"Vanity Fair"

Book Review # 116414

English > Analysis
Literature > English

"Vanity Fair"

An analysis of the two heroines, Amelia and Becky, in William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair".

862 words () | 1 source | MLA | 2008 Bangladesh

Paper Summary:

The paper asserts that William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" is a broad satire on the Victorian Age that was based on self-centered aspiration. The paper analyzes the two heroines, Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp, who are from opposite ends of the economic spectrum, and highlights how they are both vain and self-serving in their own way. The paper posits that the author is showing how vanity springs from all strata of society since it is inherently human.

From the Paper:

"In his novel Vanity Fair it is Thackeray's intention to create a canvass where all the characters are vain. The intention is announced in the subtitle, which reads "A Novel Without a Hero". There is no character in it with heroic qualities to admire, and we search in vain for a reference point of virtue by which to compare the rest. It is not Thackeray's intention to explain why certain people are vain, or to provide a lesson in how to live honestly, or even how to uproot such hypocrisy and vanity from society. We must take the novel as a broad satire on Victorian England and the Utilitarian ethos that was overcoming urban society at the time."