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 her appearances at court and at Lord Steyne’s parties, Becky has finally established herself as a member of the upper class. Due to Lord Steyne’s approval, Becky starts getting invited to other fancy events. She also begins to host people from England and people from abroad. At first, Becky’s success thrills her, but she begins to find it boring after a couple years.
Ironically, while Becky’s close association with Lord Steyne could potentially sink her reputation (because of accusations of infidelity), she manages to manipulate the situation so that instead it becomes a credit to her name, showing her as an equal in status to Steyne. Time begins to pass more quickly as the novel goes on, and this passage notably skips right over a happy period of Becky’s to show the next time when she begins feeling restless.
Themes
Carriages of guests seem to always show up at the door to Becky’s small house on Curzon Street, often making the local paper. Most people are swept away by Becky’s charm, and Becky finds ways to outdo the few women who sometimes challenge her.
Similar to her court appearance, Becky cares less about being a good hostess and more about acquiring the reputation for being a good hostess.
Themes
Many wonder where Becky gets the money to pay for so much lavish entertainment. Some suspect it comes from Pitt Crawley. Others suggest that Becky gets loans from all of Rawdon’s friends, telling them she is desperate for money. Becky further stretches her money by trying to throw fewer parties but making sure people talk about the ones she does throw. Becky also makes use of Lord Steyne’s cellars and cooks, although the narrator warns readers not to believe any of the unkind rumors they’ve heard about Becky.
Becky’s access to Lord Steyne’s cooks helps explain how she tricked Pitt Crawley earlier into believing that she was a good cook—once more, the novel shows that appearances matter more than reality. The narrator’s refusal to say for sure where Becky gets her income is yet another example of the narrator’s unreliability. The narrator helps capture how, while other characters have their suspicions about Becky, they lack proof, and so in the end, they have no choice but to accept Becky’s high reputation as fact.
Themes
The narrator explains that while the time period Becky lived in (the 1820s) was different from the present (the 1840s), some things were the same, like the popularity of the game charades. Charades involves not just guessing words based on pantomime, but also short one-act plays in between guesses. Becky hosts a game of charades at Lord Steyne’s house, and the theme is ancient Greece.
Charades, which continues to be played in a modified form even today, is a game about acting. This game sets up a clear parallel to how Becky (and to an extent, many of the other characters) are essentially actors as they try to put forward a carefully cultivated persona in public. It makes sense that the charades game takes place at Lord Steyne’s house, the place where Becky practices her acting when she pretends to be a respectable member of high-class society.
Themes
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The charade game goes smoothly, with Becky’s distinguished guests all performing their charades well. Rawdon plays the role of the ancient Greek king Agamemnon, and Becky plays his wife, Clytemnestra, who kills him. Almost everyone agrees that Becky is a highlight, with her acting abilities drawing admiration, particularly Lord Steyne’s. Rawdon, however, is scared of how successful Becky seems to be.
Naturally, given all her practice in real life, Becky is also an expert at acting during the charades game. The fact that Becky excels at playing a woman who murders her husband seems like an ominous sign for her relationship with Rawdon. Lord Steyne clearly approves of this charade because in real life, he’d like to have Rawdon out of the picture.
Themes
Literary Devices
After the party, Rawdon sends Becky home from Lord Steyne’s in a carriage and walks back himself. On the way back, three bailiffs stop him to arrest him for a debt he owes. Rawdon agrees to go with them peacefully to debtor’s prison.
This chapter ends on yet another note of suspense, with Rawdon finally facing the consequences for some of the debts that he’s racked up. Notably, he ends up in this situation specifically because he tried to be polite, deciding to walk while Becky went off with Lord Steyne. Rawdon’s uncertain shows how in the world of the novel, characters are punished for kindness and honesty.
Themes
