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
The day after meeting Becky, Jos doesn’t tell anyone else about her, and he dresses nicely to go try to find her again. Becky is staying upstairs in a cheap room. When he arrives, Becky is alone, talking with a student who is trying to convince her to go on a picnic with him and his friend. Jos interrupts them, and Becky says she’s been waiting for him.
Jos seems to like Becky while also realizing that others will still be suspicious of her—hence why he initially doesn’t mention meeting her. A student would be significantly younger than Becky and likely not that wealthy, suggesting how much less picky Becky has become about the men she tries to win over.
Themes
Becky gets nostalgic about how she’d know Jos anywhere—how he was perhaps the first man she ever saw. Becky says she’s suffered a lot and all her friends have betrayed her. She begins to cry so hard that it scares Jos. She tells him that he was the first person she loved and how, even as Rawdon courted her, she couldn’t stop thinking of Jos. Jos leaves the conversation convinced that Becky is amazing and virtuous; he resolves to help her however he can.
Joe’s biggest flaw from the start has always been his vanity. He may not have been Becky’s first love, but he was the first man that Becky learned how to manipulate, and her dramatic tears here show that despite everything else she’s lost, she still knows how to flatter Jos. Jos is more good-natured than most of the men Becky attempts to win over, but because this quality is combined with vanity, it makes him particularly susceptible to believing Becky’s lies.
Themes
Jos goes to Dobbin and tells him about his recent conversation with Amelia. Dobbin agrees to help her. They wonder about how Becky fell to such a low state, but the narrator writes that it’s probably more polite not to speculate. Jos believes Amelia will also greatly be moved when she hears about Becky’s condition. Despite agreeing to help, Dobbin remains very cautious about Becky’s intentions.
Although Dobbin is more skeptical of Becky than Jos, he is also good natured and so potentially susceptible to being taken advantage of. The narrator’s continued refusal to reveal information about Becky’s life both allows the reader to imagine that Becky has done terrible things not suitable to write about while also allowing for the possibility that, for someone with Becky’s expensive taste, perhaps “suffering” is not so bad.
Themes
When Amelia hears about Becky, she initially doesn’t want to see her. But as Jos stresses Becky’s sorry condition, Amelia becomes more sympathetic and decides they should go see her. They head for Becky’s room. When Becky finally reunites with Amelia and Dobbin, Amelia forgives her right away and goes to kiss her.
Amelia’s willingness to forgive Becky once again shows her gentle nature. Amelia shows particular sympathy for those in need, devoting all her attention to Mr. Sedley when his health began to fail, and so it now seems that it might be Becky’s turn to receive her attention.
Themes
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