Resumo de Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

Vanity Fair (1847-48) by William Makepeace Thakeray is a satirical novel of manners. Very
true to it's title, the novel deals with the vanities of the rich and powerful. The author seems to be making readers aware that money and power, though important to some extent, don't neccessarily lead to happiness or contentment and should not be the onlt goal of life.
The story begines with Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp leaving Mrs. Pinkerton's academy in orderto live their lives in Vanity Fair, a fictional place of social climbing and search for wealth.
Amelia belongs to a good family and does not consider wealth or power to be important in life,
but Rebeca is an orphan and feels acquiring wealth and power is the sole purpose of one's life,
at least her life.
Rebecca tries hard to get an entry into the high society and high social circle of Vanity Fair
by marrying Amelia's brother through seduction. But her plans are destroyed by George Osborne,Amelia's would be husband. He considers having a low status girl like Rebecca as sister-in-law to be quite degrading and disgraceful for him. Rebecca is quite angered and frustrated but she takes up the job of a governess at Queen's Crawley, and soon succeeds in marrying the second son of Sir Pitt Crawley. As a result of this, Rawdon's rich aunt disinherits him angered by his action.
On the other hand, William Dobbin, a friend of George Osborne acts as a mediator and instrument of getting Amelia and George married when George's father shows his hesitation and unwillingness to get them both married due to Amelia's father's loss of fortune. George is disinherited too by his father on hearing about this marriage. Now both Amelia and Rebecca are sialing in the same boat once again. Both of them try to live and support their families with insufficient means.
George goes to fight at Waterloo and dies there. And Amelia's finances and needs are taken
care of by Dobbin who always had tender feelings for her but never showed them. But he does
all this anonymously so that the self respectful Amelia cannot refuse to take his help.Amelia's
cowardly brother Joseph goes back to his post in India after he fled from Waterloo at the sound
of a cannon. Amelia and Rebecca become mothers and give birth to sons.
The manipulative Rebecca convinces Rawdon that she will make him rich, but actually keeps all
her treasures that she recieved from admiring gentleme hidden from Rawdon. Soon she comes in the good books and notice of Lord Steyne, thus amassing a lot of diamonds and money recieved from him. As a result of neglect and negligence of Rebecaa towards him, Rawdon draws closer to his brother's (Pitt) wife, Lady Jane who has inherited from the rich aunt.
Reiterating and proving his point that basic goodness of nature and relationships always reign supreme over money and power,the author shows in the novel how things change for the worse for Rebecca Rawdon. Rawdon comes to know about Rebecca's trecherous and dirty designs that money means more to her than anything else. He leaves her to take post in Coventry Island and dies there of yellow fever.
Amelia is shown to be incapable and helpless in not being able to look after her poor parents
and her son for want of resources. With a heavy heart she gives the custody of her son, Georgy,
to his grandfather old Osborne. It is Dobbin again who reconciles and makes relations sweet
between Amelia and her father-in-law after returning from service. Osborne in his will leaves
half his fortune in little Georgy's name and provides for Amelia too. Thus nce again goodness
and kindness reign over wickedness and greed.
Rebecca loses her husbands respect, goes to Europe for some years where she meets Joseph,
Georgy, Amelia, and William on the continent. She once again pursues her seduction design on
him, whisks away all his money but does not marry him. He dies of her terror and she is accused of speeding up his death. The end of the novel shows Rebecca havind respect that she always craved for. But in her hot pursuit for all this she loses her husband and son who after his uncle and cousin Pitt's deaths becomes the sole heir of Queen's Crawley.
William Dobbin is able to make a place in Amelia's heart and little George gets rid of his
vanity and spoilt habits that he acuired under the influence of te high society of Vanity Fair
and under Dobbin's tutelage. The novel ends with a hope aroused in the readers minds that the
younger generation of Vanity Fair will be better than their predecessors.

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