Selective Disclosure in “Roman Fever” Teresa G. Ingalls Baptist Bible College Graduate School Selective Disclosure in “Roman Fever” Assessing Edith Wharton’s contribution to literature, E. K. Brown (1938) writes, “Conscious art was the basis of all she wrote” (p. 68), particularly in finding “the exactly right mode of presenting a subject” (pp. 67-68). Brown acknowledges Edith Wharton’s interest in technique as a writer of fiction. Readers can see this “conscious art,” this interest in technique, even in a short piece such as “Roman Fever.” This short story portrays a synthesis of the past and the present in the lives of two middle-aged women, a synthesis that ignites what J. Phelan terms a “vicious conflict” between Alida Slade and Grace Ansley (2007, p. 104). In “Roman Fever” Edith Wharton tightly controls narrative disclosure to guide the reader toward seeing Grace Ansley as the winner in the end. The narrator holds the story at arm’s length by referring to the two women in conflict as Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley, taking the reader along in this detached telling. Soon into the story’s launch, the narrator selectively focalizes through Alida Slade, presenting her thoughts, enabling readers to learn much more about Alida Slade than they do about Grace Ansley. Alida Slade is proud and self-focused. She first asserts her sense of superiority over Grace when Grace comments that the “glories of the Palantine” would always be a glorious view “to me” with an emphasis on me (p. 1). Alida is momentarily taken back by this comment and wonders “if it were not merely accidental.” In Alida’s mind, Grace is so sensible and “old-fashioned” (p. 1) that Grace could not possibly have enough passion in her soul to associate special memories with this view. Alida deprecates Grace in Alida’s thoughts at the outset of the story, causing readers to sympathize slightly with Grace and wonder why Alida so harshly judges Grace. Alida’s pride and moral superiority over Grace increases when Alida thinks of Grace’s beautiful daughter Barbara, comparing Barbara to Alida’s own daughter Jenny, who seems to live in the shadow of Barbara’s beauty and vividness. The narrator again brings readers into Alida’s thoughts when she wonders how “two nullities” such as Horace and Grace Ansley could have produced such a vivid, beautiful daughter as Barbara (p. 2). Readers’ negative judgment of Alida increases as readers see her belittle Grace and Horace and her own child, Jenny. Like Grace, Jenny is almost a “nullity” to Alida. To Alida, the great Alida does not deserve a daughter like Jenny, and the colorless Grace does not deserve a daughter like Barbara. Readers’ disgust for Alida further deepens when the narrator focalizes through her consciousness to describe her marriage to Delphin Slade. The marriage is all about Alida’s fulfillment as “the Slade’s wife” with her beautiful eyes and “good clothes” (p. 2). In the marriage Alida has lived only for appearances and outward admiration, not for love. Now her widowhood is a “big drop from being the wife of Delphin Slade” (p. 2). Alida Slade found identity and pride in being Delphin Slade’s wife and attempts to adjust to the fact that she is no longer in the limelight. The disclosure in the launch has positioned Alida Slade as a prideful, self-focused woman, concerned with outward appearances, always comparing herself to others. During the voyage of the story, the narrative continues this disclosure of Alida Slade’s pride, deepening readers’ dislike of this selfish character. Alida and Grace mention the two daughters in conversation and then Alida’s thoughts revert to “my poor Jenny as a foil” to the gorgeous Barbara who is about to snag a young Marchese. This time Alida voices the sense of competition aloud, baiting Grace, highlighting the tension of competition between the two women. Additionally we learn through Alida’s thoughts that Alida has always envied Grace: “Would she never cure herself of envying her!” (p. 3). This thought confirms Alida’s envy and hatred toward Grace for twenty-five years. Readers’ distaste for Alida increases simultaneously as their sympathy for Grace increases because the narrator has focalized through Alida’s consciousness during the majority of the launch and voyage sections of the narrative. In contrast, readers do not know very much about Grace Ansley. During the launch, the narrator does relate that Mrs. Ansley is “far less sure than her companion of herself and of her rights in the world” (p. 1). Because the focalization of Alida has already established Alida’s unjust condemnation of Grace, this comment from the narrator does not damage Grace’s reputation with the reader. In fact the comment places Grace as a foil to Alida who thinks that she owns rights in the world. During the story’s launch, the narrator focalizes briefly through Grace to show that Grace has a “mental portrait” of Alida, a portrait that is “slighter, and drawn with fainter touches” (p. 2) than the portrait Alida has drawn of Grace. The narrator discloses that Mrs. Ansley is “rather sorry” for Alida Slade because Alida has lived a “sad life,” a life “full of failures and mistakes” (p. 2). This brief focalization from Grace’s viewpoint causes readers to judge Grace Ansley