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A confident and charming middle-aged socialite. While visiting Rome in the company of her daughter, Jenny, she encounters her old friend, Grace Ansley, who is traveling with her daughter, Barbara. Mrs. Slade’s charming personality and social intelligence made her a good match for Delphin, her now-deceased celebrity husband, but her confidence in social situations proves to be out of proportion with her actual power to captivate and control others. Mrs. Ansley captures this tension when she aptly describes Mrs. Slade as being “awfully brilliant; but not as brilliant as she thinks.” Mrs. Slade relishes drama and excitement, and wishes that her prudent daughter, Jenny, would “fall in love—with the wrong man, even” just so that she might have a scandal to occupy her time. Although she thinks of her husband only fleetingly, there is a sense that her craving for excitement and stimulation is a way of distracting herself from the pain of widowhood, and from the devastating loss of her son, who “died suddenly in boyhood.” In her interactions with Mrs. Ansley, Mrs. Slade displays tangled and often contradictory feelings of jealousy, superiority, and affection. She clings to a limited view of her old friend as being dull and emotionally shallow, incapable of feeling or thinking as intensely as Mrs. Slade does herself. However, during the course of their conversation, Mrs. Ansley destabilizes Mrs. Slade’s sense of superiority, first with subtle insinuations that Mrs. Slade’s charmed life may not be all that it seems, and then with a string of revelations about events that have defined her life in ways she hadn’t realized.
Alida Slade Quotes in Roman Fever
The Roman Fever quotes below are all either spoken by Alida Slade or refer to Alida Slade. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Section 1 Quotes
As they leaned there a girlish voice echoed up gaily from the stairs leading to the court below. “Well, come along, then,” it cried, not to them but to an invisible companion, “and let’s leave the young things to their knitting … After all, we haven’t left our poor parents much else to do.”
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In Barbara Ansley’s lighthearted joke, Wharton shows the impact of middle age and widowhood on Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade. In their daughters’ eyes, the two women are no longer active participants in life’s many dramas and adventures. Instead, they are passive observers of life. Barbara’s joke suggests that young people are the vital center of the world, and that older people rely on their children to keep themselves occupied. This view of middle age, which Mrs. Ansley notes is a common one—calling it “the collective modern idea of mothers”—may explain why memories of the past hold so much enchantment Dolorem et quae. Exer
“After all, it’s still the most beautiful view in the world.”
“It always will be, to me,” assented her friend Mrs. Ansley, with so slight a stress on the “me” that Mrs. Slade, though she noticed it, wondered if it were not merely accidental, like the random underlinings of old-fashioned letter-writers.
“Grace Ansley was always old-fashioned,” she thought.
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Mrs. Slade readily perceives the unusual emphasis in Mrs. Ansley’s speech as evidence that she is stuck in a bygone era, because this interpretation fits with the picture of Mrs. Ansley that Mrs. Slade has held onto throughout their friendship. Nuances in inflection are one way that people communicate their meaning, and Mrs. Ansley’s emphasis on the word “me” may be far from random—indeed, later events in the story will reveal that Mrs. Ansley has a complicated history in Rome, and that the city is the setting for some of her most important experiences—but Mrs. Slade is attached to her Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam
“Moonlight—moonlight! What a part it still plays. Do you suppose they’re as sentimental as we were?”
“I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t in the least know what they are,” said Mrs. Ansley. “And perhaps we didn’t know much more about each other.”
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Even at this early point in their conversation, when none of the many secrets between them have surfaced, Mrs. Ansley pushes back against Mrs. Slade’s sentimental memories of their youthful visit to Rome. Unlike Mrs. Slade, Mrs. Ansley seems willing to confront difficult truths about both the past and present, including the limitations of their lifelong friendship (which never yielded real intimacy or understanding) and their inability to access the minds of their daughters, who are coming of age in a different world than the one they knew as young women. This is one of the first signs of the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia
In living up to such a husband all her faculties had been engaged; now she had only her daughter to live up to, for the son who seemed to have inherited his father’s gifts had died suddenly in boyhood. She had fought through that agony because her husband was there, to be helped and to help; now, after the father’s death, the thought of the boy had become unbearable. There was nothing left but to mother her daughter; and dear Jenny was such a perfect daughter that she needed no excessive mothering … She wished that Jenny would fall in love—with the wrong man, even; that she might have to be watched, out-manoeuvred, rescued.
