Interpretation of the Extract from the Novel “Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackeray.

Interpretation of the Extract from the Novel “Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackeray.

752 group, Julia Bryukhova.

March 8, 2011.

A little girl,

asked where her home was,

replied, "where mother is…"

Keith L

The text under analysis is taken from the novel “Vanity Fair” belonging to the pen of an English novelist of the 19th century, who is famous for his satirical works, particularly “Vanity Fair”, a panoramic portrait of the English society. As far as I know, Thackeray began as a satirist and parodist, writing papers with a sneaking fondness for roguish upstarts like Becky Sharp in “Vanity Fair”, Barry Lyndon in “The Luck of Barry Lyndon” and Catherine in “Catherine”. In “Vanity Fair” he was able to satirize whole swaths of humanity.

“Vanity Fair” is a novel without a Hero, the first major work published by William Thackeray under his own name, was published in London. William Thackeray characterizes his “vanity fair” as a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falseness and pretension.

The text is a third person narration where the omniscient narrator, from a vantage point outside the action relates events which may occur in different places and we are told how different characters feel so we see things from more than one perspective.

The theme of the excerpt is a domestic life, where there are no happy marriages because of the egotism, selfishness, folly, and false values of individuals and of the society and as a result, selfishness, vanity, snobbery and materialism affect a child parent relationship.

In the opening paragraph the reader gets acquainted with an eight years old boy with blue eyes and waving flaxen hair. Reading this part we can understand perfectly well that the child is deprived of mother’s love, kindness and care. Becky Sharp, his mother, is rather selfish, unscrupulous, manipulative, and ambitious, she is capable of appearing sweet, mild, and even timid when it furthers her aims to do so. She dislikes her son and he bothers her and that’s why the servants play the so called “mother role” in his life. The cook crams the open – hearted boy with stories at night and the groom pays attention to the boy, showing him pony and spending time with him. Analyzing the first part of the excerpt we can figure out that the young boy, who loves domestic animals and enjoys spending time with people who serve in the house can be characterized as kind – hearted and open person. Although he is so young, he understands life as it is and can feel clearly who is kind to him…

As the story unfolds the reader gets further significant information, concerning the relationships between the son and his parents. On the one hand, it is described directly and the writer depicts the bitter situation at the house, employing the metaphor “spy” to execute the boy, bewitched by his mother’s singing, who tries to overhear her. The woman, possessing amazing voice, and being attractive to men, uses it to charm the man, Marquis by name. Here the character, Becky Sharp, is presented through her actions and that very fact helps us to reveal certain features of her character such as pretension, falseness, and lack of mother’s instinct. She sings for the man but has she ever sung to her own son? I don’t think so. Becky strikes her son rudely and violently “a couple of boxes on the ear” as it is described in the story and that’s the crucial moment of it.

On the other hand, the writer executes the relationships indirectly creating gloomy, tense atmosphere in order to give a complete picture of the boy’s position in the family, his poor state. In this episode the necessary atmosphere of grief is evoked. After mother’s punishment Rawdon rushes to his friends of the kitchen, and probably the kitchen plays a role of the so called refuge or shelter for him, where he can share everything that worries him, because it is not the boy, crying but his heart, bleeding, unfortunately. He feels safe only in the kitchen but not with his mother. The author employs the case of personification to demonstrate the importance of love and care for the boy. Although the boy is too young but his heart is something alive and his mother hurts him so much.

However, analyzing the boy’s words, concerning the man, the guest at the house, we can feel that the society is driven by the worship of wealth, rank, power. Consequences of this worship are the perversion of love, friendship, and hospitality and the inability to love. To Rawdon’s opinion, the man looks unpleasant and Thackeray recourses to the epithet “bald – headed” and depicts the man as an unattractive person with large teeth to suggest the idea of aversion that the young boy feels at the moment. The kitchen, where the boy is sobbing his heart out, is wrapped in grief and rage…Analyzing how the cook looks at the housemaid and the housemaid looks at the footman as well, we can conclude that the parallel construction, employed by William Thackeray, reinforces a special atmosphere of tension as all the servants start hating Rebecca for her indifference, violence and hypocrisy towards her son. The kitchen inquisition sits on her at the moment. Taking the dictionary definition of that word into the consideration, the reader can learn that the “inquisition” is the organization set up by the Roman Catholic Church to punish people who opposed its beliefs and the writer draws the parallel between the inquisition and the opinions of servants in the kitchen. They really don’t share Rebecca’s attitude, misunderstanding and judging her for her indifference and hatred towards her only son as he is the so called “pain to her”. From that very moment the yawing gap places between hypocritical mother and young suffering son, his mother – vision fades away, because of the boxes on the ear…The boy is suffering from constant lack of his mother’s love and care and maybe that is the last drop in his state of expectation and persistence.

In fact, critics hailed the work as a literary treasure. Although they were superlative in their praise, they expressed disappointment at the unremittingly dark portrayal of human nature, fearing Thackeray had taken his dismal metaphor too far. In response to his critics, Thackeray explained that he saw people for the most part "abominably foolish and selfish".

William Makepeace Thackeray’s masterpiece cannot let the readers stay indifferent. As my evaluation of the extract is concerned, the author wants to convey to the reader the following messages: Becky Sharp is a woman whose ambition is to reach the highest stratum of the society. The author is eager to bring home to the reader that sometimes ambitions of parents spoil the children’s lives. However, there is one more significant message, that touches my heart. There is no relationship that exists in this world that is as pure and gentle as a mother-child relationship. It is truly priceless. Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible…in the book by William Thackeray another side of it is described, a child can be deprived of love and care and it causes appalling consequences on the child’s future. The message of the excerpt is intensified by the contrast, as the reader observes the boy, treated warmly by servants in his kitchen and the boy, hated by his mother. The reader faces the bitter situation, concerning indifference and aversion from the mother’s side towards her son. Upbringing a child can be compared with cultivating a garden and it is in mother’s hands to make the garden prosperous and fruitful but if the gardener pays no attention to the garden, failing to give care, kindness and love, the garden will die.

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