If we must select a hero for this tale then, it is Dobbin. What is certain is that neither side, as it were, is free from blame.Ĭaptain William Dobbin, similar to Amelia in that he possess more affection and loyalty than common good sense, enters the drama first as the friend of Amelia’s shady husband and later as a sort of savior. Add to this a whole host of powerful characters, some of whom are set for a fall, others who wield destruction and then leave, and still others who are there to be tempted or to watch, nonchalant, as this great play of virtue and vice trickles out. We have, first of all, the love interests: Amelia’s unworthy chap (the dashing solider, George Osborne) and Becky’s willfully weak one (the easily swayed gambler, Rawdon). While the two leading female characters are obvious juxtapositions of each other, the (naïve) extreme of good and the extreme of bad as it were, other characters play their own part, some strolling in the gray areas and others finding something laudable in the darkness of Becky’s indulgent world. Thackeray starts this huge novel with a tongue-and-cheek sneer that hilariously and deeply mocks the characters who, often as not, value the appearance of virtue over the real thing, the opinion of society over the rules of God (and heart), and of course, the vanity of the temporal, shifting, transient “civilization” of the time over genuine feelings and actions.

Together then, the young women, so entirely different from each other, begin a dance around each other as they pursue love against the backdrop of war. Where Becky is cruel, Amelia is kind, and where Becky is shrewd, Amelia is blind. Where Becky is stalwart and strong willed, Amelia is pliable and weak. Where Becky values society, Amelia values ideals. Where Becky bends virtue for gain, Amelia stands by her expected place. Where Becky seeks social status at all costs, Amelia finds sacrifice and martyrdom. Where Becky seeks fortune and self-interest, Amelia seeks love and idolization.

Where Becky seeks to play society, Amelia seeks to please it.

Where Becky’s background is murky, Amelia’s is clear. The story begins with Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley, two very different women, who are graduating from a young ladies academy and getting ready for their official, adult debut in the world. Rating: “All is vanity, nothing is fair.”īack on a classics kick, I decided to revisit an old favorite – William Makepeace Thackeray’s sardonic tale of worldly wiles, fallible virtues, and the vanities of pleasure.

The vanity fair book