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
Amelia sees a carriage coming for her with Dobbin and Stubble in it. Stubble says George made a good choice marrying Amelia, which pleases Dobbin. Amelia takes them into her sitting room with George, and there she sees a letter addressed to her from the Peggy O’Dowd, wife of Major O’Dowd (the major of George’s regiment) requesting Amelia’s presence at a party. Just a couple minutes after Amelia sees the letter, the major and his wife arrive in person.
This passage reinforces the idea that war is just another social occasion for these characters and not that different from a party. For higher-ranking officers like Major O’Dowd, the war may have indeed posed little threat to him personally, showing yet again how many high-ranking characters live in their own bubbles.
Themes
Peggy has messy handwriting and an Irish accent. She welcomes Amelia to accompany George’s regiment, where Peggy would treat her like a sister. The Major interrupts to say that he and George have to leave for a farewell dinner. With the men gone, Peggy begins to tell Amelia so many details about the regiment and the people in it that Amelia can’t keep track of them all.
This passage suggests that, like Sir Pitt, Peggy doesn’t necessarily have a personality that reflects her relatively high social rank (which she obtained through her marriage to the major). The characters draw attention to how much the ideals of being a gentleman or a lady were tied to urban English life, showing how people from rural areas or Ireland struggled to meet these ideals, even when they had the proper titles or marriage status.
Themes
Later, Peggy introduces Amelia to the other members of the regiment. Amelia is pleasantly surprised by how much everyone seems to like her, and George is proud. Amelia pledges to do everything she can to make George’s friends happy. Only Dobbin doesn’t have a chance to speak with Amelia that evening—he was busy making sure Jos got home, since Jos was “in a very maudlin state.”
George likes Amelia most when she helps improve his social standing. A large part of why he almost didn’t marry her is because he felt she hurt his social status (because her family lost their fortune and because she sent him an embarrassingly high number of letters). As is often the case, Dobbin can’t enjoy himself because has to take care of the characters around him (with “maudlin” being a euphemism to suggest Jos is drunk).
Themes
