Roman Fever

In my opinion, Roman Fever, is a timeless classic short story. No matter how old you are or where you come from, the reader can relate to the theme of deception and jealousy. At some point in our lives we have dealt with the so called friend who betrayed us behind our back or we may have even betrayed our friend. 
The phrase, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, depicts the "friendship" between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. " Mrs. Slade bears her true feelings toward Mrs. Ansley in this line, She thought: "I must make one more effort not to hate her."  The two woman grew up together as children, lived across the street from each other, been "friends" for years but are they really friends?  The two woman competed their entire lives" Well as a girl she had been exquisite; far more beautiful than her daughter Barbara, though certainly Babs. according to the new standards at any rate, was more effective-had more edge, as they say. Funny where she got it, with those two nullities as parents."  Mrs. Slade was envious of Mrs. Ansley's daughter because her daughter got the physical characteristics  and personality that Jenny lacked. It was almost as if the girls were born to the wrong families.
All of Mrs. Slade's life she thought had the upper hand because she got the prize husband along with the exquisite, rich lifestyle. Yes, Mrs. Ansley did lead a rich lifestyle as well but not as exquisite as Mrs. Slade. However, Mrs. Ansley did get the "perfect" daughter that every mother is envious of, due to Mrs. Slade's own jealousy. The root of Mrs. Slade's jealousy led to her own misfortune. If she had not tried to deceive Grace Ansley into believing that Delphin (her husband) had written that, then Grace never would have had the daughter Mrs. Slade always envied and been deceived by her husband. Jealousy and insecurity leads to our own undoing and misfortune. The last line in the book, "I had Barbara," stated by Mrs. Ansley sums up the short story's theme of deception. Mrs. Slade was always proud and haughty of her flashy life she had because of marrying Delphin but in the end her life was based on deception by her husband and "friend." I feel bad for the woman because Delphin gets off easy in this short story with no consequences and she deceived by her friend. At the same time, she did this to her own self by writing the note to Grace. Her own insecurities and jealousy were the cause of the deception that Delphin and Grace carried their entire life. Had she not wrote that note then Barbara never would have happened. In the end I don't feel so bad for Mrs. Slade because she brought her own misfortune upon herself with insecurities.