Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

134. Survivor Literature: Thackeray's Vanity Fair!

                               Thackeray's Vanity Fair : Surviving in a Materialist Society

         "People in Vanity Fair fasten on to rich folks quite naturally. If the simplest people are disposed to look not a little kindly on great Prosperity (for I defy any member of the British public to say that the notion of Wealth has not something awful and pleasing to him; and you, if you are told that the man next you at dinner has got half a million, not to look at him with a certain interest)—if the simple look benevolently on money, how much more do your old worldlings regard it. Their affections rush out to meet and welcome money. Their kind sentiments awaken spontaneously towards the interesting possessors of it" (Thackeray 198). This passage from Thackeray's Vanity Fair suggests the pervasive influence that the love of money holds upon upper class British society. In the novel, Thackeray uses humor, irony and cynicism to portray the picaresque life of Rebecca Sharp on her quest for fame and fortune. Using the coming of age or bildungsroman as the theme, the author creates sympathy for his protagonist as she pits her wits against a cold and indifferent affluent society. Taking his title from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the author satirizes the hollow materialistic values of nineteenth century British aristocracy. Thackeray himself describes Vanity Fair as "a very vain, wicked, foolish place full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions" (78). Rebecca, or Becky as she is called, commences the first phase of her initiation, much like young Oliver Twist, poor and penniless; however, Thackeray's protagonist surpasses young Twist in both ability and determination. Although Thackeray claims that Vanity Fair lacks a hero, the author uses Rebecca as his persona to show what characteristics prove essential for one to advance socially in a corrupt society. Strong and resilient, sensitive yet relentless, the protagonist believes that here alone she will thrive, here alone her talents earn their just desert. The author reinforces his caustic, satirical tone when he says that the reader "might fancy it was I who was sneering at the practice of devotion, which Miss Sharp finds so ridiculous; that it was I who laughed good-humouredly at the reeling old Silenus of a baronet—whereas the laughter comes from one who has no reverence for prosperity, and no eye for anything beyond success. Such people there are living and flourishing in the world—Faithless, Hopeless, Charityless: let us have at them with might and main. Some there are, and very successful too, mere quacks and fools: and it was to combat and expose such as those, no doubt, that Laughter was made" (78-79).

             Thackeray creates in Becky Sharp a character that indeed possesses heroic qualities enabling her to adapt to various circumstances, much like Defoe's Moll Flanders. Initially, she is the daughter of a gifted artist, whom the author humorously describes as "a clever man; a pleasant companion; a careless student; with a great propensity for running into debt, and a partiality for the tavern." When drunk, the father would often "beat his wife and daughter; and the next morning, with a headache, he would rail at the world for its neglect of his genius" (12-13). The child's mother is a poor French girl whom Thackeray satirically caricatures as one "who was by profession an opera girl." Here the author's irony suggests that she too lived destitute and impoverished. In essence, young Becky Sharp enters the world in tragic circumstances which place her in "the dismal precocity of poverty" (13). To illustrate the protagonist's determination, Thackeray facetiously suggests how Rebecca contrives a familial tie with French nobility to enhance her social status among the wealthy. According to the author, "The humble calling of her female parent, Miss Sharp never alluded to, but used to state subsequently that the Entrechats were a noble family of Gascony, and took great pride in her descent from them. And curious as it is, that as she advanced in life this young lady's ancestors increased in rank and splendor." Thackeray cynically criticizes the upper class' superficial need for peerage and ridicules the ignorance of the English aristocracy who fail to recognize that Rebecca's chosen family name Entrechat means "a ballet dancer's leap" (13). Here, again, the author comically uses the name to represent the social leap of the main character.