The Novel Without A Hero

Vanity Fair, or also now for it’s subtitle “The Novel without a Hero”, is a satire to society, characterized by hypocrisy and opportunism. The novel follows the lives of two very different women, Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. Vanity fair refers to a stop along the pilgrim's progress: a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity, which is meant to represent man's sinful attachment to worldly things. Definitely, a quote that I think explains and drives much of the action and is one of the major points of the novel is: "Vanitas Vanitatium! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? Or having it, is satisfied?". In other words, how the characters in this novel are driven by material things, greed, snobbery, deceit and hypocrisy. The initial situation begins with poor but resourceful
Becky, for being too aggresive is called un-feminine and a sleazy gold digger. On the other hand, Amelia is soft and undemanding and willing to just accept whatever life gives her. Which is not Becky’s case. Next, Becky marries Rawdon, missing out on getting either the Crawley fortune or the Crawley estate and title. So too, Amelia marries George, a husband who doesn't respect her and a father-in-law who cuts off their allowance. The stories of the two girls sync up nicely. In short, they both have made financially dumb decisions in marriage. Above all, Becky is the loved one in her marriage, while Amelia is the one who is doing all the loving in hers. Becky is still scheming and plotting and trying to move forward in the world(marry above her station), while Amelia stays at home waiting for George to realize her worth and starts to appreciate her. As Becky kept going up to the heights of society she also went down as soon as she was suspected of committing adultery with Lord