Roman Fever

One very obvious theme in this story is deception. These two women pretended to be friends throughout their lives, when in reality they had both deceived each other. They weren’t friends at all, but competitors.

I find this aspect of the story sad, because this is all too often what happens in life. From what I’ve seen, “friends” can go through life comparing their lives, keeping track of who has the better family, house, car, clothes, etc. All of this comparing and competition sometimes leads to deception, as it did in “Roman Fever”.

Each woman thought she had the upper hand on the other. Mrs. Slade thought she had the upper hand because she had cleverly crafted (or so she thought) a letter that left Mrs. Ansley out in the cold and away from Mrs. Slade’s own husband-to-be. Mrs. Slade also thought she had the upper hand, because she’s the one who ended up being married to Delphin Slade for 25 years.

Mrs. Ansley thought she had the upper hand because she had a daughter, who was “better” than Mrs. Slade’s daughter, with Delphin Slade. She also thought she had the upper hand because Delphin Slade had written her a letter, telling her to meet him at the Coliseum.

In the end, neither woman’s deception gained her anything. The letter Mrs. Slade crafted to make a fool of Mrs. Ansley came back to “bite her in the butt”, when she found out Mrs. Ansley had written Delphin back and met him at the Coliseum and mothered his daughter Barbara.

Mrs. Ansley suffered a loss when she discovered that Delphin had not actually written the letter inviting her to the Coliseum. By writing back she had, more or less, invited him. I think this makes the meeting at the Coliseum less meaningful for Mrs. Ansley, because it wasn’t Delphin’s idea at all.