Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Vanity Fair, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Greed and Ambition
Vanity
Social Class and Character
Gender
Inheritance and Family Life
Summary
Analysis
Feeling alone as she begins her time as governess, Becky decides that her best option is to try to make her new position as comfortable as possible. She finds that Lady Crawley has little influence in her own house, so Becky makes little effort to win her goodwill. She makes more effort with the daughters, Rose and Violet, realizing that they prefer not to learn too much from their governess. Meanwhile, Becky learns that Pitt Crawley sees himself as something of a diplomat, so Becky always makes sure to compliment his French.
This passage shows how Becky is learning to become more strategic in how she exercises her charm. She realizes that the daughters carry more influence in the house than their own mother, so she deliberately slacks on her teaching duties as a governess in order to try to win the affection of the daughters. Becky’s compliments to Pitt Crawley’s French resemble her efforts to win over Jos by mentioning India—suggesting that perhaps Becky has a new potential husband in mind.
Themes
Pitt Crawley is impressed when Becky tells him about her family, although she leaves out many details, like the fact that her mother worked in the opera. He chastises Becky for playing backgammon with Sir Pitt, believing it to be improper, but these backgammon games are an important way for Becky to win her employer’s favor. Meanwhile, Rawdon, the soldier, rarely comes home.
The name Pitt Crawley is inherently funny, suggesting that he (and his father, who has the same name) are always crawling in pits—a nod to how low their family status has fallen. Unlike his father, however, the younger Pitt Crawley isn’t content with this low status, and he tries to show his family’s higher status by enforcing a separation between his father and the servant Becky.
Themes
Miss Crawley, who lives alone with her large fortune, likes Rawdon but finds Pitt Crawley weak, and Pitt Crawley dislikes Miss Crawley back, believing she is vain and not very religious. She eats and drinks a lot and has an affinity for French culture. She took an interest in Rawdon at a young age, making sure he went to Cambridge (unlike Pitt Crawley, who went to Oxford). Rawdon grew up to be a dandy with a habit for starting duels, and Miss Crawley always paid his debts.
Miss Crawley becomes an important figure in the novel, due almost entirely to the fact that she is one of the few characters with a large, legitimate fortune. She acts whimsically, preferring Rawdon for seemingly arbitrary reasons, further highlighting the absurdity of hereditary titles and inherited wealth.
Themes
