Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fever 1793, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom and Independence
Mothers, Daughters, and Familial Love
Disaster and Human Nature
Ingenuity, Ambition, and Survival
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Mattie wakes to find that Nell has wet the bed they’re sharing. She scrubs Nell’s and the twins’ bedding in the courtyard while the children solemnly watch. By the time she’s washed the children, as well, Eliza has left for her Society duties, and Mother Smith has arrived to help. She criticizes Mattie’s cleaning, stitching, and childcare skills, prompting Mattie to think that her mother and Mother Smith “would have gotten along famously.” Mattie partially burns the stew and skips supper to make sure the children get enough.
Mattie helps care for Eliza’s nephews and Nell. Even though her efforts are found wanting by Mother Smith—who reminds her of her own picky mother—she reacts differently than she would have a couple of months ago. She doesn’t talk back, sulk, or take refuge in daydreams of escape. She just keeps trying, and she even forgoes her own supper to make sure the children are provided for.
Themes
As Mother Smith is leaving that night, she sees Mattie patting a sleeping Nell and warns, “Don’t love her […] She’s not yours. You can’t keep her.” It’s cruel, she says, to act like a mother to Nell and then turn her over to the orphan house. Mattie lies awake thinking about her words. She alternates between protesting and agreeing with Mother Smith that she’s being selfish.
Mother Smith has much more experience than Mattie does in caring for the needy, and her warning is well meant. Mattie might not be equipped to care for a small child, and delaying the inevitable might indeed be selfish. Such painful choices faced many people in the aftermath of epidemic; even if someone’s heart was willing, it didn’t necessarily mean they were prepared to offer the resources needed.
Themes
Early the next morning, Mattie talks to Eliza about Nell. She agrees with Mother Smith that she has to think about Nell’s future. If Lucille is alive, she won’t want another child to raise. And if she isn’t, what will Mattie do then? It’s only fair to take Nell to the orphan house. Eliza agrees that, if this is Mattie’s decision, she shouldn’t delay. They should take Nell at once.
Eliza respects Mattie’s ability to make this decision, offering only her support. This shows that Eliza acknowledges Mattie’s growth and greater independence, even as she doesn’t downplay the difficult odds Mattie and Nell will face either way.
Themes
As Eliza, Nell, and Mattie walk to the orphan house, Mattie tries to distract herself from heartbreak, telling herself that she’s doing the right thing for Nell; but it’s to no avail. When they arrive at the orphan house, the door is answered by a desperate-looking woman with three screaming children attached to her. Mattie has to shout to make herself heard. The woman asks if anyone else is available to take the girl; they are overwhelmed with fever orphans right now, and the orphanage “has become the house of last resort.”
Mattie finds that it’s very difficult to get the heart and reason to fully align. She already has maternal (or sisterly) feelings toward Nell that can’t simply be quashed. Again, she inevitably sees herself in Nell’s plight. As it turns out, however, outside circumstances might have decided things for Mattie—Nell is far from the only child orphaned or abandoned.
Themes
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Mattie looks into Nell’s trusting eyes and “[wants] to dance.” She thanks the woman and dashes down the steps with Nell before the woman can change her mind. She tells Eliza that Nell needs someone who can comb her hair and tell her stories. Eliza agrees that they are all better off together.
In contrast to the beginning of the story, independence for Mattie looks like taking on the heavy burden of caring for a small child when she’s not yet an adult herself. Fighting for survival sometimes involves resolving the tension between head and heart and forging a path when it doesn’t seem reasonable.
Themes
They pass the Ogilvie mansion, and Eliza tells Nell a story she’s heard about Colette Ogilvie. Colette almost died from the fever, but on her supposed deathbed, she’d revealed that she had recently eloped with her French tutor, while her mother had believed she was engaged to someone else. Colette refused to leave town until her husband was allowed to join them. Mattie laughs uproariously as Eliza tells the story.
Mattie finds some comic relief in hearing what happened after Colette Ogilvie’s infamous collapse. The anecdote illustrates that mother-daughter conflict is common in all kinds of households, and that the epidemic has brought many buried tensions to the forefront.
Themes
As they’re walking down the street, Mattie notices that daisies are floating through the air. She looks up and sees someone pushing flowers through a cracked-open window. She realizes it’s Mr. Peale’s house. After the window closes, she sees a tall, lean shadow moving and smiles at the memory of Nathaniel—“He was alive and still sending me flowers.”
Mattie is further heartened by an apparent secret message from Nathaniel, who’s quarantined at the Peale house. She has reason to hope that life might regain some normalcy after the epidemic passes.
Themes
Joseph and Eliza agree that Mattie shouldn’t return to the coffeehouse to live alone. Joseph is now strong enough to care for the children during the day, so Eliza recruits Mattie to join her in her Society relief work.
Mattie has regained a measure of family life after the loss of her grandfather and her separation from her mother. And, unlike when the Quaker Mrs. Bowles first invited her to help, Mattie now feels free to focus her energies on serving others in need.
Themes
