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Anna Allen

ENG 440

Dr. Fox

12/02/19

Epigraphs and the Understanding of Fever 1793

In Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson, readers are introduced to a young woman

named Mattie Cook. Mattie lives with her mother and grandfather in a coffeehouse in

Philadelphia, and as the story progresses, readers are introduced to many people, places, and

most importantly, the yellow fever that raids their home. While all readers come to understand

what is going on a few chapters in the book, some may pick up on it earlier due to the epigraphs

that Anderson uses in the beginning of each chapter. Epigraphs, or paratexts, are small pieces of

writing that, “commenting on the text, whose meaning it indirectly specifies or emphasizes”

(Genette 157). They inform readers in their understanding of a text and in the time, place, and

space around the text, as well as specifying and emphasizing important pieces of information that

aid readers understanding of the text. Many writers from the time period of Fever 1793, used

epigraphs to support their writing and Anderson mirrors the same structure in her own historical

fiction book. In Fever 1793, the epigraphs Anderson uses follow particular patterns pertaining to

death, constructs around and the marginalization of women during this time, and the history of

medicine. With the use of these patterns, readers are able to gain more insight to what is going on

in Mattie’s life and the world around her.

One of the patterns the epigraphs follow that gives readers more insight is the discussion

of mortality and how it affects Mattie, her town, and the city. In Fever 1793, the epigraph used in

the beginning of the third chapter, “Oh then the hands of the pitiful Mother prepared her Child’s
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body for the grave…-Letter of Margaret Morris, Philadelphia, 1793” eludes to the terrible future

that is coming for the people of Philadelphia (14). Readers are able to take this epigraph as

insight on the next thing that happened in the chapter with Polly, the coffeehouse helper, who

passed away from the mysterious illness, or as a moment of foreshadowing for all of the deaths

that are about to come to Philadelphia. The epigraph gives insight to both the present time of the

chapter, and the future trajectory that the rest of the chapter is going to follow. Later on the in the

book, as readers are able to understand the severity of the situation more with Mattie having to

leave her home due to her mother’s illness, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the hard

times are not over yet with the epigraph, “He who sitteth upon the Pale Horse, He whose name is

Death, will be sent through the streets of Philadelphia. –Quaker prophecy, Philadelphia, 1793”

that is in the beginning of chapter sixteen (113). This epigraph comes right after Mattie has left

everything she knows to go and be safe, out into the streets of Philadelphia, trying to get away

from the sickness that plagues her home. What Mattie does not though is that the plague has

moved beyond just her home into surrounding cities and according to a webisode from

Philadelphia: The Great Expectations, “In the end, dozens of outbreaks would kill thousands of

Philadelphians throughout the 1790’s and well into the 1800’s, leaving a scar long seared into the

cities memory” (Fever 1793: Anatomy of an Epidemic). The epigraph interests’ readers in that it

makes them think about how many deaths there were and the mortality rate at the time because

without the epigraphs, readers only see through Mattie’s lens how much death there is directly

around her. Readers understand the number of casualties because the disease through the

epigraphs and can only hope that the sickness does not touch Mattie and grandfather, but with

the insight that the quotation brings, readers can only hope she and grandfather survive.

Another pattern the epigraphs follow that gives readers more insight follows the social
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constructs set up around women as well as the marginalization of women during this time period

and understanding the significance of Mattie’s decisions as a woman. In Fever 1793, readers are

introduced to a young girl named Mattie and right away in one of the first few epigraphs, “A low

voice and soft address are the common indications of a well-bred woman. –Hannah More, The

Young Lady Abroad or Affectionate Advice on the Social and Moral Habits of Females, 1777”

the author gives the mold that Mattie will have to follow if she would like to be proper young

woman (24). Readers are able to the understand on a greater level the ideals and standards that

Mattie has to live up to, and sometimes choose to go against. Without the epigraphs, without

someone providing the social constructs that young women of the time had to follow, readers

would understand Mattie to be just another female heroine in a book, when she is really going

against everything she has learned and she knows in order to do what is best for her and the

people around her. Women, during this time period, were asked to stay in a box and do what was

expected of them. If they tried to step outside of this box, it was very difficult to be validated and

deemed as a worthy enough. An example of this is with women writers in Colonial America.

William Scheick discusses the difficulties felt by women, focusing on women writers, in that,

“…never escaped from the pervasive cultural notion that biblically, theologically,

ecclesiastically, socially, and familially, women were the second sex” (Scheick 7). Women

writers of the time used epigraphs to support their arguments and to show what they knew, but

also to validate themselves as writers because they were not supposed to be more or less than the

social constructs put around them, much like Mattie is in the book. However, Mattie goes against

these boundaries set around her in order to do what is best for her: when she takes over the

coffeehouse and gives half of it to Eliza, when she takes care of Nell, when she falls in love with

Nathaniel, etc. Mattie does all these things because she is doing what she thinks is best for her
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and not because of what someone told her to do.

An additional pattern the epigraphs in Fever 1793 follow are ones of the history of

medical knowledge and treatments doctors used during the time period and the affect they had on

Mattie and the people around her. In Fever 1793, readers are able to understand where medicine

was at in its advancements to what we have today when their remedy for helping get rid of

yellow fever was, “The patient is to be placed in a large empty tub, and two buckets full of water,

of the temperature 75 or 80 degrees Fahrenheit’s thermometer,…are to be thrown on him. –Dr.

Adam Kuhn, Philadelphia, 1793” (70). In 1793, people did not have the medicines we have

today, or the understanding that throwing water on someone who is sick is not a good idea, or at

one point, draining some of the blood from people will help them get better. Mattie, her family,

and the people affected by the disease, did not know to extent to what the illness going around

could do or how to stop it until it was too late. What they also did not know is that there was not

a cure for the disease and also where it was coming from. According to the World Health

Organization, “Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected

mosquitoes and has the potential to spread rapidly and cause serious public health impact. There

is no specific treatment, although the disease is preventable using a single dose of yellow fever

vaccine, which provides immunity for life” (WHO, 2019). While doctors and medical physicians

of today know what the disease is, how to prevent it, and how to treat the symptoms, people from

over 200 years ago did not. Readers might also think that the characters in the story remedies and

solutions for the problem were absurd, but with the context and background the epigraphs give

throughout the chapter and book, readers will realize that the people during that time period and

in the book did not have the luxuries that many people have in 2019.

Throughout the book, readers are introduced to epigraphs and the patterns they follow:
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death/mortality, constructs around and the marginalization of women, and the history of

medicine. These patterns aid in understanding Mattie’s life and what she is going through during

this traumatic time. While many readers would have been able to have comprehended the book

without the epigraphs, these short explanations of information allowed for readers to have a

better understanding of the text as a whole and the ideas of that time period. It is imperative that

readers understand the importance and relevance of epigraphs as they allow for so much

understanding and learning to happen outside of the main text.

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Works Cited:

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever 1793. New York City, Simon and Schuster, 2000.

“Fever 1793: Anatomy of an Epidemic.” Philadelphia: The Great Experiment. March 19, 2012.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwPWgZJDdGE. December 4, 2019.

Genette, Gerard. Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Cambridge, NY, Cambridge University

Press, 1997.

Scheick, William J. Authority and Female Authorship in Colonial America. Lexington, The

University Press of Kentucky, 2015.

World Health Organization. “Nigeria has now seen at Least 84 Suspected Yellow Fever Cases

and 26 Deaths in an Ongoing Outbreak.” Global and Disaster Medicine. Sep. 28th, 2019.

wordpress.utoledo.edu/disastermedicine/category/yellow-fever/