Introduction

When we speak about the English literature of the nineteenth century and its main and

leading genre, the genre of the novel, the main figure that comes to our memory is W. M.

Thackeray.

W. M. Thackeray riches the peak of realistic skill in the novel "Vanity Fair."All his critical

observations of modern society are united here in a wide panorama of the novel-chronicle.

The subject matter of our graduation paper is “W. M. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair and its

literary value”.

The aim of our graduation paper is to analyze W. Thackeray's work the “Vanity Fair'' and to

present its impact on world literature.

Achievement of our goal implies the following tasks:

-To explore the literary activities of W. Thackeray.

-To study him as a representative of critical realism.

- To compare the realistic ideas of W. Thackeray and A. Shirvanzade

The actuality of the paper as follows: the whole body of our work aims at pointing out the

universality of Thackeray's genius. The themes, which he had so skillfully treated in his novel, are

still being discussed today in the light of contemporary theories.

The novelty of our paper is that we compared W. Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” with A.

Shirvanzade’s “Chaos” and presented their concepts describing the real life in literature.

Our graduation paper consists of Introduction, Three chapters, Conclusion and Bibliography.

In the Introduction we give some significant notes on this work’s purpose and contents.

The first chapter which is entitled “W. M. Thackeray as a Representative of critical

Realism” contains some facts about the authors life and his influence on English literature of the

nineteenth century. There are also some thoughts and opinions of a number of famous literary

critics and writers about the author.

The second chapter of our term paper is entitled “W. Thackeray’s Masterpiece “Vanity
Fair””. In this chapter, analyzing the novel “Vanity Fair” we tried to show the themes, symbols and
also some examples of allusions which are presented in the novel.

3
 The third chapter is entitled “Vanity Fair and its Impact on World Literature”. Here we

compared W. Thackeray’s critical ideas with one of the most outstanding writer of Armenian

literature A. Shirvanzade in order to present the great influence of the novel “Vanity Fair” on world

literature.

In the conclusion we analyze all the studies done and sum up the ideas on the subject matter.

In the Bibliography of our term paper, we have referred to the sources and the list of the

literature we made use of while working on this term paper.

4
 Chapter 1

W. M. Thackeray as a Representative of Critical Realism

“W. M.Thackeray is the leading cultural force in our country”

M.Arnold

William Makepeace Thackeray was an English outstanding novelist, author and a master of

realistic novel of the nineteenth century. In his time he was regarded as the only possible rival of

Charles Dickens for his pictures of contemporary life, but his popularity declined in the 20 th

century. William Makepeace Thackeray created incomparable panoramas of English upper-middle-

class life, which are full of memorable characters featuring the realistic mixture of virtue, vanity,

and vice.

William Makepeace Thackeray was born on July 18, 1811, in Calcutta, India. He was the

only child of Richmond and Anne Thackeray. His family had made its fortunes in the East India

Company for two generations. In 1817, after the death of his father, five-year old Thackeray was

sent to England to live with his aunt while he received his education. He was a educated child and

showed a talent for drawing. In 1829 Thackeray entered Trinity College at Cambridge University,

where he was only an average student. He left the university the next year, convinced that it was not

worth his while to spend more time in pursuit of a second-rate degree under an unsuitable

educational institution.

At the age of twenty-one Thackeray rejected law and went to Paris, France, to study French,

to draw and to attend plays. The inheritance he acquired at that age soon disappeared into bad

business ventures, and loans to needy friends. Unfortunately, he was unable to distinguish himself

as an artist. He met Isabella Shawe who later became his wife while in Paris, and they married in

1836.

Back in England and suffering massive financial losses, Thackeray started writing articles,

reviews, essays and sketches as a journalist. Travel articles about France such as his Paris Sketch

Book (1840) and The Yellowplush Correspondence (1841) were among his first efforts appearing in

various magazines and journals including Fraser's, Punch, and The Times.

5
 Writing and printing Thackeray began simultaneously with Dickens, but declared himself as

a writer later than Dickens in the late 30's. And it seems that a small gap was enough to reflect the

creative appearance of each of them in accordance with the individual tendencies and peculiarities

of the life of these writers.

