Change in Roman Fever by Edith Wharton Essay -- Coincedence Edith Whar

Change in Roman Fever by Edith WhartonChance (or coincidence) has an uncertain role in the outcome ofdifferent situations it can work in or against ones favour. As inreal life, happen in literature has considerable influence on thecircumstances of the characters and where those circumstances lead. In two particular literary works, Roman Fever and A Small, Good Thing,chance happenings have grave results on the lives of the charactersconcerned. In Roman Fever, old friends meet by chance and revealdisturbing secrets intimately the past while in A Small, Good Thing a boyis injured on his birthday placing his parents in a desperatesituation. Although chance generally seems to go unheededaspontaneous purchase of candles, followed by a power failuretheimpact it makes is often not so subtle. Edith Wharton, author of Roman Fever, depicts two hurrying class womenfriends one, Mrs. Slade, fiercely jealous of the other and the other,Mrs. Ansley, pitiful of her childhood friend. The depiction is realin that it epitomizes the American upper class wiferesponsibilitiesinclude make the husband happy and entertaining his guests atypical day may consists of shopping, lunch and the exchange ofrumours with the other wives of other rich husbands in essence, theywaste past the time until the rich husband arrives home from work oruntil he makes a request. Mrs. Slade, in reflection, felt a certainconjugal pride about being such a wife (Wharton, 84). The mostprominent aspect of such individuals presented by Wharton is the limitin which they will endeavour to undermine even off a supposed friend toachieve an end, generally the richest husband. And, of course, withsuch rules of play, one needs all the ... ...mall, GoodThing, while its effects were tragic it also had a few positiveimplications. However, the same aspect of chance holds true in bothcases though its effects rarely go unnoticed, its role in events some always do. If it were at all anticipatory Alida would havepondered the possibility of Grace responding to the letter and Annwould have dropped her son at school that day. Indeed, if chance werepredictable it would costless its very nature its swaying force would befutile and life would go on otherwise unruffled.Works CitedCarver, Raymond. A Small, Good Thing. A Pocket Anthology thirdEd. R.S. Gwynn. New York Longman, 2002. 304-326.Chance. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English LanguageFourth Ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. www.atomica.com.Wharton, Edith. Roman Fever. A Pocket Anthology Third Ed. 81-93.