe borrows a pair of earrings from Monica, and then lends them to Rachel to wear and Rachel misplaces them. Ultimately the safekeeping of the earrings was Phoebe's responsibility and by giving them to Rachel that showed she trusted her and Rachel didn't even care that much. It just shows that Rachel is selfish, if you borrow something from someone, you are supposed to be very, very careful with it. Although i think Rachel is invirtous i do believe she is a mix of continent and incontinent. She knows the difference between right and wrong, sometimes she listens to her conscious and doest the right thing, but other times she knows her actions are wrong and still preforms them anyway. For instance in the episode, "The One With The Ride Along" Rachel is asked to give a message to her friend Emily which she agrees to do. The message is confidential but Rachel being Rachel decides to open it, even though she knows it is wrong. She eventually ends up loosing the message and she then has to deal with the consequences of her actions.
So the two most prominent Rachel possess are: invirtous and a mix of continent and incontent.

Aristotle's Ethics Views: Phoebe=virtuous

I believe that Phoebe conveys a virtuous character in the eyes of Aristotle. This is because Phoebe does not have many fancy things or a family and she still cares about the world aropund her. She always goes out of her way to help anmils and the poor. Also she respects the feelings of people and even inadiment objects. In a christmas episode titled, The One Where Rachel Quits, Pheobe does not accept Joey's new job (he sells christmas trees) because they are cruel to the old dying trees and throw them in the chipper. Another example of Phoebe's virtuous character is in The One Hundreth aka The One with the Triplets. In this episode Phoebe give birth to triplets that belong to her brother and his wife (They asked he to be a surgate mother). At first she did not want to but then decided to help her brother. Then after she had them, she was very emotional because she wanted to keep them. I believe Pheobe is a virtuous character.

Aristotle and Friends
The following posts will describe how the characters in the tv show Friends go along with Aristotle's four character types; virtuous, continent, incontinent and vicious.