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Roman Fever 2 |
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written
by joelnish / 09.12.2005 |
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Assignment |
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When I walk through the forum I am overcome with a great feeling of intrigue. On one level I know that this sense of intrigue is historically justified, the forum was the site of countless political maneuverings. A gruesome game of life and death was played out with words and sometimes daggers on the steps surrounding me. Yet even without historical context the Forum carries a mystic about it. The rubble seems to hold inside it a conspiracy—a chaos of random marble and brick. The very air in that reclaimed swamp feels different—humid, hot, certainly some kind of stale—oppressive in some sly way. It seems the perfect setting for a battle of intrigue between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley.
There are two things that really strike me about the story: the way that Mrs. Slade’s desire for intrigue boomerangs and the craving that these “well-cared-for” ladies have for deceit. Both of these patterns are echoed in the ruins of the Forum that lay before the women. The Forum was the host of a self-perpetuating political game that weakened the empire and eventually led to the very destruction of the Forum. In the same way a straight line of casualty puts Mrs. Slade as the cause of Mrs. Ansley’s betrayal and even her downfall with Barbara. Similarly the “well-cared-for” paradox is essentially the same as the one presented by the Roman senators who inhabited the Forum. Having freed themselves from the worries that dominate the lives of the common person, they devolved into a tendency to backstab and plot rather than create the paradise that is materially in their reach. Yet both of these patterns will not necessarily die with these old ladies, their daughters have been set up in a similar situation with those “young Italian aviators”.
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