In how far the marriage between Amelia and George Osborne could be considered a true love relationship is not the main subject of this analysis. These two women stand as examples for two completely different beliefs: Becky only trusts in monetary values, whereas Emmy’s true salvation lies in love and loyalty - but also in religion and faith. At first it appears as if she has found this specific fellow but the perils of destiny - and also infidelity - ruin her marriage. Not a high social status she longs to conquer but a man with whom she can outlive her romantic feelings. The other female protagonist, Amelia “Emmy” Sedley, is the complete opposite of Rebecca. But in spite of her wickedness and bewitching attacks on rich men she must early experience that life cannot be planned and that setbacks are unpleasant but possible. Throughout the book she seems to have only one goal: achieving a high rank within society and enjoying wealthy and luxury. Probably, Rebecca “Becky” Sharp is the most controversial person in Vanity Fair. And as there are not only a few ‘human stains’ to be found but rather lots of, the reader is gliding through a story of bedazzling and betraying, cheating and corrupting, until in the very end all lies and secrets will be disclosed. And as a matter of fact a literary work of such a length comes up with more than only a few figures as well as it features a plot which is not free of slight inconsistencies and blemishes.īut not these light formal stains characterize Vanity Fair but the faults and failures that are made by the protagonists and which uncover the true nature of mankind. In regard to the piece’s exceptional length this method of releasing was probably the easiest for the readers as thus they had the possibility to successively become acquainted with the protagonists of the story. William Makepeace Thackeray at first published his work as a series in the London satire magazine Punch from 1847 till 1848. However, this status is due not only to its remarkably large extent stored on almost a thousand pages 2 but also to its tartly depicted content, in short: love, money and power. Undoubtedly, the novel belongs to the most ambitious literary works of Victorian Age. “There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.”Īnd a thousand thoughts - or perhaps even some more - were probably the reason why Thackeray’s Vanity Fair became such a large piece of work.

Introduction: From a thousand thoughts to Vanity Fair Differences of Amelia and Rebecca in their style of speaking and its consequences Brief outline of what happened to Amelia and Rebecca over the yearsĤ. Analysis: Parasitism or Woman on the hunt for lifeġ.

Vanity fair william makepeace