Greed and Ambition
Vanity Fair focuses on the friendship of two characters who have opposite personalities. While Amelia is meek, loyal, and content with what she has, Becky is always striving, showing an ambition that may seem admirable at times, but which eventually turns into a greed that consumes her life and the lives of those around her. Becky is most sympathetic at the beginning of the story, when she is an orphan who doesn’t come from a…
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Vanity
The characters in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair care a lot about outward appearances, vainly trying to portray themselves in the best light. It’s clear how vanity motivates a character like Jos, who dresses flamboyantly in expensive boots like a dandy. But vanity is about more than just clothes or physical appearance. Arguably, even the virtuous Amelia has moments of vanity. For example, she is so afraid of even giving the appearance of seeming unfaithful to…
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Gender
Vanity Fair explores how the different social expectations for men and women in early 19th-century England. Marriage in particular serves a different function for men and women, since in a society where women have fewer rights than men and a person’s wealth and social status is everything, women must rely on marriage to rise through the ranks. As a result, love becomes degraded, transactional, and unequal. Much of the novel focuses on Becky as she…
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Inheritance and Family Life
Many characters in Vanity Fair put considerable effort into ensuring that they have an heir lined up to inherit their fortune. Succession can be contentious in the novel, spreading disagreement among families. Paradoxically, though, it can also motivate characters to act friendlier toward each other, hoping that their good manners will earn them a share of an inheritance. In the novel, inheritance complicates family dynamics. Transforming the family unit from a group of people who…
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Social Class and Character
Although the narrator of Vanity Fair constantly praises members of the upper class, in fact, his tone is usually sarcastic, and the story generally criticizes upper-class society. One of the most important criticisms centers around the fact that most “wealthy” characters are in fact heavily in debt. This comical situation raises the question of what it means to be wealthy, as when a character like Becky, who drinks champagne and wears expensive dresses, for…
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