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This is the only moment in “Roman Fever” when Mrs. Slade makes reference to the son she lost, and to the excruciating pain that loss caused her. In comparison to this personal tragedy, all of Mrs. Slade’s demonstrations of cruelty might seem to pale in importance: her irritation at Jenny’s “perfect” behavior, her subtly snide remarks about the Ansley family and the prospect of Barbara’s marriage with the Italian aviator, and even her eventual revelation of the cruel trick she played by sending Mrs. Ansley a letter in Delphin’s name. The fact that Mrs. Slade devotes relatively little thought to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tem
Section 2 Quotes
Mrs. Ansley had resumed her knitting. One might almost have imagined (if one had known her less well, Mrs. Slade reflected) that, for her also, too many memories rose from the lengthening shadows of those august ruins. But no; she was simply absorbed in her work.
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This thought occurs to Mrs. Slade at the end of a meandering comment on the differences between Barbara and Jenny’s personalities, and the surprising fact that two staid and respectable people like the Ansleys should have produced a child as unconventional as Barbara. In this moment, as at other points in the conversation, Mrs. Ansley uses her knitting as a shield against the unpleasantness of her interaction with Mrs. Slade. As Mrs. Slade veers uncomfortably close to the sensitive subject of her daughter—who, of course, is not the product of her marriage with Horace Ansley, but of her affair with Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptat
Mrs. Slade broke off this prophetic flight with a recoil of self-disgust. There was no one of whom she had less right to think unkindly than Grace Ansley. Would she never cure herself of envying her? Perhaps she had begun too long ago.
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On the surface, Mrs. Slade seems to think relatively little of Mrs. Ansley. Though she admires Barbara, she has few kind words to say about her old friend and often dismisses her out of hand. The revelation that Mrs. Slade is plagued by feelings of envy—that, in fact, she feels inadequate, rather than superior, when compared to her friend—casts their entire conversation in a new light. Mrs. Slade’s rude remarks and frustrations reveal themselves as manifestations of her deep insecurities. In a narrative filled with secrets and unspoken pain, Mrs. Slade’s acknowledgement of the enduring jealousy she seldom allows herself Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolo
“Oh, yes; Great-aunt Harriet. The one who was supposed to have sent her younger sister out to the Forum after sunset to gather a night-blooming flower for her album. All our great-aunts and great-grandmothers used to have albums of flowers.”
Mrs. Slade nodded. “But she really sent her because they were in love with the same man—”
“Well, that was the family tradition. They said Aunt Harriet confessed it years afterward. At any rate, the poor little sister caught the fever and died.”
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The story of Great-Aunt Harriet inspires Mrs. Slade’s plot against Mrs. Ansley. In addition to its function in the plot, the story speaks to the long history of women betraying and tormenting one another for the sake of men. By sending her younger sister on a deadly nighttime errand, Harriet forsakes their family bonds—implying that all the love and shared history that exists between sisters cannot compare in importance to the potential love she might share with this man. As a young woman, Mrs. Slade forsook her friendship with Mrs. Ansley in order to secure the love of her fiancé. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. V
Mrs. Slade waited nervously for another word or movement. None came, and at length she broke out: “I horrify you.”
Mrs. Ansley’s hands dropped to her knees. The face they uncovered was streaked with tears. “I wasn’t thinking of you. I was thinking—it was the only letter I ever had from him!”
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Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley exchange these words immediately after Mrs. Slade reveals that it was she, and not Delphin, who wrote the letter inviting Mrs. Ansley to the Colosseum. The interaction highlights the disparity between Mrs. Slade’s perception of the world and an underlying reality that she is not yet able to grasp. A shocked silence precedes Mrs. Ansley’s unveiling of her tear-streaked face, and Mrs. Slade takes Mrs. Ansley’s intense reaction personally by assuming that it means Mrs. Ansley is “horrified” by her. In reality, Mrs. Ansley’s reaction is a reflection of her feelings for Delphin. Although their Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debiti
“I don’t know why you should be sorry for me … After all, I had everything; I had him for twenty-five years. And you had nothing but that one letter that he didn’t write.”