Working behind Dickens, Thackeray realized the conflicts of the same era in more

determined stage, and understand it more and more discerningly. Under Dickens' pen the same

thing was usually painted in a tone of sensitive humor, sad or gloomy, while Thackeray presented it

by a sharp satirical grotesque. Thackeray revealed the essence, variants and connotations of

snobbery in the English bourgeois-aristocratic society, in all its strata and spheres, and denounced it

as a national public disaster.

Thackeray has a number of interesting statements on literary and theoretical issues directed

against Dickens, and they are clearly agonistic in nature. Thackeray protests that some novelists

tend to end their novels with a happy combination of the hero with the heroine, and it is supposed

that after this connection peace, silence and happiness come. Here is what he writes about this:

"Usually a novelist, after the hero and heroine safely pass the marriage barrier, lowers the

curtain, as if the drama is over, all doubts and struggles have been overcome and the couple

remains in the country of marriage, groom, gently embraced and. .. quietly to old age, enjoying

happiness ". 1

Thackeray did not see in life those forces, those positive and bright principles that he could

oppose to the world of the "vanity fair." With this are connected pessimistic moods growing in his

work. The pessimism of the writer was an inevitable consequence of the contradiction that underlay

his worldview and which is characteristic of other critical realists of England.

As we know, the only idol for the writer throughout his whole life was H. Fielding and T.

Smollet. Thackeray wrote “if I began to write as I wanted, I would choose Fielding and Smollet's

style, but the public would not have tolerated it”.

During his entire creative activity the writer turned to Fielding's works.Writers of this type,

according to Thackeray, are carriers of the highest truth about man, they paint authentic people

under fictitious names, “give us a better idea of the life and customs of the people than any

pompous, albeit reliable, historical book”.

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Mastery of Thackeray-novelist brought him well-deserved fame among his contemporaries.

Speaking about the literary situation of the 50's, the famous British critic Matthew Arnold wrote:

"Thackeray is the leading cultural force in our country."

Another contemporary of the writer McCarthy J. said:

‘’Young people in these years spoke in the language of Dickens and thought in the

language of Thackeray".

As a moralist and an educator of society, the author presents in his works and on every

occasion get into a direct conversation with the reader explaining the essence of the event. W.

Thackeray’s high reputation as a novelist continued unchallenged to the end of 19 th century but then

began to decline.

In 1842, for several months, the magazine Punch published humorous “Miss Tikltobi’s

Lectures” on the History of England, in which Thackeray showed his disrespectful attitude towards

the traditional authorities of English history and at the same time his disagreement with the official

pseudo-scientific versions. "Lectures" were illustrated by the author himself. Here Thackeray uses

the technique of double parody: he mocks the style of the lecturer - verbosity, piling up facts, their

surface illumination - and at the same time parodies historical novels and scholarly works of

historians who affirm the “cult of heroes”. At the same time, the “Miss Tikltoby’s Lectures”

contained something more that, as they were published, it was clearly revealed: the condemnation

of wars of distress to peoples.

Young Thackeray is always intelligent and brave, he addresses important issues of domestic

and international politics, condemns British militarism. Tired from tales, Thackeray creates a

variety of parodies. He mocks the epigones of Romanticism in them. These are the works that far

from the truth of life, parodies the works of bourgeois historiographers.

William Makepeace Thackeray is also a representative of Critical, Realism in the English

literature of the 19h century. In his novels Thackeray gives a vivid description of both middle class

and aristocratic society, their mode of life, manners, and tastes. He exposes their pride and tyranny,

their hypocrisy and snobbishness, their selfishness and wickedness. His keen insight into human

nature gives.

Thackeray's criticism is powerful, his satire is acute and bitter. He is a genius in portrayal

negative characters realistically. His realism is exact and objective. Thackeray develops the realistic
7
traditions of his predecessors, the enlighteners, Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding and becomes one

of the most prominent realists and satirists of his age. His characters are not static, they develop as

the story progresses. They are shown as natural results of their environment and the society that

bred them. He depicts his characters as if he were viewing them from afar. This new feature in

literature was later called objective realism. Thackeray does not believe in the possibility of

reforming man, and his pessimism marks the beginning of the crisis of bourgeois. This is

characteristic of the literature of the second half of the 19th century.