more graciously because her conception leads her to sympathy for Mrs. Slade, rather than pride and self focus. Backing away from a focalization on either character to build tension, the narrator comments that each lady visualized the other “through the wrong end of her little telescope” (p. 2). Yet the wrong end of the telescope seems by default more vicious for Alida than for Grace. During Part II, Grace Ansley again appears in a more positive light for the reader. Though Alida Slade baits Grace about how “two such exemplary characters as you and Horace had managed to produce anything quite so dynamic” in Barbara (p. 3), Mrs. Ansley controls her response, validating readers’ sympathetic response to her. Throughout the conversation, Mrs. Ansley appears to keep herself under control even when Alida attacks her. As the story enters its conclusion, “three interlocking secrets” rise to the surface “one after another” (Bowlby, 2006, p. 37). The way the narrator presents the three revelations continues to place Alida Slade in readers’ disgrace and Grace Ansley in readers’ favor, though Grace must reveal her moral downfall. Aligning with Alida’s prideful character that the launch and voyage have established, Alida Slade draws first blood by revealing that she wrote the letter that drew Grace to meet Delphin Slade in the Coliseum. This revelation devastates Grace, who buries her hands in her face to cry, yet she maintains a semblance of composure throughout further questioning concerning this first revelation. The narrator informs readers of Alida’s maliciousness with Alida’s thought of “inflicting so purposeless a wound on her friend,” but Alida continues to justify herself (p. 5). Physically the narrator positions the characters so that Mrs. Slade is “leaning above” Mrs. Ansley and “continued to look down on” Mrs. Ansley during this first revelation (p. 5), figuratively representing Mrs. Slade’s continuing sense of superiority. As secrets are revealed, Grace reveals that she actually did meet Delphin Slade at the Coliseum that night twenty-five years ago. Readers do not condemn Grace Ansley for this second revelation because Alida Slade’s purposeless “wound” has drawn this revelation from Grace. Grace appears to confess her indiscretion. Alida reacts “with violence” compared to Grace’s previous composed reaction. Alida reveals that she “was blind with rage” and still is enraged (p. 5). As C. Vivier (2013) notes, “The vitriolic picture of Alida’s consuming hatred is the power behind the story.” Alida’s hatred increases as Graces’s revelation wounds her pride. Grace Ansley rises to leave the scene, still feeling sorry for Alida Slade, but then Alida feels she must maintain her pride one last time, boasting that she had Delphin for twenty-five years, and “you had nothing but one letter he didn’t write” (p. 5). Grace Ansley cannot resist this boastful comment and turns to articulate revelation three: “I had Barbara” (p. 6). As Phelan notes, the effect of this comment is that Alida Slade has received “appropriate comeuppance, a fit punishment for her behavior toward Grace” (2007, p. 107). The conflict has been resolved justifiably for the reader. Phelan (2007), however, maintains that “there are no winners in this story” (pp. 106, 107). In a way Phelan is right; both women are devastated by the revelations they receive. Both are morally stained, one by vindictiveness, the other by moral downfall. Yet narrative disclosure indicates that Grace is able to go on as the winner of this conflict. Grace has been able to move beyond the events of twenty-five years ago and seems to receive her just “punishment” from Alida’s revelation about the letter. In the story’s completion, the narrator presents Grace as moving “ahead of Mrs. Slade toward the stairway” (p. 6). This is the opposite of the narrator’s earlier descriptions that Mrs. Slade was leaning over and above Mrs. Grace Ansley (p. 5), both physically and figuratively. Now the placement of characters reveals that Grace has moved ahead of Mrs. Slade. Grace will enjoy Barbara. Grace will move on with her life. Through selective disclosure, Edith Wharton has achieved technical artistry while providing “meaningful instruction” (Phelan, 2007, p. 95) for her readers.  References Bowlby, R. (2006). “I had Barbara”: Women’s ties and Wharton’s “Roman Fever.” Differences: A journal of feminist cultural studies 17(5), 37-51. doi: 10.1215/10407391-2006-010. Retrieved from Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost Brown, E. K. (1962). Edith Wharton. In I. Howe (Ed.), Edith Wharton: A collection of essays (pp. 62-72). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Reprinted from Etudes Anglaises, 1938). Phelan, J. (2007). Experiencing fiction: Judgments, progressions, and the rhetorical theory of narrative. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press. Vivier, C. (2013, April 17). Re: The past as preparation in “Roman Fever” [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from http://moodle.bbc.edu/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=94466 Wharton, E. (1934). Roman fever. Retrieved from http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/ewharton/bl-ewhar-roman.htm SELECTIVE DISCLOSURE 7 Running head: SELECTIVE DISCLOSURE 1