Edith Wharton published a gripping story of two older women looking back on their past titled "Roman Fever" in 1936, just a year before her death . The story is set in Rome with both women facing what is called “Memento Mori”, or memory of human mortality. After years of not seeing each other, Mrs. Grace Ansley and Mrs. Alida Slade decided to share an overdue lunch. After civil conversations about the lives they led, the two began to delve into some issues they had developed decades earlier. Twenty-five or so years ago, Grace had had an affair with Alida's boyfriend, Delphin. When Alida learned of the situation, she forged a letter under Delphin's name in hopes of luring Grace out into the cold where she would wait for Delphin until she fell ill and died. However, Grace wrote back to Delphin and met him where they engaged in sexual activity. That night, Grace became pregnant with Delphin's child. The dramatic climax and surprise ending of “Roman Fever” fueled the worldly idea that the truth will always prevail and that envy can be a cruel and terrifying thing. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To touch on the concept of envy, throughout the story, there is a hint of jealousy between the two women. Furthermore, this jealousy is prominent in Alida. She talked about how her daughter bored her and how she would much rather have a daughter like Grace's. She said, “I always wanted a brilliant daughter… and I never understood why I had an angel instead” (123). Alida went on to say that her daughter Jenny looked nothing like Grace's beautiful daughter. Alida, at one point, even undermines Grace by believing that there is an underlying reason why the two daughters spend time together. Alida thought to herself, “Jenny doesn't stand a chance next to her. I know it too. I wonder if that's why Grace Ansley likes the two girls to go everywhere together? My poor Jenny as a complement…” (123). The apparent jealousy is so strong in Alida that it has brought it into her daughter's life as well. Grace probably had other means in mind as to why the two girls should date, none of which had anything to do with using Jenny as an obstacle. The envy that Alida has towards Grace's daughter is quite worrying for the reader. She said she would love to have a daughter like Barbara, while her daughter should be the light of her life. Alida absolutely wanted Barbara to be hers. Alida's jealousy of Barbara apparently played a key role in this tale as Barbara is revealed to be the product of Grace and Delphin's relationship. This means that Barbara, in a sense, could have been Alida's daughter if Grace had not seen Delphin that night twenty-five years earlier; if Alida had never written that letter on behalf of Delphin inviting Grace to come to the Colosseum. In a way, Alida is the reason Delphin and Grace had a sexual encounter, which means she is the reason Barbara was born. The end of the story takes envy to a larger level. As the story progressed, Alida's jealousy became more and more evident and, indeed, more and more dramatic. At one point near the end, it was revealed that the letter Grace received from Delphin was actually written by Alida. In her heat of envy and anger when she discovered the affair, Alida essentially plotted Grace's death. Under the name Delphin, she asks Grace to meet her atColosseum after sunset alone. Alida knew that Grace would wait hours for Delhpin to show up and would eventually get sick and die. Furthermore, by telling Grace that she was the one who wrote the letter, she was trying to gain the upper hand. James Phelan wrote in his article: “Alida wants to triumph over Grace.” Alida wanted Grace to know that she knew everything, and that Grace knew very little. Most of Alida's jealousy came out when she explained why she wrote that letter. "'You understand? I found out – and I hated you, I hated you. I knew you were in love with Delphin - and I was afraid; afraid of you, of your silent ways, of your sweetness… of your… well, I wanted you out of my way, that's all” (126). Was Alida afraid that Grace had the ability to steal her boyfriend? from her, as if people could be stolen. She needed to find a way to solidify her place with Delphin, and with Grace in the picture, Alida felt like she never had a fighting chance. The thread of envy and jealous anger led to the idea that the truth would always prevail. Alida was determined to be ahead of Grace with every step she took, however, it turned out that Grace had never even walked the same path. “History, in effect, shows the lingering effects of the past on the present,” Phelan wrote. “More specifically, as tensions surrounding the events of twenty-five years ago slowly resolve, we also recognize that both Alida and Grace’s knowledge of those events have been partial.” As previously mentioned, Grace never knew that Alida was actually the one who wrote the letter, and Alida saw this as her advantage. Alida thought that the relationship between Grace and her boyfriend? it ended there. However, Grace reveals at the end of the story that she responded to Delphin and that that night at the Colosseum he had arrived to meet her there. Alida, in another fit of anger and envy, said: “At the end of all these years. After all, I had everything; I've had it for twenty-five years. And you had nothing but that letter that he didn't write” (128). Alida still believed she had the last laugh, the last word and the upper hand. He believed the truth had been revealed and that was that. But in a shocking ending, Grace replied, “I had Barbara” (128). The truth was finally discovered and Alida was left with envy for the daughter born from the relationship of her boyfriend and best friend. “As the story closes, Grace realizes that she has the upper hand, not only having slept with Delphin, but also having given birth to the daughter Alida so desires” (Petry 166). All the time Alida spent trying to convince Grace that she knew the whole truth and had all the power turned out to be a heartless mistake. Grace, despite not knowing about the letter, knew what had really happened that night at the Colosseum and what she had left there to have forever. These two women never knew the full story, until it came out twenty-five years later, during a lunch in Rome. This short story showed an overall theme of how cruel envy could be and also represented the idea that the truth would always come out. in the end. Both Alida and Grace lived most of their lives believing that their side of the story was the only one, which turned out to be wrong on both sides. Most of Alida's actions were fueled by her jealousy; whether it's Grace's personality, her looks, or her daughter. Alida's envy almost led to Grace's intentional death. Grace knew nothing about Alida's involvement in the affair and hadn't even thought of telling her what had happened. Somehow everything became clear and it would be right to believe that Alida's jealousy did not.