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Roman Fever |
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written
by kayanna / 08.30.2005 |
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Assignment |
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The Forum supports the story’s revelation of secret pasts because the Forum, with most of its pieces lost, has left little handed down to us. The pieces that have disappeared are as secrets lost, never to be reclaimed. What we see now are pieces of reality, just a shell or façade of what once was. This shell and façade also supports the relationship between the two women in that they have lost much of what their friendship was in their youth; it crumbled with time as truths were convoluted and lost, as they mutually vied for besting the other. Like the theme of deception that riddles the story and both of the characters’ relations to each other, the Forum has so little of its original reality still standing. This location was ideal for Wharton to choose to set the story, as the Forum’s mysteries are stubbornly locked away in time.
In addition, the Forum represents conquest. It is made of the loot from pillages of neighboring lands. The relationship between the two women is one of conquest over the other – of jealousy and defeat. Each woman has used her best tactics to lay claim over the same person, and each thinks she has the most loot from her exploits. The mysteries and dual treachery in their past are unfolded in front of the Forum, a symbol of mystery and conquest.
The two women must have been able to see in their view the Forum, the temple of the Caesars, the faces of the churches behind them, and the Colosseum. This plausible from the hotel mentioned in The Smiles of Rome, p. 69 – Hotel Forum.
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