W. M. Thackeray was a man of huge idiosyncratic attractiveness aside from his literary

faculties and equipment, and he endued his writings with this personal interest to an extent not to be

met with elsewhere. No books are so personal as his. They are full of his ideas, his notions, his

feelings; and they owe to these not only their color and atmosphere, but a considerable portion of

their substance. They not only tell the story, but draw the moral; and in a large way justify the title

of “week-day preacher,” which he gave himself, and of which he was both fond and proud.

Thackeray’s writings constitute a vast imaginative enterprise. For the first time, his

panoramic realism gave readers of English literature a sense of living in a distinct yet diverse world.

His works offer page after page of sometimes caustic, sometimes playful, sometimes serious plot. 2

Thackeray's satire reaches its climax in his novel “Vanity fair” when he describes Sir Pitt

Crawley, a typical snob of Vanity Fair. He is a baronet, the owner of Queen's Crawley, he possesses

money and a title. That is how Becky described Sir Pitt Crawly: "Sir Pitt , ... is an old , …vulgar,

cruel and very dirty man in old shabby clothes, who smokes a horrid pipe. He speaks with a country

accent and swears a great deal ,...he is an old screw as he never gives any money to anybody." Lord

Steyne is among aristocratic snobs. He is cynical and clever, he is corrupted to the marrow He

gained his title and wealth by having named a rich woman of high origin and is considered a pillar

of the state.

Thackeray's style is distinguished by the fact that he often interrupts his narrative and talks

to the reader about the characters. The author seldom tells the reader directly what he thinks about

them His attitude is expressed either by different personages of the novel or by vivid descriptions

which invite the reader to share the author's opinion.

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 Thackeray's early works, in which he acted as a critic of bourgeois society and his morality,

prepared the appearance of the most significant things of the writer: “The Book of Snobs” (The

Book of Snobs, 1846-1847) and the top of his realistic work - the novel Vanity Fair (Vanity Fair. A

Novel Without Him, 1848). In these works which are created in the period of the rise of the Chartist

movement, Thackeray's social criticism, his realistic generalizations and satirical mastery reach

their greatest strength.

Of all criticism on Thackeray and his works, the critique on “Vanity Fair” inevitably occupies a

considerable part owing to its significance in British literature. The earliest Western

criticism on “Vanity Fair” came from some of his contemporaries. When Charlotte Bronte read

the novel in 1848, she praised Thackeray in the preface for her second edition of Jane Eyre…

“Thackeray is a Titan, so strong that he can afford to perform with calm the most Herculean

feats” 3

Thackeray caught the connection between the people of his contemporary society, based on

the magical power of money. This society appears in his works as a huge fair, where everything is

sold and everything is bought like Dickens, Thackeray did not have illusions about the possibility of

becoming a kind and sympathetic person Thackeray is an incomparable writer .It is dominated by

the satirist and social accuser. For him, the main thing is to reveal the harsh truth of life without any

embellishment and illusions.

The specifics of his work had a noticeable influence on the literature of Great Britain in later

eras. The nature of his work, Thackeray sought to eradicate the "normative" literature and introduce

a new word into the realistic layer of the Victorian era.

Thackeray’s innovations in the English literature of the XIX century caused ambiguous

judgments of the English criticism. At that time English poet R. Browning, American writer and

philosopher R. W. Emerson, English writers C. Lever wrote about him.

The contradiction of the writer's creativity allowed critics to give various evaluations to

works, causing admiration of some and misunderstanding of others.

3
Ch. Bronte Tillotson, 1992

9
 But in any case, “Thackeray, - as precisely identified by Ch. Bronte is unique” and many

admirers of his talent would agree with this statement.4

4
Ch. Bronte Tillotson, 1992

10
 Chapter 2

W. Thackeray’s Masterpiece “Vanity Fair”

“Vanity Fair is a vain, malicious, extravagant place full of all sorts of tricks, falsehood and

pretense”.5

William Thackeray “Vanity Fair”

"Vanity Fair" is one of the greatest examples of the 19th century Critical Realism.

Thackeray reaches the peak of realistic mastery in the novel “Vanity Fair”. All his critical

observations of modern society are united here in a wide panorama of the chronicle novel.

