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
In June 1815, news of the recent fights at Quatre Bras and Waterloo (the last two battles against Napoleon,) reaches England. While the news of victory is a cause for celebration, the newspapers also print lists of casualties, with new lists each day. The Osbornes are all filled with grief when they see George’s name printed. When George was alive, there was still some chance of reconciliation between him and Mr. Osborne—perhaps if Amelia died—but now it’s impossible.
This passage starts by building sympathy for Mr. Osborne, whose own stubbornness isolated him from his son, then it quickly deflates much of that sympathy by showing how Mr. Osborne wished Amelia would die instead. The novel constantly grapples with how even the most unsympathetic characters nevertheless have people they care about and actions they regret, letting the audience judge the characters for themselves.
Themes
Mr. Osborne stops speaking about George. Three weeks after the news breaks, Dobbin’s father comes to visit the family. He gives Mr. Osborne a letter that George wrote for him a couple days before he died. The letter is very nice, and Mr. Osborne seems to feel bad about some of the ill thoughts he had toward George. George still doesn’t express much emotion in his letter, but he says if anything happens to him, he wants to say goodbye to his father. He also hopes the best for Amelia and their future child.
While George’s letter may be emotionally stilted, even just the fact that he wrote it suggests that perhaps he was more afraid than he let on. The reserved quality of the letter, combined with Mr. Osborne’s own inability to process George’s death, shows yet again how the different generations in this novel struggle to communicate and find common ground.
Themes
Two months later, whenever Mr. Osborne goes to church, he sits in a new seat where he can better see a new memorial erected there for George. George’s sisters, Jane and Maria, fear that their father might soon forgive Amelia for taking George away. Their fears seem to be confirmed when Mr. Osborne says he’s traveling abroad to Belgium.
As more time passes, Mr. Osborne begins to romanticize his memory of his son, and so the memorial represents an idealized version of George. Jane and Maria are worried about Mr. Osborne reconciling with Maria because they risk losing their inheritance (if Mr. Osborne decides to make Amelia’s new son his heir).
Themes
In Brussels, some of the wounded soldiers from George’s regiment are still recovering. Mr. Osborne asks them about George, and those who knew him speak highly of him. One of the soldiers takes Mr. Osborne out to the battlefields of Quatre Bas and Waterloo. He tells Mr. Osborne how George died right after the French started to retreat and the British made their first advance. Dobbin carried his body back.
Mr. Osborne’s trip to the battlefields continues to build up his romanticized notion of who George was. While this trip deals specifically with Mr. Osborne’s relationship to his son, it also speaks to how people romanticize war after the fact.
Themes
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Mr. Osborne thanks the recovering soldiers, then he drives back from Waterloo. Back in Brussels, he is surprised to run into Amelia and Dobbin. Amelia looks much paler than she did before, and Mr. Osborne might not have recognized her if Dobbin hadn’t been riding beside her in the carriage. She looks right at Mr. Osborne and doesn’t recognize him. Mr. Osborne decides he still hates her.
Although George’s death seems at first to make Mr. Osborne a more sympathetic character, he in fact remains a selfish and proud man, as his lingering hatred toward Amelia proves. While George’s death could unite Mr. Osborne and Amelia in grief, instead Mr. Osborne chooses to hang on to old grudges.
Themes
Dobbin rides up behind Mr. Osborne and calls out to him, saying he has a message from George. He says he was George’s closest friend and that he’s also the executor of his will. Dobbin says that Amelia was badly shaken by George’s death, and George also left her pregnant and in a bad financial situation. Dobbin asks Mr. Osborne to help Amelia, both for her and for the sake of the child. But Mr. Osborne has already made up his mind and refuses to budge.
Once again, Dobbin tries to act on behalf of his friends, advocating for George even after his death. At this point in the story, Dobbin is too selfless to even acknowledge the possibility that George’s death could make it possible for Dobbin himself to one day marry Amelia. Mr. Osborne’s stubbornness proves that there are limits to how much a person can change, particularly as the shock of George’s death wears off for him.
Themes
A full year passes. Amelia is depressed with grief for several of those months until one day, she gives birth to a baby boy. The child, Georgy, brings joy back into her life. Dobbin, the child’s godfather, helps Amelia make it back to England to live with Mr. Sedley and Mrs. Sedley again. Dobbin stops by to visit often, and the Sedleys suspect he might want to marry Amelia.
For Amelia, Georgy ends up being not just a tribute to George but in many ways a replacement for him, and she redirects her devotion to her dead husband toward her new son.
Themes
One day, Dobbin says he has to leave for a long time. He says there are ways to forward letters to him. Amelia promises to write to him about Georgy.
Dobbin’s departure seems to suggest that he recognizes Georgy is helping Amelia feel better, and so his presence is no longer needed as much.
Themes
