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ninarg 's review for:
Vanity Fair
by William Makepeace Thackeray
"I warn my "kyind friends", then, that I am going to tell a story of harrowing villainy and complicated - but, as I trust, intensely interesting - crime. My rascals are no milk-and-water rascals, I promise you. When we come to the proper places we won't spare fine language - No, no! But when we are going over the quiet country we must perforce be calm. A tempest in a slop-basin is absurd. We will reserve that sort of thing for the mighty ocean and the lonely midnight.
The present chapter is very mild. Others - But we will not anticipate those."
Welcome to Vanity Fair. Here you'll meet lots of greedy, selfish people who are happy to grind down others in their climb up the social ladder. Who cares if good and honest folk are sent to debtor's prison because of you? The only thing that matters is your own social advancement. If you have to lie and cheat, scheme and deceive, and leave your morals behind so be it. The only thing that matters is Society and material goods that you can flaunt in the face of your rivals.
Becky Sharp is a piece of work. She is cunning, scheming, a fabulous actress and liar and she will let absolutely nothing stop her on her way up the social ladder. And I mean nothing - she'll commit murder to get money. She has made social climbing her profession, and she is damn good at it - possibly because she has nothing like a conscience. She knows what a conscience is and is good at pretending that she has one (just like she pretends to love her child when it is convenient to her, or to pretend that she'll have money for the rent tomorrow), but Becky doesn't do anything that doesn't benefit herself. Kindness, helpfulness, friendliness etc. are only practiced by her when she can gain something by it herself.
"The Rector's wife paid me a score of compliments about the progress my pupils made, and thought, no doubt, to touch my heart - poor, simple, country soul! as if I cared a fig about my pupils!"
On the other hand, you have Amelia. Good, honest, kind and dutiful, Amelia is the embodiment of a good, almost saintly, stay-at-home-and-love-your-children-Recency woman. Amelia is also boring and ridiculously loyal to George (who, by the way, didn't want to marry her, who is tired of her as soon as he has said "I do" and want to elope with Rebecca a month after his marriage.) Amelia is also the object of good, kind and faithful William Dobbin's affections. He holds a torch for her for 18 years, always helping her out, giving her and her son money while they are poor. The man is always there for her, but Amelia can't marry him because George. Dead, stupid, selfish George! Dobbin's speech to Amelia towards the end, his "you are so selfish and ungrateful, you do not deserve my love and I am leaving!" speech, gave me "honestly me dear, I don't give a damn!" vibes, and I was cheering him on. That good, angelic girl was so selfish, uncaring and ungrateful for years and I thought it was brilliantly done by Thackeray, to show that people are not black and white; that saintly Amelia was capable of immense selfishness, taking advantage of Dobbin's affections for her - and good on Dobbin for finally moving on with his life and leaving her to regret her own stupidity.
And then Rebecca comes and, on the surface, is very kind in uniting her and Dobbin, but also she is just getting them out of the way so she can get Jos to herself and get his money...
This is a vicious critique of Victorian society and its love of money and social status (and are we any better today?), told with sarcastic wit and humour by Thackeray who loves to butt in and comment on his characters and their motivations. He is almost a character in himself, and I love it. If this is his usual style, he can tell me stories any day of the week. I'll go put the kettle on.
The present chapter is very mild. Others - But we will not anticipate those."
Welcome to Vanity Fair. Here you'll meet lots of greedy, selfish people who are happy to grind down others in their climb up the social ladder. Who cares if good and honest folk are sent to debtor's prison because of you? The only thing that matters is your own social advancement. If you have to lie and cheat, scheme and deceive, and leave your morals behind so be it. The only thing that matters is Society and material goods that you can flaunt in the face of your rivals.
Becky Sharp is a piece of work. She is cunning, scheming, a fabulous actress and liar and she will let absolutely nothing stop her on her way up the social ladder. And I mean nothing - she'll commit murder to get money. She has made social climbing her profession, and she is damn good at it - possibly because she has nothing like a conscience. She knows what a conscience is and is good at pretending that she has one (just like she pretends to love her child when it is convenient to her, or to pretend that she'll have money for the rent tomorrow), but Becky doesn't do anything that doesn't benefit herself. Kindness, helpfulness, friendliness etc. are only practiced by her when she can gain something by it herself.
"The Rector's wife paid me a score of compliments about the progress my pupils made, and thought, no doubt, to touch my heart - poor, simple, country soul! as if I cared a fig about my pupils!"
On the other hand, you have Amelia. Good, honest, kind and dutiful, Amelia is the embodiment of a good, almost saintly, stay-at-home-and-love-your-children-Recency woman. Amelia is also boring and ridiculously loyal to George (who, by the way, didn't want to marry her, who is tired of her as soon as he has said "I do" and want to elope with Rebecca a month after his marriage.) Amelia is also the object of good, kind and faithful William Dobbin's affections. He holds a torch for her for 18 years, always helping her out, giving her and her son money while they are poor. The man is always there for her, but Amelia can't marry him because George. Dead, stupid, selfish George! Dobbin's speech to Amelia towards the end, his "you are so selfish and ungrateful, you do not deserve my love and I am leaving!" speech, gave me "honestly me dear, I don't give a damn!" vibes, and I was cheering him on. That good, angelic girl was so selfish, uncaring and ungrateful for years and I thought it was brilliantly done by Thackeray, to show that people are not black and white; that saintly Amelia was capable of immense selfishness, taking advantage of Dobbin's affections for her - and good on Dobbin for finally moving on with his life and leaving her to regret her own stupidity.
And then Rebecca comes and, on the surface, is very kind in uniting her and Dobbin, but also she is just getting them out of the way so she can get Jos to herself and get his money...
This is a vicious critique of Victorian society and its love of money and social status (and are we any better today?), told with sarcastic wit and humour by Thackeray who loves to butt in and comment on his characters and their motivations. He is almost a character in himself, and I love it. If this is his usual style, he can tell me stories any day of the week. I'll go put the kettle on.