“Vanity Fair" is a satirical-humorous encyclopedia of the life of the European bourgeois

society of the early 19th century. It is a social and historical novel that combines lyricism and

grotesque, ultimate authenticity and a touch of fairy-tale that incorporates all the genres mastered by

Thackeray. The novel is not only about the official life of England and its history, the parliamentary

struggle and the labor movement, but also small, as if not included in the "big story" details.

According to this novel we can quite accurately judge about different classes, characters, ages; the

lives of the rich and the poor have their detailed description in the novel.

The system of images of the "Vanity Fair" is reflected in such a way that it gives a complete

picture of the structure of the ruling upper class of the country. Thackeray creates great satirical

gallery of "masters" of England titled nobles, landlords, capitalists, parliamentary figures,

diplomats, bourgeois "philanthropists," churchmen, officers, colonial officials.

The author understands the essence of the society he represents, the viciousness of the

principles underlying the relationship between its members. But he hides his critical, sharply

negative attitude towards them under the guise of pervasive irony. The totality of all the details that

underline the social differences between the characters of the works of W. Thackeray, creates a

clear, vicious picture of the hierarchy of relations between them as bright representatives of the

society of vices.

This book was actual in tens of thousands of English families. At the fair "houses, lands,

professions, places, honors, privileges, titles, countries, kingdoms, lust, pleasures and such

entertainments of all kinds as public women, wives, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants,
5
W. M. Thackeray “Vanity Fair” 1848
11
 And you can always be a witness to the completely free of charge theft, murder, temptations,

the most deadly perjurers".

This allegory depicts the bourgeois society developing before the eyes of the author as an

inhuman and criminal world, where everything is mercenary and corrupt.6

The novel is written in 1848.

In one of his letters to his mother W. Thackeray writes:

"All I want is to create a number of persons who live without God (only this is a

hypocritical - hypocritical phrase), greedy, pompous, low-lying, utterly complacent in their

majority and confident in their own superiority". 7

Of interest is the fact that Thackeray signed his name in this novel for the first time. When

Thackeray began to write a novel, he was not known as a significant writer, but when the novel was

finished and the reader became acquainted with him, Thackeray stood on a par with such a

celebrated writer of his time as Charles Dickens.

The image of Vanity Fair was taken from the book by J. Bunyan " The Pilgrim's Way

"(1678) ... At the fair, presented by Bunyan," homes, lands, professions, honors, privileges, titles,

countries, kingdoms, lust, pleasures and such entertainments, as the public women, pimps, wives,

husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, bodies, souls, silver, gold, precious stones and much

more ...”

In the image of the Fair, the old author puts at least some interrelated meanings: it is

"satanic", worldly temptation, the vanity of everything earthly, this is the image of the city and trade

and, finally, the embodiment "Theatricality," that is, the illusory nature of earthly existence.

“Vanity Fair, though it does not include the whole extent of Thackeray's genius, is the most

vigorous exhibition of its leading characteristics. In freshness of feeling, elasticity of movement, and

unity of aim, it is favorably distinguished from its successors, which too often give the impression of

being composed of successive accumulations of incidents and persons, that drift into the story on no

principle of artistic selection and combination”.8

6
. Vakhrushev V. S “ An artistic report of Thackeray about the revolution of 1848” 1970
7
Thackeray W. M “ Vanity Fair” 1848

8
Edwin Percy Whipple, The Atlantic Monthly, May 1865.

12
 The subtitle of Vanity Fair – “A novel without a hero”- points to the absence in the novel of

a positive character, who can show the ideals of author. The writer's rejection of the positive hero

was an honest recognition of the moral failure of bourgeois society.

In these three words he contradictionally expressed both his design, his ideological position,

his innovative creative task, and the bitter result of his observations on his contemporary society.

“There is not a person in the book who excites the reader's respect, and not one who fails to

excite his interest”9

The title of the work is associated with satirical exposure of the moral and moral foundations

of society, in fact all layers of which are struck by such human vices as selfishness, vanity,

snobbery, societies where there is no place for high moral principles: purity, goodness.

Thackeray did not like a lot of things in his own period and yet he was unable to free himself

from it. This is reflected in Vanity Fair with its setting during the Regency, centering on the battle

of Waterloo. The Vanity Fair itself starts before 1815 (the year of Waterloo) and closes somewhat

after 1832 (the year of the Reform Bill, the passage of which is referred to at the very end of the

novel). It is not only a historical novel but also a curious and interesting mixture of elements from

different periods.

