Vanity Fair :: Essays Papers

Vanity somewhatVanity Fair, though it does non include the all in all extent of Thackerays genius, is the to the highest degree vigorous exhibition of its leading characteristics. In bangle of feeling, elasticity of movement, and unity of aim, it is favorably distinguished from its successors, which too often utilize the impression of being composed of successive accumulations of incidents and persons, that drift into the story on no principle of artistic selection and combination. The style, while it has the raciness of separate peculiarity and the careless case of familiar gossip, is as clear, pure, and flexible as if its sentences had been subjected to repeated revision, and every pebble which obstructed its lucid and limpid flow had been laboriously removed. The characterization is almost perfect of its kind. Becky Sharp, the Marquis of Steyne, Sir Pitt Crawley and the whole Crawley family, Amelia, the Osbornes, Major Dobbin, not to mention others, are as well known to mos t civil people as their most intimate acquaintances in the Vanity Fair of the actual world. It has always seemed to us that Mr. Osborne, the father of George, a representation of the most hateful phase of English character, is ane of the most vividly dead on target and life-like of all the delineations in the book, and more of a typical personage than pull down Becky or the Marquis of Steyne.Thackerays theory of characterization proceeds generally on the assumption that the acts of men and women are directed not by principle, and by instincts, selfish or amiable--that toleration of piece weakness is likely totally by lowering the standard of human capacity and obligation--and that the prelim condition of an accurate knowledge of human character is distrust of ideals and renunciation of patterns. This view is narrow, and by no means covers all the facts of history and human life, but what relative truth it has is splendidly illustrated in Vanity Fair. on that point is not a person in the book who excites the readers respect, and not one who fails to excite his interest. The morbid quickness of the authors perceptions of the selfish element, even in his few amiable characters, is a constant source of surprise. The novel not only has no hero, but implies the non-existence of heroism. Yet the fascination of the book is indisputable, and it is due to a variety of causes besides its mere exhibition of the worldly side of life.