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Vanity Fair

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Vanity Fair
VANITY FAIR
William M. Thackeray | 1811–1863

Monday, October 29, 12

The Title
Vanity: excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements Fair: a competitive exhibition for the amusement of the public In his 1678 allegory “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” John Bunyan called London “Vanity Fair.” A well-known passage of the Bible claims, “All is Vanity.”

Monday, October 29, 12

The Title
“But my kind reader will please to remember that this history has Vanity Fair for a title, and that Vanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falseness and pretensions.” –p. 98 Vanity Fair is the place where the vanity of upper class of English society is put on display.

Monday, October 29, 12

Subtitle: A Novel without a Hero
All the characters, good or bad, are flawed.
OLD SIR PITT CRAWLEY: rude & unkind LADY CRAWLEY: timid & apathetic MISS CRAWLEY: snobbish & arrogant RAWDON CRAWLEY: extravagant & later penniless LORD STEYNE: corrupt & immoral
Monday, October 29, 12

JOSEPH SEDLEY: imperceptive & awkward REBECCA SHARP: cunning & flirtatious AMELIA SEDLEY: good but weak and hypocritical CAPTAIN DOBBIN: honest & kind, but melancholy & foolish

Summary
This satire of a materialistic society centers on BECKY SHARP and AMELIA SEDLEY. They are boarding-school friends, whose lives are contrasted. Clever, ambitious Becky is born into poverty, the daughter of a penniless artist. She wants to marry Amelia’s brother Joseph, but her plan fails. Instead, she marries RAWDON CRAWLEY, but his father disinherits him as a result. Despite her destitute husband, Becky manages to live at the height of fashion through the patronage of LORD STEYNE. When her husband learns about Lord Steyne, he departs to become the Governor of Coventry island. Becky is ostracized and she moves to Continental Europe.

Monday, October 29, 12

Summary
In the meantime, Amelia’s father loses his fortune in a series of unfortunate
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