Thackeray’s attitude toward his own novel as well as the theme of the novel itself seems to

be centered at the narrator.

''Vanity Fair'' is fairly well known for the power of its narrator. It is probably justified to say

that the narrator in '' Vanity Fair'' might be the most important character in the novel. The narrator

has a very strong impact on what the reader’s thinking and how they analyze the context of the

story.

Thackeray has a moral aim and mind. He uses satire in the novel and this helps him to gain

the sympathy of the reader.

The continuous and intend interest of Thackeray to his contemporary reality, to the

characters and destinies of people, to the details of everyday life is combined with the desire to

create a generalized allegorical picture of the human being - Vanity Fair, where among the noise

and din to the music of the time, perform their dance of life, people-puppets, run by the puppeteer.

Edwin Percy Whipple, The Atlantic Monthly, May 1865.

9

13
 The novel is about destiny of two girls with sharply contrasting characters- Rebecca (Becky)

Sharp and Amelia Sadly. Rebecca Sharp, an adventuress, a daughter of a poor artist, represents it

without virtue. Amelia Sadley, a daughter of a rich city merchant, represents virtue without wit.

Becky's character is depicted with great skill. She is pleasant to look at, clever and gifted. She

possesses a keen sense of humour and deep understanding of human nature Rebecca embodies the

very spirit of Vanity Fair. Her aim in life is to worm her way into high society at all costs.

The thing that have a principal importance for W. Thackeray is the question of “combining

History and Feeling”, that is the connection of private destinies with historical events. Especially

this theme is revealed in the novel in the course of depicting military events. The author attributes

the time of Vanity Fair to the first third of the 19th century, when Europe was shaken by the

Napoleonic wars.

The novel "Fair of Vanity" includes historical events. The action of the novel is pushed into

the past - in the era of Napoleonic wars, but the phenomena described in it are typical for the

contemporary author of England. The fate of the characters in the novel is connected with the Battle

of Waterloo, which took place on June 18, 1815, as a result of which Anglo-Dutch and Prussian

troops attacked under the command of Wellington and Blucher, the army of Napoleon I was

defeated, and he had to give up his throne again.

The author is interested in the problem of the influence of historical events on the social,

political and private life. For example, in the novel the Battle of Waterloo, entered the fate of most

of the characters, the ruin of the bourgeois Sadly caused by Napoleon's campaign in Russia, the

history of Joseph Sadly is determined by the trade expansion of England. True to the historical

events Thackeray considered such works that correspond to the "spirit of the era", reveal its

originality, contain veracious pictures of the life of society, The book also gives us a true and vivid

idea of the customs and morals of his time.

In the novel household scenes alternate with military episodes, the theme of war and the

theme of the feast are crossed. However Thackeray said:

"We do not pretend to be enlisted in the ranks of the authors of military novels. Our place is

among non-combatants."10

10
Thackeray W. M '' Vanity Fair'' p. 556/1848

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 In the eyes of Thackeray, personal life events are no less important than major military

battles, and the fate of an outstanding person can say more about his time than the detailed

description of the great commander’s actions. He is not so much interested in battlefield as in what

is happening behind the scenes.

Thackeray's concern with time has caused him to be called the novelist of memory. The

action is set in the past, and the narrator compares and contrasts the past with the present as he

moves between them; occasionally he tells us a future event or outcome. The characters' memories

of the past help to characterize them in the present. Thackeray also shows the effect which the

passage of time has on the characters. His concern with time is reflected in the structure; the

narrator occasionally interrupts the chronology, jumps back in time, and returns to the point where

he stopped the chronology.

Thackeray believed that history can not be judged only by the official frontage. It is also

necessary to see the deep, elusive connection between the historical event and the everyday

destinies of the invisible, ordinary people, escaping from the view.

Several pages are allocated to the Battle of Waterloo, in which some characters of the novel,

including William Dobbin, take part. In this battle, his friend, the dissolute mate of Emilia Sadly,

George Osborne, perishes. It is told how George went "ahead of his company," when troops began

to leave Brussels early in the morning, as he "raised his head, smiled at Emilia and went on" as the

regiment in which he commanded the company, "showed miracles of courage and for some time

held back the attack of the entire French army.

