A Thematic Analysis Of William Thackeray's Vanity Fair

As Thackeray's most important novel, Vanity Fair represents profoundly and vividlythe society of London in the Victorian Age. By depicting the characters of the middle classand the upper class, Thackeray brings forth the procedure and the elementary progress ofthe rise of the middle class. Based on a close reading of the novel, and by the method ofcharacter analysis, this thesis will argue that Thackeray establishes the theme of VanityFair as reflecting the rise of the middle class in Victorian England, and the middle classexhibits great activity and energy in the procedure of exalting its social identity andreaching the central power if society. In this way, the thesis attempts to analyze the themeof Vanity Fair from a new perspective, thus expects to enrich the study of Vanity Fair.This thesis contains four chapters with one introduction and a conclusion. Theintroduction scans the previous studies of Vanity Fair at home and abroad and presents thesense of the middle class and the categorization of the characters in this thesis. It proposesthe central argument of the study of the thesis. Chapter One analyzes Becky Sharp as thelively representative of the middle class. Chapter Two deals with the behavior andcharacter of Amelia, who bears most of the advantages of the middle class over the upperclass. Chapter Three is about the influence exerted on the upper class by the middle class.Chapter Four studies some comments of Thackeray himself in the novel to set off the riseof the middle class.The conclusion summarizes the views of this thesis and suggests that the theme ofVanity Fair should be re-concerned because the novel perfectly presents the determination,efforts and advantages of the middle class that are shown in the marching into the center ofthe Victorian upper society. The vivid literary cameo of the social life of the upper societyin this era witnessed and proved the rise of the middle class in England.