An Analysis Of Becky In Vanity Fair From The Perspective Of Androgyny

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) is considered as one of the representatives of the English critical realistic writers in the 19th century. He is not only a great novelist but also a brilliant satirist, humorist and moralist. He is a productive writer of many famous works, among which Vanity Fair has generally been regarded as his masterpiece. The novel centers on the fortunes of two contrasting but inner-linked women characters---Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley against the money-dominated and male-dominated Victorian society. Through the management of two distinctly contrary fates and life of the two female characters, Thackeray violently attacks the corrupted and hypocritical society which strongly advocates the Victorian virtues.Since the publication of Vanity Fair, it has been studied from many perspectives, such as from the ethical criticism, the multi themes of the novel, the characterization, the analysis of characters in the novel as well as from psychological aspect and feminism and so on. However, little analysis has done from the perspective of Woolf’s androgyny.This thesis will dwell on the analysis of the character Becky Sharp from the perspective of Woolf s androgyny. Becky Sharp is depicted as a protagonist with androgynous characteristics.As an ancient notion, androgyny was introduced to the literature field by Virginia Woolf in the 1920s. According to Woolf’s androgynous idea, the greatest mind is androgynous, which means that masculine traits and feminine traits exist in a single body at the same time. Woolf holds that androgyny is an ideal relationship between men and women who are mutually dependent on each other and only in this way can the human society realize its full and free development.The thesis aims to explore the femininity and masculinity embodied in Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair from a new theoretical basis---Woolf’s notion of androgyny, in order to make an objective and fair evaluation of Becky.The whole thesis is divided into three parts, which are introduction, main body and conclusion.The introduction as the first part of the thesis briefly introduces William Makepeace Thackeray and his masterpiece Vanity Fair, the literature review as well as the structure of this thesis.The first and the second chapters are the main parts of this thesis, which explore the notion of androgyny in Vanity Fair. The first chapter discusses the femininity embodied in Becky from the feminine charm and feminine tenderness.The second chapter deeply explores the masculinity embodied in Becky’s rebellion and domination, specifically consisting of her attitudes towards family and marriage, difficulties and fate, as well as her living abilities against the background of patriarchal society.The third chapter presents consequences of Becky’s androgynous characteristics. It consists of three sections, firstly about effects on herself, both positively and negatively, and then her influences on others, including on the union of Amelia and Dobbin, on her husband and on modern women. The third section shows the influences of Becky’s androgynous characteristics on Victorian society and family, consisting of social and family subversion.The final part of the thesis makes a conclusion:as the female protagonist, the androgynous character Becky with both the feminine charm and the masculine strength profoundly affects people around her. Her challenge to patriarchal society and family is so great and deep that Becky remains outstanding in literature. Becky’s spirit and courage when facing the hardships are strong and respectable enough and should be learnt by people and especially the modern women.In a word, by analyzing the androgynous character Becky Sharp, the author expects it will help readers from the perspective of androgyny to have a higher level of comprehension of the controversial character Becky Sharp and the novel itself, thus a deeper understanding of the author and a comprehensive overview of the Victorian society.