Life Of Struggle: A Comparative Study Of Rebecca Sharp And Lily Bart

After a comparative study of Rebecca Sharp in William Makepeace Thackeray'sVanity Fair and Lily Bart in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, this thesis points outthe cause of their tragedies. Though they have different family and social backgroundsand different attitudes towards love and marriage, as helpless females, their results arealmost the same, their dreams end up in vain:one dies tragically and the other keepsalive without ambitious aims. There may be many reasons for their tragedies, but thesociety they live in is the major one. Either in the nineteenth century England or theearly twentieth century America, the society is dominated by men. For helpless womenlike Rebecca and Lily, it's impossible for them to realize their dreams all by their own.If they want to live a better life and have a brighter future, the only way for them is tofind a rich husband to promote their social status and give them economic security. Butit's not a dependent way to rely on men, for all the society is dominated by men andthey can decide all the things according to their own interests and benefit. So no matterhow hard they struggle in the society, they can't break away from their tragic fates.The main body can be divided into two parts. The first part is a comparative studyof Rebecca's and Lily's social and family backgrounds and men and women aroundthem which points out how deep the social and family backgrounds have influencedtheir characters, lives and fates. In the patriarchal society, inequality not only exitsbetween men and women, but also the rich and the poor. As poor and helpless women,Rebecca and Lily have to suffer a lot. They not only suffer from inequality from men,but also isolation or even schemes by other women.The second part is their attitudes towards love and marriage and also theirstruggle in the society and their tragic fates and endings. Living in the male-dominatedsociety, no matter how hard they struggle and how they face the society, actively orpassively, they can't realize their dreams. All their efforts end up in vain. But there is still some difference between their fates. Rebecca is greatly influenced by the thensociety and she does everything with the aim of getting wealth. She has lost in thecorrupted world. Although Lily dies at last, she has realized her self-identity.Through the analysis above we can reach the conclusion that in the maledominatedsociety women who are in attached position can only get social andeconomic security through marriage. For women lower in economic and socialposition, it's even difficult for them to live a better life and their hard struggle alwaysends up in tragedy. Their tragic endings may haave something to do with their ownshortcomings in their characteristics, but it's mainly caused by the society they live in.They can't break away from the attachment to men both in spirit and economy, so, ofcourse, they can't get rid of the control and oppression of the male-dominated world.