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

Change in Roman Fever by Edith Wharton Chance (or coincidence) has an ambiguous role in the outcome of different situations; it can work in or against one’s favour. As in real life, chance in literature has considerable influence on the circumstances 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 characters concerned. In Roman Fever, old friends meet by chance and reveal disturbing secrets about the past; while in A Small, Good Thing a boy is injured on his birthday placing his parents in a desperate situation. Although chance generally seems to go unnoticed—a spontaneous purchase of candles, followed by a power failure—the impact it makes is often not so subtle. Edith Wharton, author of Roman Fever, depicts two upper class women friends; one, Mrs. Slade, fiercely jealous of the other and the other, Mrs. Ansley, pitiful of her childhood friend. The depiction is real in that it epitomizes the American upper class wife—responsibilities include making the husband happy and entertaining his guests; a typical day may consists of shopping, lunch and the exchange of rumours with the other wives of other rich husbands; in essence, they waste away the time until the rich husband arrives home from work or until he makes a request. Mrs. Slade, in reflection, felt â€Å"a certain conjugal pride† about being such a wife (Wharton, 84). The most prominent aspect of such individuals presented by Wharton is the limit in which they will endeavour to undermine even a supposed friend to achieve an end, generally the richest husband. And, of course, with such rules of play, one needs all the ... ...mall, Good Thing, while its effects were tragic; it also had a few positive implications. However, the same aspect of chance holds true in both cases: though its effects rarely go unnoticed, its role in events almost always do. If it were at all anticipatory Alida would have pondered the possibility of Grace responding to the letter and Ann would have dropped her son at school that day. Indeed, if chance were predictable it would loose its very nature; its swaying force would be futile and life would go on otherwise unruffled. Works Cited Carver, Raymond. â€Å"A Small, Good Thing.† A Pocket Anthology: Third Ed. R.S. Gwynn. New York: Longman, 2002. 304-326. â€Å"Chance.† The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. www.atomica.com. Wharton, Edith. â€Å"Roman Fever.† A Pocket Anthology: Third Ed. 81-93.