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VANITY FAIR: CHARACTERS

Rebecca Sharp

Becky Sharp is the anti-heroine with whom Thackeray sides; she is an intelligent young woman with a gift for satire. She is described as a petite sandy haired girl who has green eyes and a great deal of wit. Fluent in both French and English, Becky has a beautiful singing voice, plays the piano, and shows great talent as an actress. She is also completely amoral and without conscience. Even if she is smart and brilliant she is not considered where she studied; Becky is also obliged to give French lessons to pay her studies at Chiswick Mall and the stuff think she is a rebel girl who rejects rules. She does not seem to have the ability to get attached to other people, and lies easily and intelligently to get her way. She is extremely manipulative and, after the first few chapters and her failure to attract Jos Sedley, is not shown as being particularly sincere. Becky desires above all things having financial and social security which she never had. Nearly everything she does is with the intention of securing a stable position for herself, or herself and her husband after she and Rawdon are married. She advances Rawdon's interests tirelessly, flirting with men such as General Tufto and the Marquess of Steyne in order to get him promoted. She also uses her feminine wiles to distract men at card parties while Rawdon cheats them blind. Marrying Rawdon Crawley in secret was a mistake, as was running off instead of begging Miss Crawley's forgiveness. She also fails to manipulate Miss Crawley through Rawdon so as to obtain an inheritance. Although Becky manipulates men very easily, she does not even try to cultivate the friendship of most women. Lady Jane, the Dobbin sisters, and Lady Steyne see right through her. Amelia and (initially) Miss Crawley are exceptions to the rule. Becky is also used by the novelist to tell the unsaid, what everyone knows and tries to conceal. She represents the "other side" of the Victorian Age, a woman who does everything she can to get a higher position in the society. In the first chapter ("Leaving Chiswick Mall") Becky is leaving the college where she has studied so far and the novelist makes clear how she was treated by the stuff and what kind of personality she possesses. We also understand how girls used to be educated. Becky is immediately described as a girl who doesn't really care about authority and is happy to leave a world where she was not considered at all and nobody cared about her presence. Through her action (throwing the French dictionary given to her by Miss Jemima out the window) we also understand her audacious and unscrupulous attitudes which permits her to never stop in front of anything.

Amelia Sedley

Amelia is Becky's opposite: pale, passive, and emotionally devoted to her husband and son. She marries George Osborne against the wishes of George's father, and when George dies at the battle of Waterloo she brings up little George alone while living with her parents. She is completely dominated by her spendthrift father (who steals and sells the annuity George's friends put together to try to support her) and her mother. When she studied at Chiswick Mall she was adored by all the people in there. As a matter of fact she represents the typical good-manners Victorian woman who dreams to marry and have a position in the society. After George Osborne's death, Amelia is obsessed with her son and with the memory of her husband. She ignores William Dobbin, who courts her for years, and treats him shabbily until eventually he leaves. It is only after Becky shows her George's letter to her that Amelia realizes what a good man Dobbin is, although she has already written to him to ask him to come back. She eventually marries Dobbin.

Miss Pinkerton

She is the venerate headteacher of the academy for young ladies on Chiswick Mall. Everyone is afraid of her - her sister Jemima included - but now she has to pay attention to a little insignificant girl called Rebecca, who is the only one able to face her. She is ridiculed with irony by the novelist who uses her as an example of a person with a ruling position who can only be parodied even in the way that she dresses. She is respected by all the people but at the same time she seems not able to discuss with a younger lady who comes from a lower social class. This makes her figure less important than she thinks she is.

Rawdon Crawley

Rawdon, the younger of the two Crawley sons, is an empty-headed cavalry officer who is his wealthy aunt's favorite until he marries Becky Sharp, who is of a far lower class. He permanently alienates his aunt, who leaves her estate to Sir Pitt instead. Sir Pitt has by this time inherited their father's estate, leaving Rawdon quite poor. The well-meaning Rawdon has a few talents in life, most of which have to do with gambling and dueling. He is very good at cards and pool, and although he does not always win he is able to earn cash by betting against less talented gamblers. He is heavily indebted throughout most of the book, not so much for his own expenses as for Becky's. Not particularly talented as a military officer, he is content to let Becky manage his career. Although Rawdon knows Becky is attractive to men, he believes her reputation is spotless even though she is widely suspected of romantic intrigue with General Tufto and other powerful men. Nobody dares to suggest otherwise to Rawdon because of his temper and his reputation for dueling. Yet other people, particularly the Marquess of Steyne, find it impossible to believe that Crawley is unaware of Becky's tricks. Steyne in particular believes Rawdon is fully aware Becky is prostituting herself, and believes Rawdon is going along with the charade in the hope of financial gain. After Rawdon finds out the truth and leaves Becky for an assignment overseas, he leaves his son to be brought up by Sir Pitt and Lady Jane.

Miss Crawley

The elderly Miss Crawley is everyone's favourite wealthy aunt. Sir Pitt and Rawdon both dote on her, although Rawdon is her favourite nephew and sole heir until he marries Becky. While Miss Crawley likes Becky and keeps her around to entertain her with sarcasm and wit, and while she loves scandal and particularly stories of unwise marriage, she does not want scandal or unwise marriage in her family. A substantial part of the early section of the book deals with the efforts the Crawleys make to kowtow to Miss Crawley in the hope of receiving a big inheritance.