Mrs. Ansley was again silent. At length she turned toward the door of the terrace. She took a step, and turned back, facing her companion.
“I had Barbara,” she said, and began to move ahead of Mrs. Slade toward the stairway.
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The disclosure of this final, devastating secret—that Barbara Ansley is really the daughter of Delphin Slade—reveals the true depth of the lies and betrayals that have defined both women’s lives. Mrs. Ansley shares the truth of Barbara’s origins as part of a power play, shocking Mrs. Slade and then promptly exiting the conversation. However, even as her revelation destabilizes her friend’s sense of superiority, it undermines her own carefully constructed façade. Beneath her staid and respectable exterior, Mrs. Ansley carries memories of passion and danger—and even deeper, beneath those memories, one can imagine that she carries the grief and pain Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia ape
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Alida Slade Character Timeline in Roman Fever
The timeline below shows where the character Alida Slade appears in Roman Fever. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Section 1
...the terrace of an upscale restaurant in the heart of Rome, two American women — Alida Slade and Grace Ansley, both “of ripe but well-cared-for middle age” — lean against the parapet,...
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From the nearby stairs, Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley hear the voices of their two daughters, Jenny and Barbara. Barbara, Mrs....
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...parapet, the few other people lunching on the terrace gather up their things to leave. Mrs. Slade suggests that she and Mrs. Ansley stay on the terrace, and pushes two chairs close...
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Mrs. Slade begins to reminisce about the time she and Mrs. Ansley spent in Rome when they...
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Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley discuss their daughters’ plans for the evening. Mrs. Ansley believes that Barbara...
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Mrs. Ansley’s comment prompts Mrs. Slade to reflect silently on their long friendship. She remembers how stunningly beautiful Mrs. Ansley was...
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Mrs. Slade reflects on how she and Mrs. Ansley both lost their husbands around the same time,...
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After her life with Delphin, widowhood feels very dull to Mrs. Slade . Since her son died in childhood—a fact that Mrs. Slade finds “unbearable” to think...
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Sitting beside Mrs. Slade , Mrs. Ansley thinks about her own impressions of her friend. She believes Mrs. Slade...
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Section 2
For a long time, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade sit in silence on the terrace. The intimacy of this silence makes Mrs. Ansley uncomfortable,...
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Mrs. Slade makes a long, contemplative comment about the ways in which each generation of women visiting...
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It occurs to Mrs. Slade that Barbara must intend to win over one of the young aviators, who is a...
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Mrs. Slade tries to imagine the kind of life Mrs. Ansley will have if Barbara marries the...
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Mrs. Slade asks Mrs. Ansley whether she is afraid of catching Roman Fever or pneumonia, recalling that...
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Mrs. Slade tells Mrs. Ansley that she was frightened by the story of Great-Aunt Harriet when she...
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Mrs. Slade recalls how, on that long-ago visit to Rome, Mrs. Ansley had become very ill after...
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Mrs. Ansley says she burned the letter about which Mrs. Slade is speaking, and that she does not know how Mrs. Slade can know what the...
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Although she continues to taunt her friend, Mrs. Slade realizes that her own feeling of rage is fading. She feels suddenly guilty at the...
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Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade sit together in silence while, all around them, the waiters from the restaurant begin to...
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Mrs. Slade tells Mrs. Ansley that writing the letter was intended as a cruel joke, and that...
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Shocked, Mrs. Slade asks how Delphin could have known that Mrs. Ansley would be at the Colosseum, since...
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...Ansley remarks that the terrace is cold, and that they had better leave. She tells Mrs. Slade she is sorry for her. As Mrs. Slade gathers her things, she says she does...
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...takes a step toward the door of the terrace. Then, she turns back to face Mrs. Slade . “I had Barbara,” she tells her and then walks toward the stairway.
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