And when Emilia prayed for George, he was already "lying face down - dead, with a shot

through the heart."11

The author refused to express his feelings for describing these tragic events because of fear

of giving them a melodramatic shade that is not peculiar to circumstances. One of the many victims

of the war is George Osborne. His fate was shared by thousands of other people.

11
Thackeray W. M “Vanity Fair” p.344/1848

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 "Centuries will pass while we Frenchmen and Englishmen will continue to boast and kill

each other, following the Devil himself to the written code of honor." In these words, the idea is

expressed that war is one of the laws of the "devilish code" of the World of Vanity Fair. 12

In the novel the author created the gallery of images of aristocrats. These are numerous

members of Crowley family whose vested interests and unchangeable motives make close people

enemies; for the sake of money. Each of Crowley is ready to gnaw through his throat to his partner.

Among the aristocratic snobs is the Marquis Stein. This elderly nobleman is clever, and he is a

model of the corrupt mind of the representative of the ruling classes. This is a man with a dark past

and thieves' habits. But he managed to acquire a title and a huge fortune, marrying a noble

aristocrat, and was considered a pillar of society.

Judging by the beginning, the novel seems to be a contradiction between two characters :

Becky Sharp and her school friend Amelia Sadly. Amelia, with her simple-minded and loving heart,

seems to be the complete opposite of the cynical Becky. But as the action of the novel shows, the

reader is convinced that the irony of Thackeray which appeals against Amelia no less aggressively

than against the adventurer Becky. Amelia is virtuous, she is impeccable. But, as the author shows

ironically, this virtue is insignificant and limited, it in its own way serves as a form of selfishness,

narrowness of the outlook of its heroine. For Amelia, the world ends outside her living room and

bedroom. Her feelings are entirely focused on George Osborne, Sr. - her husband and George

Osborne, Jr. - her son. In them is all her world. She forgets about her interests and even about her

ruined father, and old mother.

Due to this fact the meaning of the subtitle of the work "a novel without a hero”, becomes

understandable. Thackeray considers it impossible to find a positive character in the environment

of Osborne and Crowley. Thackeray avoids any of the characters in his novel to call "hero", a man

perfect in all respects. In his opinion, such people do not exist.

“We do not have a hero but we pretend to have a heroine” said Thackeray, referring to

Becky Sharp.

However, these words are penetrated with irony. Becky has a mind, energy, strength of

character, resourcefulness and beauty; but from all the green eyes and irresistible smile it becomes

12
Thackeray W. M ''Vanity Fair'' p.402/1848

16
scary; Becky is treacherous, hypocritical, self-interested, she wants to be rich and "respectable" by

all means. But Rebecca Sharpe can not be a real heroine in the human, moral sense.

In the novel the only one who keeps kindness and modesty remains William Dobbin, "kind

Dobbin", selflessly loving Emily, hurrying to the rescue of those who need it. Thackeray

sympathizes with Dobbin, but does not consider him a hero. The image of Dobbin, like all the

others, is connected with the theme of "vanity of vanities" that is sounding in the novel. His love is

given to a woman who is limited and selfish, his aspirations are empty and vain.

It is obvious that materiality is a symptom of bourgeois society and, consequently,

Thackeray criticizes it. But materialism worries most of the characters, because having a lot of

things is a sign of wealth. Even Amelia is obsessed with the piano that Dobbin purchased for her; in

this way, we see that things can blind people to the truth, since she is convinced that George is the

one who bought it.

Everyone is selfish in varying degrees. As little Georgy ironically writes in an essay. "An

undue love of Self leads to the most monstrous crime and occasions the greatest misfortunes both

in States and Families". 13The selfishness of characters like Becky, Jos Sedley, and Lord Steyne is

obvious; however, even apparently selfless characters like Amelia, Dobbin, and Lady Jane are

selfish, though to a much lesser degree.

Because of the nature of the novel, it is easy to forget how much death there actually is in

Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair is an extremely morbid place, but because so many people in the book die

so naturally, the reader does not dwell on each passage. The reader focuses instead on Thackeray's

humorous jabs at society.

However, death is still one of the author's tools for stressing his moral conclusions. Thackeray

writes the book to implicate bourgeois "snobbery," and by letting the burden of death permeate his

work he makes his point that much more effective. 14

Death is seen in conjunction with greed and wealth, especially in the case of Aunt Matilda.

