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
Becky enjoys living with the Sedleys, particularly compared to the other places she’s lived recently. Although Tapeworm told Dobbin awful things about Becky, Tapeworm still comes to dine with Jos and acts cordially toward Becky. Meanwhile, Amelia has been depressed ever since Dobbin left. She begins to look pale and ill, and she begins sadly singing songs that Dobbin used to like. The only thing Amelia enjoys is taking walks at night with Georgy.
Songs continue to have romantic associations, with Amelia seemingly using Dobbin’s favorite songs as a way to maintain her memory of him. Amelia’s sickness in this chapter recalls Dobbin’s sickness when he was separated from Amelia in India.
Themes
Becky gets some boxes of her old things in the mail. She finds a picture of Jos on an elephant that used to belong to the Sedleys (and which Rawdon bought on a whim during the estate sale after Mr. Sedley’s bankruptcy). Becky hangs the picture up in her room, then immediately shows it to Jos, who is surprised and pleased.
Becky’s hanging of the portrait is yet another obvious attempt for her to try to woo Jos. Fortunately for her, Jos is so vain (and perhaps also insecure around women, as previous chapters have established) that he finds even such obvious attempts flattering.
Themes
Jos reads in the paper the Dobbin has gone back to the army and is rising through the ranks. As Amelia follows this news, she regrets that she threw away Dobbin’s affection for her. Far away, Dobbin feels that he has used up all his love on Amelia and will never feel that way about her again.
Dobbin’s rise through the ranks suggests that he continues to be dedicated and hardworking. His successful army career could suggest that he has found something new to occupy his thoughts instead of Amelia, or it could suggest that he is simply doing whatever he can to try to avoid thinking about Amelia.
Themes
During summer, people in Pumpernickel tend to disperse. At the recommendation of Lord Tapeworm’s doctor, Jos goes to the seaside town of Ostend. Becky, Amelia, and Georgy come too. In Ostend, Becky sees some old acquaintances, many of whom she’d prefer never to see again. Some of these acquaintances want to try to marry Amelia, but Becky tries to fend them off.
While Becky puts herself first, she still care enough about Amelia to try to prevent her from falling onto hard times. Indeed, by protecting Amelia from all of her old acquaintances, Becky seems to be communicating that she would not wish her own past life onto Amelia, showing that she still cares about Amelia as a friend.
Themes
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Becky can’t convince Jos to leave Ostend, so at last, she goes to Amelia one day in her private room. Becky tells Amelia that if she doesn’t get married soon, she’ll be vulnerable to other men who want to harass her. She says Amelia was foolish to reject Dobbin. Amelia says she tried to love again, but it was too hard after George’s death.
Becky’s suggestion that Amelia marry Dobbin is one of the few truly selfless things that Becky does in the novel. Arguably, even this has a tinge of selfish motivation to it—Becky is so worried about Amelia marrying the wrong person that she just wants Dobbin to come back and make sure someone other than Becky can protect Amelia instead.
Themes
Becky starts insulting George and saying that when he was alive, he was tired of Amelia and would’ve abandoned her without Dobbin’s intervening. Amelia doesn’t believe it, so Becky shows Amelia a note that George gave her the day he was shot, where George suggested running away with Becky. Amelia looks at the note and realizes it is George’s handwriting—he must have given it to Becky with a bouquet of flowers during the ball right before his death.
Becky correctly diagnoses what’s holding Amelia back from Dobbin—her love of the dead George. While the letter Becky received with flowers was mentioned briefly earlier in the text, its full contents were never revealed. It’s possible Becky forged the letter—she is talented at penmanship and ghostwrote most of Rawdon’s letters. And if it’s genuine, Becky helped Amelia live a lie by hiding the truth about George from her. Ultimately the authenticity of the letter doesn’t matter—it serves Becky’s purpose of convincing Amelia to let go of George, showing that once again, for Becky, it’s more important to be influential than truthful.
Themes
Amelia cries, but she also feels free now that she knows that she doesn’t have to stay loyal to George any longer. She writes to Dobbin immediately, asking him to come back. Later, everyone goes out to see the next steamer to see of Dobbin will be on it. Amelia waits in suspense until, at last, Georgy spots Dobbin with his telescope.
Like many characters in the story, Amelia dislikes having her illusions shattered, but her painful revelation also clears the way for her future happiness with Dobbin. This passage demonstrates the necessity of facing difficult truths and the potential value of doing so.
Themes
When Dobbin gets off the steamer, he goes right to kiss Amelia’s hand. He promises to never leave her again. An excited Georgy runs toward them, while Becky stays out of sight and Jos is still sleeping. Dobbin says it’s a good thing Amelia called him back before Glorvina got to him (although the narrator points out that Glorvina has recently married a major).
