名利场论文

Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero

Abstract

Vanity Fair is Thackeray ’s masterpiece. The subtitle of the book, “A Novel Without a Hero, ” emphasize the fact that the writer ’s intention was not to portray individuals, but the bourgeois and aristocratic society as a whole. Rebecca Sharp , shrewd and unscrupulous ,is an orphan. Amelia Sedley is a daughter from a wealthy London merchant. Rebecca is determined to go to the upper society at all costs .She attempts but fails to entrap Amelia ’s brother Joseph for a husband . And then she becomes a governess in Sir Pitt Crawley .She marries his son, Rawden Crawley , to inherit a big sum of money from Rawden ’s aunt. But her hope doesn ’t come true. Amelia marries her father’s business friend’s son, George Osborne. The people in this novel all have a strong desire for money and position. The author depicted their libido for ugly things vigiously.

Outline

1. Introduction to Thackeray’s life and work

2. The plot of Vanity Fair

3. My view about the characters

Body

1. Introduction to Thackeray’s life and work

Thackeray, like Dickens, was a representative of critical realism in 19th century England. He was bone in 1811 in India, in the family of an English official. His first literary success came with a series of satirical sketches entitled The Snobs of England. The book draws a galley of snobs from different walks of life. In Thackey’s view a snob is a person who fawns upon his social superiors and looks dawn with contempt upon his inferiors. The book may be regarded as a prelude to his major literary career, as it contains all the important ideas that constitute the contents of his later works.

In the forties his realistic writing method became mature and firmly established.

A brilliant example of this method and one of the greatest masterpieces of critical realism is Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair was the peak of his literary career. At last, he abandons the noise and unrest of city life to find happiness and peace in country life.

He published two historical novels, Henry Esmond and The Virginians. He also wrote many other works including short stories, sketches, and satirical poems. These were popular during the writer’s lifetime but for the most part forgotten by the next generation of readers. During the last year of his life, he worked on the novel Denis Duval which remained unfinished owing to the author’s death in 1863.

2. The plot of Vanity Fair

The title of Vanity Fair was taken from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. The scene of the story is England in the first half of the 19th century. The book opens with the two girls from their school in a London suburb, where they have studied for 6 years. One of them was Amelia Sedley , the daughter of a wealthy London family. The other

was Rebecca Sharp, an orphan. Amelia was a charming young lady, who deserved all that the headmistress had written in her praise. She won the love of everyone who came near her. The classmates were very friendly to Amelia. Her face blushed with rosy health, and her lips had the freshest of the smiles. Rebecca was so impolite that she that she threw the dictionary Miss Jemica gave her as a gift. The two were together for a short time in Amelia’s home. At Amelia’s home, Rebecca behaved very well as if she were a well-bred girl. She wanted to attract Amelia’s brother —Joseph’s attention. She thought if she did not get a husband for herself, there was no one in the wide world would take the troubles to cope with delicate matters for her. At the party Joseph drank much wine and declared his love to Rebecca. But he had a liver disease before, the wine made his health worse. He had to rest for several months. It was now clearly time for Rebecca to leave and take up her post in the countr y —Sir Pitt Crawley’s house. She determined to strengthen her position with the Crawley family by making friends of everyone who could at all interfere with her comfort. To her employer the little governess made herself agreeable and useful in many different ways. She played cards with him in the evening. She became interested in the detail of his property. Miss Crawley, Pitt’s sister, had a short stay at Pitt’s house. It wasn’t long before Rebecca won her heart.

Amelia ’s father and George Osborne ’s father were business friends for a long time. Amelia and George were engaged very early. George’s intimate friend Dobbin was secretly and hopelessly in love with Amelia. Unexpectedly, Amelia’s father went bankrupt and left his daughter penniless. Old Osborne turned his back on his old friend and ordered his son to break with Amelia. Dobbin wanted to see Amelia happy, so he arranged the marriage between George and Amelia. The marriage made Old Osborne so furious that he crossed out his name from the family Bible.

Rebecca was so capable that Pitt fell in love with her. After his wife died, he proposed to her. But Rebecca refused her proposal and told him that she had already married to Crawley. Because she thought Crawley could inherit a big fortune from his aunt. This news made Miss Crawley very angry, she didn’t want to give her money to her nephew because he married a penniless girl.

When the war broke out, George went to the battlefield. But he was killed in the Battle of Waterloo. Widowed Amelia gave birth to a son and devoted herself to his upbringing. Rebecca then lived with Joseph, until he died, living all money to her. She returned to England and lived like a grand lady.

3.My view about characters

This is a novel without a hero. In this novel Thackeray describes the life of the ruling classes of England in the early decades of the 19th century, and attacks the social relationship of the bourgeois world by satirizing the individuals in the different strata of the upper society. The characters in this novel all have great lust for money, position and social status. They show great contempt to the people who are inferior to them. Especially Rebecca, shrewd, unscrupulous and sophisticated, tried all means to go to the upper class. At first, she was jealous of her friend, Amelia, whose mother could buy every thing if she wanted. She was always green

with envy. She wanted to marry Joseph but failed. And then she married Crawley also out of interest. To my astonishment, she had love affairs with Amelia ’s husband —George. Amelia treated her so well, but Rebecca hurt Amelia deeply. When Rebecca always went out with George happily, Amelia was very sad in secret. Her heart sank and she was uneasy. I don’t understand why Rebecca was so charming that she captured so many men. She just liked a magnet. So many men liked him because she was beautiful, humorous, and capable? Didn’t men know she was as dangerous as a snake? She approached them just because of their money, social status? Joseph was like a coward. When George treated her sister badly, he didn’t stand up to protect his sister. If I was a poor girl like Rebecca, I will use my efforts and diligence to make achievements. I know it will be difficult for me to make progress, but I think it is worth a try. Knowledge will do a good turn even as a means of subsistence. I will keep learning in case I will be replaced by younger people in a couple of years. I will apply my knowledge to the job.

While in the prime of my life, why not devote myself to a special field of study? Different people have different pursuits, such as money, social status, happiness, etc. I will never give up the pursuit of learning.

Bibliography

1. 《名利场》（英文阅读与精练）, 弘扬（主编），首都经济贸易大学出版社，2002

2. 《名利场》（掌上名著英语系列丛书），王怡（主编），世界图书出版公司，2001

3. 《英国文学简史》，刘炳善，河南大学出版社，2006，P305-308

4. 《新编英国文学选读，下》，罗经国，北京大学出版社，2009，p159-170

Self comments: Although I have read the novel with diligence and attention, the paper can still have better improvement, so the mark is 82.