Exploration of the Nature of Capitalism From Characters in“Vanity Fair”

董健

【Abstract】The novel “Vanity fair” is the masterpiece of William Makepeace Thackeray， in which the author illustrates that the life of upper-class aristocratic capitalists in the 19th century. The lives of people are related to money and reputation. They are likely to try whichever means to fulfill their longings even most of them are bad ones. Through a series of comprehensive research and analysis， this novel is aimed to reveal those bad natures of the people under the background of the development of capitalism.

【Key words】Vanity Fair characters human nature

“Vanity Fair” was published in the early stage of Victorian Age. It was an era filled with cheat and degeneration. All the people in that age， especially those from the middle and upper classes were striving for fame and wealth. During that period， people are all want to obtain more profits. England became the heaven for capitalists and the hell for the ordinary people.

Becky Sharp was born in a poor family， but she was not willing to accept her family background

“Who would have dreamed of Lady Crowley dying so soon？ She was one of those sickly women that might have lasted these ten years—Rebecca thought to herself， in all the woes of repentance—and I might have been my lady！”[1] and “It can be clearly concluded that Becky was mad at pursuing wealth， fame and high social position. To achieve these purposes， she lied， cheated， betrayed and even regardless of bothering and even breaking other lives. She take advantage of the man she needed and abandon them without consideration. She excellently mastered very means to get whatever she want， such as telling lies，taking unscrupulous and mean actions.

It is not difficult to see that Becky was beautiful and clever， greedy and capricious.evil and dissolute， selfishness and indifferent driven by the desire of being rich and being stable in upper society. All these were influenced by the social environment， the big gap between the poor and the rich is obvious. The development of capitalism contributes a lot to that problem. People are not willing to live in a low status life so they were driven to pursue what they wanted even in bad ways.

Amelia Sedley was another important character in “Vanity Fair”. For people around Amelia， they liked her kindness and moral cultivation. When Becky thought herself was pity and alone for being an orphan without friends and kindred， Amelia said to Becky：” Not alone.” “You know， Rebecca， I shall always be your friend， and love you as a sister—indeed I will.” She was always such a considerate girl to her friends. Elkins described “Finally， Amelia is soft-hearted and tender to other people， and is acceptant to all kinds of people.”[2]

It can be concluded that no matter for those people who were kind or not， the women in that age still can not get rid of mans control. They were not independent enough to live their own life and could not be equal with men.

Different from other characters in “Vanity Fair”， William Dobbin was the one who was upright open-minded and sincere. Also， he showed sympathy to others and he was a conscientious man. To make Amelia live a happy life， he hided his love in his heart and secretly help Amelia get married with her beloved George. When George was dead， he gave his money to Amelia to help her. For him， it seemed that fate was unfair for him. It was just the people who he loved most that hurt him for almost half of his life.

Dobbin， as the kindest people in “Vanity Fair”， was an exception of being so. However， it reflected that it was not easy to change the trend of changes among people. What he could do was just content with things as they were， and sometimes he even had to help those selfless people.

Through analyzing those different main characters in “Vanity Fair”， it is not difficult to observe that those people has some nature in common to some extent， that is selfish. For those people， under the background of the development of capitalism， they were blindly seek for money and material gains while regardless of improving their morality. Nowadays， it is still under the fast development of our society， people sometimes get just as carry away while they will neglect their moralities. What we should do now is just keep clearly minded and stay calm and easy. Then， it is good for us to have a self-examination to examine us whether you are stained by bad things. Only in this we can we really be ourselves and live a easy life.

References：

[1]William Makepeace，Thackeray.Vanity Fair. Shanghai Foreign Language Educ-ation Press，2001.

[2]William R，Elkins. Thakerays Vanity Fair.Explicator， 1986，（3）：31.