And so, this passage finally depicts the joyful union of Dobbin and Amelia. Because the novel is so sweeping in scope, the last chapter also briefly touches on the lives of some of the minor characters in the story, with even Glorvina getting a short epilogue.
Themes
Dobbin marries Amelia and retires from the military. They rent a place in Hampshire, close to Queen’s Crawley, and Amelia and Lady Jane soon become very good friends. Amelia has a daughter with Dobbin. Rawdy and Georgy go hunting and go on vacations together, and later, they both go to Cambridge. They argue over which of them will eventually marry Matilda.
Amelia finally gets a happy ending with Dobbin as a reward for all of the suffering and hardship she has endured over the middle part of the novel. Just as importantly, Dobbin and Amelia’s marriage means a reunion of the different sides of the Crawley family, showing how just as greed and selfishness can be contagious, so can love and selflessness.
Themes
Meanwhile, no one talks about Becky. For a while, she follows Jos everywhere. One day, Amelia hears that Jos took out a massive life insurance policy and isn’t feeling well. She sends Dobbin to Brussels, where Jos is currently staying, to investigate. Dobbin works out a time to see Jos alone, when Becky is occupied. Jos is in a bad condition and says Dobbin and Amelia should visit him more often. Dobbin says they can’t because of how Amelia feels about Becky.
Although the way Becky helped facilitate Amelia and Dobbin’s marriage is perhaps the most genuinely good thing she does in the novel, this passage makes it clear that perhaps Becky hasn’t given up her old ways. Jos’s sickly condition seems to be a perversion of the lovesickness that Dobbin and Amelia suffered earlier, showing how Jos is sick not from missing a beloved but from being in an unhealthy relationship.
Themes
Dobbin asks Jos if he took out the life insurance policy because he’s in debt. Jos assures him that Becky is taking care of everything, and that if he dies, the money will go to Dobbin and Amelia. Dobbin tells Jos he should flee immediately, preferably somewhere like India, where Becky won’t follow him. Jos says he can’t—Becky would kill him if he tried that. Dobbin tries to get Jos to come with him, but he refuses. Regretfully, Dobbin leaves.
The life insurance policy implies that Becky might be planning to have Jos killed, and this is why Dobbin insists that Jos get away from her. And so, the fact that Jos said Becky would kill him if he left is darkly ironic, since it seems even more likely that she might kill him if he doesn’t leave.
Themes
Dobbin never sees Jos again. Three months later, Jos dies, and it turns out all his wealth is tied up in speculations. The only thing left is two thousand pounds from a life insurance policy, to be split equally between Amelia and Becky, who was appointed as administrator of his will. A lawyer at the insurance company refuses to pay out the money, sending someone to investigate the death, but Becky hires her own lawyers to say that she’s the victim of a conspiracy.
The story never explicitly states that Amelia killed Jos (perhaps inspired by Lord Steyne’s threat to kill her) or if she simply encouraged him to indulge his worst qualities and he died of his longstanding liver problems. The insurance company’s refusal to pay the money suggests that they too strongly suspect foul play, but as is usually the case for Becky, she triumphs due to the lack of evidence against her.
Themes
Becky begins calling herself Lady Crawley, even though she never had the title of “Lady.” Rawdon dies of yellow fever on Coventry Island, and six weeks later, Pitt Crawley dies, too, leaving a fortune to Rawdy. Rawdy refuses to contact Becky but pays her a decent allowance.
Like Jos, both Rawdon and Pitt Crawley fell under Becky’s sway, and they too eventually succumb to her scheming. Their death completes Becky’s success, since all their money goes to Rawdy, who, despite his dislike of his mother, nevertheless feels duty-bound to give her money—which seems to be all she wants out of Rawdy anyway.
Themes
Once she gets her new money, Becky starts going to church and gets involved with charity. She works stalls at fairs to benefit the poor. One day in London, Amelia, Dobbin, Georgy, and their new daughter Janey happen to see Becky at her charity stall. She smiles, but they hurry away. Amelia thinks about how Dobbin loves their new daughter—maybe even more than he loves Amelia—but he still treats Amelia well too. The narrator asks what happiness truly is and then says that the story is over.
The end of the novel finally provides a chance for Becky to test her theory that she would just be a nice, moral woman if she had enough money. In fact, the end of the novel seems to prove her thesis true, although it leaves open the question of whether anything will ever be enough for Becky. It also raises the question of whether her current reform can justify all the selfish actions that have brought her to this point.
Themes
