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
After leaving Brighton, George, Amelia, and Dobbin eat dinner at George and Amelia’s home. They have a lavish meal, although afterward Dobbin tries to convince George to live less ostentatiously, since fancy food isn’t really what makes Amelia happy. Soon after the meal, Amelia leaves to go see Mrs. Sedley. Mrs. Sedley greets her daughter enthusiastically, and they both weep.
Earlier, George complained to Dobbin that George’s continuing feud with his father, Mr. Osborne, will make his current lifestyle impossible. And yet, it’s clear in this passage that George hasn’t changed his behavior at all, still eating expensive meals. Dobbin seems to imply here with his comment that, as much as George wants to believe that he’s maintaining such a lavish lifestyle for Amelia, he’s really doing it for himself and just using her as an excuse.
Themes
It’s only been nine days since the wedding, but Amelia already feels totally separated from her old life. She contemplates whether marriage is really everything she expected it to be. She also thinks about how so many novels and dramas end with marriage, suggesting that it’s the end of the story. Eventually, Mrs. Sedley leaves Amelia to go prepare the tea. Amelia visits her childhood bedroom and feels nostalgic. She contemplates how the George she married is not quite the heroic figure she imagined he was before her marriage.
Despite years of infatuation with George, even Amelia begins to have doubts about her marriage due to the selfish way George has treated her lately. When Amelia thinks about how popular novels usually end with marriage, it draws attention to how Vanity Fair doesn’t follow that popular formula, signaling Thackeray’s intention to do something less conventional and perhaps more realistic or critical of conventional marriage plots.
Themes
Mrs. Sedley announces the tea is ready, so Amelia comes downstairs. Amelia tries to be more cheerful, and after tea, she plays songs for her family on the piano Dobbin bought back for her. After making everyone else happy, Amelia returns to her home with George.
Amelia doesn’t know yet that Dobbin bought the piano. She believes George got it for her, and perhaps she plays it because she believes the piano is the strongest evidence that, deep down, George really cares for her—of course, the piano is evidence of love, but it’s evidence of Dobbin’s, not George’s.
Themes
The next day, George has to leave for business, but he tells Amelia to go with Mrs. Sedley and pick out some new outfits to buy so that she can wear them when she comes to Belgium. Although the war rages on, Mrs. Sedley doesn’t worry about “Bonaparty.”
Mrs. Sedley’s mispronunciation of Napoleon’s last name shows how little she understands about the distant war while perhaps also suggesting that for some noncombatants, the war seemed like a “party”—a social occasion and a chance to wear new clothes.
Themes
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Meanwhile, George goes to a law office. The attorneys there give him a check for some money he inherited from his late mother (which his father, Mr. Osborne, paid out to him so that he’ll never have to contact his son again). After George leaves, the attorneys whisper that George will soon end up in prison due to his carelessness with money. Soon after, they forget all about George. George cashes the check immediately and feels pleased about what he’s accomplished, not realizing how close he is to running out of money.
Just as the previous passage captured Mrs. Sedley’s blissful ignorance about the war, this passage captures George’s blissful ignorance about his own money problems. The people around George can see that he is headed for debt and disaster, but they only say this behind his back. And so, taken as a whole, this chapter shows how deeply many people in England were living in delusion, hinting that this ignorance will eventually have consequences.
Themes
