Oppression Of American Women In Roman Fever By Edith Wharton

For this week’s discussion post I chose to read Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever”. The story takes place in Rome, specifically at a restaurant overlooking the Palatine (one of the seven hills on which the oldest part of Rome was built) where two middle aged American women Mrs. Ansley (a well-cared for and still stunningly attractive woman), and Mrs. Slade (a high colored fairly attractive woman) overhear two younger women on the street below carrying on about how they were going out to have fun with friends for the night instead of spending the evening with their much less exciting mothers. As we continue to read we learn the two women have been lifelong friends and just happened to have run into one another while vacationing in Rome and that the
For instance, we how drastically the two younger women contrast their mothers. Barbra, Mrs. Ansley’s daughter isn’t as exquisite as her mother and father once were yet everyone around her is attracted to her outgoing personality and zest for life. Mrs. Slade’s daughter, unlike her mother is an extremely pretty girl who has a bubbly and innocent personality. As the story continues to unfold we learn the young women contrast one another just as their mothers did when they were the same age, however we also come to find that deep down each mothers heart yearned for a daughter that never came. For example, Mrs. Ansley wanted a physically beautiful daughter, instead she had a very intelligent daughter with a wonderful personality. Mrs. Slade wanted a very intelligent daughter with a great personality yet her daughter is physically beautiful and lacks the intelligence and articulation of her mother. The following points I feel are key depictions related to the unspoken competitiveness and jealousy that finally surfaces during the story’s climax as we learn more in regard to mother’s twenty five year relationship