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
Mattie awakens to the sound of Silas pouncing on a mouse. It’s an icy winter morning, but Mattie knows that “no one else is going to get the house stirring.” She hurriedly gets dressed, careful not to wake Nell. In the next bed, Mother is still sleeping. Mattie lets her rest—she’d coughed late into the night. Across the hall, Eliza, Robert, and William are still sleeping, too.
In a stark contrast to the beginning of the book, Mattie is the first one up—and she’s happy to be so. Instead of Mother scolding Mattie to get out of bed, Mattie gladly grants Mother some extra rest. And the household has expanded with the addition of the three small children—suggesting that the coffeehouse will potentially outlive even Mattie’s ambitions.
Themes
Mattie starts the fire in the kitchen, makes coffee for everyone, and sets the table. She spends a few solitary moments on the front stoop, watching the lamplighter extinguish the lamps. There’s no sign of the terror Philadelphia has endured. Yet in these early mornings, Mattie sometimes “[listens] for Polly’s giggle or Grandfather’s voice.”
On the surface, life in Philadelphia has gotten back to normal, but those who survived the epidemic will never forget it. The very fact that Mattie is the one preparing the coffeehouse for the new day shows how drastically things have changed within just a few months.
Themes
Mattie smiles as the sun rises—“a giant balloon filled with prayers and hopes and promise.” She stands and “[shakes] the idleness out of” her skirts, ready for the new day.
Mattie hasn’t forgotten the hopeful dreams that she has always associated with Blanchard’s hot-air balloon. Now, however, she no longer yearns to escape her responsibilities like a balloon sailing into oblivion. Instead, her hopes are anchored to her love for her family and her obligations to them. Her dreams and ambitions have been enriched and broadened by her survival story, not crushed.
Themes
