Wharton's ROMAN FEVER

Half-gLiiltily she |Mrs. Grace Atisleyl drew lroiii her |. . .| blaek hatulbai; a twist oferiinson silk run through by two fine knitting needles. "Otie tk'\ei knows." she murniured. (47)

These lines, quoted trom Edith Wharton"s "Roman Fever." reler to one of llic two protagonists. Mrs. Grace Ansley. whose daughter. Barbara, facetiously accuses her and Mrs. Slade. the other protagonist, of being ""young things" w ho must be left behind to "their knitting" (47). At her friend Barbara's Ilippani accusation. Mrs. Siade's daughter. Jenny, politely demurs, but the former retorts. "Well. I mean figuratively" (47). Wharton's emphasis on the figurative dimension of knitting, established at the beginning ofthe rising action, contin ues to be felt to the end ofthe story. Indeed, significant points in the plot arc marked by references to knitting. And "Roman tever." too. is coniieclcd with Mrs. Ansley's knitting because of Mrs. Siade's references to ""the deathly cokl" and the "dampH" evening air of Rome, or to the '"bad chill" Ciracc. in her youth, supposedly catches at the Colosseum (52). In light of the ""cold" and ""damp" air that continues to drift between the two protagonists from the past into the present. Mrs. Siade's disdainful dismissal of knitting, and Mrs. Ans ley's furtive insistence on knitting, this activity certainly plays a major role in the story. Indeed. Wharton uses knitting to signify the delicate link between the present and the past. but. ironically, it also signifies a fayade in the denial ol. and protection against, the linkage between the past and the present. Although she tries to hide her guilt-ridden past. Mrs. Ansley extracts it trom the secret recesses of her mind just as she '"|h|alf-guiltily" draws a ""tv\isi ol crimson silk" from her black handbag. If black signifies the gloom of guilt, then crimson signifies the heat of sexuality and risque youthfulness o( romaii tic passion. And the act of bringing out the yarn, which is exquisitely delicate ("silk"), is the act of bringing the delicate thread out of the past into the present or bringing the present into the past. Indeed, pursuing a cyclic course, time repeats itself with only a slight difference. Just as her clever daughter has tlown to Tarquinia for tea and '"intends to fly back by moonlight" (48) with a Marehese. ostensibly in the company of her friend. Jenny, so Grace, in her youth, maintaining an ostensible friendship with Alida. had her own aiKeiitnre in the moonlight with Alida's fiance. Delphin Slade. Now the middle-aged Grace Ansley takes up knitting, for. in the absence of other kinds of useful work that have beeome obsolete beeause of the "new system" of courtship. Barbara's mother has "a good deal of time to kill" (47). But. as Wharton suggests with dramatic irony. Mrs. Ansley is concerned neither with living, savoring the present moments, nor with reliving, remembering moments ofthe past. She appears to maintain that to watch a "stupendous seene" now and remember the time when she has been here earlier is 99

