MB UNIUD

LEAVING CHISWICK MALL

It is an extract taken from the first chapter of William Thackeray's Vanity Fair.

The story begins in medias res; as a matter of fact the two main characters are leaving Chiswick Mall, but we don't know anything about their studies, their social conditions, their behaviours and their personalities yet. The function of the first chapter is to present situations and character using the technique of showing. As a matter of fact the narrator doesn't use to describe the characters directly: he prefers let them speak and act in order to better understand them. That's why the reader can easily find narration and dialogues, but rarely descriptions.

The most important figure of speech is irony. We can find it in the behaviours of Miss Pinkerton, who can't speak French, and so she is inferior than Becky for a while, and in the farewell of Miss Sedley and Miss Swarts.

In the short extract five characters are present. The most important one (to whom the longest part is dedicated) is Rebecca Sharp, also called Becky. The choice of the surname is not casual. As a matter of fact sharp means also astute, shrewd and crisp and all these adjectives connote Becky. She is described as a young lady of whom nobody takes any notice, and who teaches French in order to gain some money, since she is orphan. Aware of her humble origin, she tries to behave demurely, and she is not at all spontaneous (frigid smile, calmly, "I suppose I must"), even of she can't stand life and people in Chiswick Mall. The only moment in which her real nature comes to the surface is at the end of the extract, when she flings the book back into the garden.

Miss Pinkerton is the "headmistress" of Chiswick Mall, even if she seems to be more interested in power than in education. She has a Roman-nosed head and is defined as Hammersmith Semiramis, that convey the idea of impressiveness and haughtiness.

Miss Jemima is Miss Pinkerton's sister and a member of the staff. At the beginning of the extract she seems fairer than her sister. As a matter of fact she speaks with Becky even if nobody takes her any notice and she is sad for her departure, but at the same time she decides to give Becky the Johnson Dictionary as a present, as if she were not good enough.

The narrator doesn't dedicate many lines to Amelia. We only know that she must be very rich, since she has a servant and that she is the typical "too good and ingenuous" character, who considers all other people dear friends. The character is presented together with Miss Swarts, the parlour-boarder. They are kissing, crying, and you can hear theirs hysterical yoops: they are presented as melodramatic characters, who have theatrical behaviours.

MY DEAR AUNT

This extract is taken from the XXV Chapter of Vanity Fair. Becky is dictating her husband a letter for his aunt in order to become her heir again, in spite of his marriage with Rebecca. The function of the extract is to delineate better Becky's personality. The narrator demonstrates that our hypotheses about the symbolical meaning of her surname are right: she is intelligent, rational, sharp, astute and crisp; she is also a very good actress and a very cultured woman.

Her husband, Rowdon, is totally different from Becky. He is noble, rich (that's way Rebecca was interested in him), even if not much cultured (he makes lots of mistakes when he writes the letter). He is probably completely in love with Becky, who takes advantage of this situation and subdue him in order to satisfy her self-interests.

At the end of the extract another character is briefly described: Rowdon's aunt. She immediately understands that her nephew never wrote that letter. She is similar to Becky: as a matter of fact she is shrewd and rational and cool, indifferent towards her relatives (she understand that they just want her inheritance).