Month: October 2019

“Roman Fever” depicts friends, family and lovers in a more negative way than people generally do.  On the surface these specific relationships are suppose to be intimate and loving. They are suppose to be executed with trustworthy people. In this story Wharton depicts these realtionships as judgemental, dishonest and sad through the the conversations Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley have.  The reader learns that their friendship is toxic because of envy. The relationships these women had with their husbands were not honest. The thoughts these women have about their daughters did not always come from a loving place and are in fact judgemental. Wharton wants depict that even the closest people in someone’s life can have a side to them that is unknown to the public. Mrs. Slade and Mrs.Ansley both kept a put together personna on the outside, but in reality they were keeping secrets from the most important people in their lives.

In Roman Fever by Edith Wharton, the author wants us to consider the fact that nobody, including our friends, lovers, and family, is completely trustworthy. Grace and Delphin have an affair in this short story. This shows that we don’t know everything about our friends, lovers, and family. Grace’s husband, who is now dead, had an untrustworthy wife that he thought he knew. Mrs. Delphin Slade is unaware of her husband’s true intentions. This shows that their truly isn’t anyone on Earth that can be trusted completely.

In The Gilded Six-Bits by Zora Neale Hurston, the presence of money, or lack of it, shapes the story and the lives of the characters and their personalities. Joe’s wife Missie May cheats on him with a wealthy man. This shows the presence money plays in this marriage; Missie May cheats on her husband to feel “rich” with her wealthy partner. Joe quickly forgives his wife for cheating on him and even let “her cook him some breakfast” (Hurston 6). Joe and Missie May lack money, so Joe chooses to ignore the fact that his wife is cheating on him because the man she is cheating with is wealthy and will give Missie May, and ultimately Joe, money. The lack of money in Joe and Missie May’s lives allows the two of them to have an extremely unhealthy marriage and horrible individual lives.

In the short story “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton, many buried secrets are revealed through the conversation between Alida Slade and Grace Ansley. Both women have been holding a grudge against each other for a very long time, but the truth is finally let out. Alida’s fake letter to Grace posing as Delphin, the now deceased husband of Alida, shows how calculating Alida was. Alida lured Grace out in hopes that she would get sick, but little did she know that Grace wrote back to Delphin. Grace and Delphin did meet and have an affair which resulted in Barbara, the daughter of the two. Readers can tell that Alida is really her own undoing because if she hadn’t written the letter, none of these events would have taken place such as the affair between Grace and Delphin. Wharton wants us to consider that we may not even know the true intentions of our closest friends, family members, or significant others. In this story, Delphin deceives his own wife, Grace deceived her also now deceased husband, and Barbara and Jenny- Alida’s daughter are unaware that they’re actually half-sisters. The revenge, lies, and secrets have ultimately led to Alida and Grace’s own self-destruction.

A resort town is associated with happiness, love, and different bright emotions. Whenever Gurov and Anna were away from their lovers, in Yalta, they were at their peak happiness and felt like they were falling in love again. However, when they both returned to St. Petersberg and Moscow, two very cold cities, they were returning to reality. They both were unhappy with their current marriage and sought a scenario where they left their significant others for the ones they met in paradise, Yalta.

Yalta is the perfect place for their affair because a resort town could be described as “dreamy” and pulls its visitors a chance to escape reality. Their affair, in essence, is them trying to escape their boring marriage and seek excitement and a new reality.

During the beginning of the text, we are introduced to Missie May and Joe who seem to be in a great relationship. However the gilded coin that Slemmons possesses, which Missie May thought was real gold, creates problems for their marriage. At first, the gilded coin symbolizes wealth and a life that Missie May could only dream of. Her desire for this life makes her sleep with Slemmons and betray her husband. Missie May comes to find out that the gilded coin was fake and it becomes clear that the promises for a better and wealthier life was all a lie. The coin symbolizes a luxurious life that is about appearing wealthy and flashy with jewelry  however, Joe spent it on candy which shows that the coin is worth trading to fix his happy marriage.

In the short story, Dmitri has mixed feelings about women in general. Through Dmitri’s view of women, the story tells us that the author may believe that people don’t always fully understand themselves. On one hand, Dmitri speaks badly of women and refers to them as the “lower race”, but on the other hand he feels free and at ease when he is in their company. It is also mentioned that Dmitri thinks that every intimacy eventually becomes unbearable, however after he departs from Anna, he can’t stop thinking about her and sees her again. Additionally, although he is initially described as a mysoginist, he asks Anna how he could despise her. Later on, Dmitri’s wife tell him that “The part of a lady-killer does not suit [him] at all.” Overall, Dmitri’s negative thoughts of women are contradicted by his actions and feelings towards Anna.

In Roman Fever by Edith Wharton, the author utilizes the background and social class of the main characters in order to further instill her point. Although Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley appear to come be of high class, they still carry secrets and baggage that prevent them from living their best lives. Their presumed wealth and status serves as a facade for their somewhat troubled lives.

Rome is used as a symbol of class and high culture in order to demonstrate their wealth. Yet, throughout the story the main characters become vulnerable to the point that their wealth is unimportant.

Gilded, by definition, is to be thinly covered in gold. This seems to be the perfect way to describe Joe and Missie May’s relationship. At the beginning of the story, Joe and Missie appeared to have a very strong and loving relationship (Hurston 1). Even the setting of the story appeared to be beautifully detailed and quaint. As the story progressed, however, the thin gold layer peeled away and we were able to see the ugly inside that was their relationship. Missie’s infidelity was a massive part of the darker less appealing side of their marriage. Overall, their marriage appeared to be strong and beautiful as gold is, but the core was much was much less lustrous.

The lack of money represents happiness for the characters. Joe works hard for 7 dollars and comes back to his wife and chucks the coins at the door. This signifies that he does not care about how much he has and only works so he can provide for him and his wife. When they lacked money, Joe and Missie May were at their happiest (beginning and end of the story). Joe and Missie had a routine where Joe would come back after working for a week and playfully mess around with his wife, almost like they were children again. But in the pursuit of greed and money, Missie decided to cheat for a “gold coin” and broke the trust between the two. Joe, however, forgave her and towards the end, when he spends the fake gold coin Missie “earned”, he seemed to be a lot happier and finally forgave her completely. Giving away the money away made their happiness come back, similar to their situation in the beginning of the story.