hardly ol any significance: .She "gct|s| tired just looking" at timeless beauty and not tloing something productive, such as ret'lecting or musing (47). Hence. she has much time ""to kill" rather than to presei ve. That is. she prelers to be obliv ious to both the present and the past. and. ironically, she turns to her knitting as a comforting instrument for forging the path of forgetful ness. Indeed, she is quite content with her limited know ledge and. consequently, with her distance from both the present and the past: "'"I've come to the conclusion that 1 don't in the least know what they |(he dai.ighters| are.' said Mrs. Ansley. 'And perhaps we didn't know much more about each other'" (48). Although this lurning point, which comes with a ""shy glance from Grace and her use of Mrs. Siade's first name. Alida. reveals a lessening ofthe gap between the present and the past, as between the two women who have seemingly been ""intimate since childhood" (48). like .'\lida. Grace, who fragments time in her daughter's youth as in her own. continues to ignore the connection between the past and the present. As Grace lesists forging a link with Alida. so. despite ""ceas|ing| to fidget with her bag. and |. . . sinking] into meditation" (50). she resists tbrging the link between the present and the past with Alida. Reclaiming her distance with /\lida. Grace ""scttle|s| herself in her chair, and almost furtively drlawingl forth her knitting." she uses it as her protection and her tai^ade (50). Wharton marks this significant turning point in the story \\ Ith another tiramatic irony as the two women lalk abt)ut the game of bridge, only to reject it in the ""presence of the \ast Memento Mori which face|s| them" (50). Fuen in the act of building the bridge between the present and the past, as between themselves, both women reject proceeding into the eonnec(ion. And as Grace seeks refuge in her ""knitting." Alida takes ""sideway note of this activity" (50). It represents the fai;ade with which Grace and Alida maintain the ""interval|s|" of their intimacy and. hence, the semblance of a connection between the present and the past (49): ""Mrs. Ansley lifted her knitting a little closer to her eyes. "Yes: how we were guardedl'" (50). Attempting to prevent the secret and passionate past from spilling into the present. Mrs. Ansley pretends to casually follow Mrs Siade's delicate thread of ""old memories" (50). That is. while following the silk thread of her present activity, she struggles to ereet a subtle barrier of safety to protect herself from Alida. who is assiduously and cautiously digging up a certain portion ofthe buried past: ""I Mrs. Slade] turned again toward Mrs. Ansley. but the latter had reached a delicate point in her knitting. "One. two. threeslip two; yes. they must have been.' she assented, without looking up" (5 I). As she "'slip|s|" a stitch ihat is. moves a stitch from one needle to the otlier without knitting the stitch to close the gap between herself and Alida- so she skips from the emblematic needle ofthe past to that ofthe present without stitching the past with the present. Indeed, the eover Grace has been creating for her own comfort illustrates that she (mueh like Alida a little later) really does not grasp the thread
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ol the past anil that the cover has served merely as the make-belie\e link between the past and the present. Hor. as Wharton ironieally suggests, ""one never knows" exaetly how elusive the past is. But. despite Grace's subtle attempts to proteet herself Irom the disco\er\ of this eonneetion between the past and the present, as the emblematic aciion of dropping her knitting indieates. she learns, as the knitter, to accept the giatiual uncovering ofthe linkage between the past and the present, fhe fiist time she ""drop|s| her knitting" is right after Alida produees a ""haitllv audible laugh " of jealousy (51). Then, when Alida announces that she had written the love note that sent Graee to the (\>losseum. ""|Grace's| bag. her kiiittiiiL; and gloves. slid|e| in a panic-stricken heaii to the ground' (53). Now it becomes clear to Grace that she has been elingiiig to talse memories. Clearly, the delicate pattern of memories she has been knitting for herself suddenly lalK from her grasp, for memory turns out to be the interpretation and not the knov\ leilge ofthe past. As Wharton marks earlier turning points in the story, so she marks the elimax through a referenee to knitting. Now. for the knitter, the act of remembering beeomes. to use Homi K. Bhabha's argument, the |iaiiilul act of re-membering. ""a putting together ofthe disniembered past to make sense of the trauma of the present" ((i3). With Alida's announcement, the preseiil trauma of emotions (that both women have been struggling to cover aiul COIUKII) breaks out on the surfaee. and the two women are foreed to eoiifront the buried and mangled past. But dropping the blaek handbag is signifieant because it suggests that the burden of guilt slips away from (iraee as she is foiced (o acknowledge her guilty past. Intleed. Cirace alone is the knitter because she alone acquires the grace with which to acknowledge the past and hence to sec the connection between the present and the past. .lAMIL S. Sl'^LINA. Prittee (ieori^e's Cottttttttttily Collei^e. Latino. Mitrxlattd Copyriiiin O 2007 Heldtef Ptihiieatiotts WORKS ( n i ; i )
i-)hahlKi. f t o n i i K . t h e l . o e a t i o n o f C u l i i i r e . I . D I K I O I I : k o i i l l c i l t i e . l'*'*4. W h a r t o n . IHIJIII. " R o m a n t ' e \ c i . " Piieraiiire a i r o s s C u l i i i r e x txl. S l k ' c n a ( l i l l e s p i o . Iciv/iiili I o n s c c a . a n i l C a r o l .A. .Sani^cr. 4lli oil. t i o s l o n : . A l l \ i i . 2(H).S.

Stevens's NllANCKS OF A THKMK BY WII.MAMS A seenario in which Wallace Stevens reseues William Garlos W illianis from a Romantie idiom may seem unlikely, but in ""Niianees of a rhcme hv
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