The author is contrasting Matilda's belongings with the pall of her illness, telling us that while

possessions are temporary, death is forever.

13
Thackeray W. M. “Vanity Fair” 1848
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 Another important role that we want to mention is motherhood in the novel. Becky’s mother

died when she was young and had no role in her life. In turn, Becky always ignores her son, when

he was a child. So we can conclude that maternal influence on a person is great.

With the example of Rebecca, the author shows the ills of excessive ambition and

determination. Becky is very ambitious to climb the social ladder and on her way to reach the top,

she is not only a failure as a wife and mother but also as a human being.

As we know Greek mythology is a treasure of allegorical fairy tales and colorful characters.

Thackeray does not miss the chance and makes good use of some of these characters to highlight

some of the qualities of his characters. He does his comparisons from the stories of Aeschylus, the

Greek tragedian and Ovid, the Roman poet.

The author draws similar line between two heroines Clytemnestra and Rebecca Sharp. In

ancient Greek mythology, Clytemnestra was Helen's sister and the wife of King Agamemnon. She

was upset by her husband for the murder of her daughter Iphigenia and for his absence during the

Trojan War, so she conspired with her beloved Aegist to kill him and his new mistress, Cassandra.

The connection between Becky and Clytemnestra is understandable. Both are the ancestors

of the family and both deceive and destroy people in their lives.

Symbols are those pictures and details that draw our attention to the most significant

features. They express the main idea of the writer and reveal the whole artistic image. Symbols

allow us to see the idea of the author, to understand what exactly he was trying to show in his work.

As we have already mentioned, the objects have an important role in the novel. On the one

hand, they define the characterization of the heroes and build symbols that have their own unique

interpretation, on the other. For example, Johnson's dictionary works here not only as a linguistic

reference book, but also as intelligence, education - everything that is contained in "classical

education." Interesting is, the fact that for Miss Sadly Johnson’s Dictionary is a symbol of good

manners, and for Miss Sharp - a symbol of hypocrisy. But this gift goes to Emilia legally, and to

Rebecca with smuggling. And yet Miss Sharp gets rid of Johnson's vocabulary, leaving him behind

her giver. Getting rid of the symbol of school education, Becky at the top of her glory is defeated.

After all, school education defines the framework of behavior, following certain rules, which Becky

does not want to adhere to. Based on this example, we see that objects in the novel become symbols

that affect everyday life, and sometimes define it.

18
 The novel "Vanity Fair" can rightly be considered a modern novel. After all, we meet the

same vices and shortcomings that the author ridicules everywhere: vanity, arrogance, hypocrisy and

stupidity. Much of what was typical for a contemporary writer of time was left without a trace, but

the main thing remains: the reasons for this behavior and often also the choice of means to achieve

the goal.

In this work, the author intentionally emphasizes the symbols. He specially focuses on them,

so that they understand how petty, low-minded, vain and deceitful were the characters of the

“Vanity Fair”.

The ending of the "Vanity Fair" emphasizes the unity and integrity of the composition, the

depth and significance of the author's intention, the ability of Thackeray to realize the creative

possibilities of the painter and writer. The Rhine land, for example, is described in the eyes of the

painter, and panic scenes in Brussels and a quick kaleidoscope of events in the finale of the novel

are created by a graphic pen that inherited the traditions of Hogarth. Genre, battle, family scenes

create a wonderful impression of the perfection of the writer's mastery, which set himself the task of

reproducing life from the point of view of a smart and observant novelist of the eighteenth century,

a satirist and realist, a narrator and director of a puppet show, a writer of puppet and human

destinies.”

"The novel is penetrated by author's commentary and author's arguments about life and

people": "These digressions are most often directly related to the text novel, but often lead the

reader into the world of author's philosophy. As a rule, they are lyrical in their intonation."15

It is the moral and social qualities, of course, that unite men in society, and make it

something other than the sum of the individuals composing it. Far more deeply than Balzac,

Thackeray felt the relations between men that depend upon these qualities; and consequently his

social picture is, if less comprehensive and varied, far more vivid and real.Thackeray’s characters

are never portrayed in isolation.

15
Ivasheva V.”The History of foreign literature” 1832-70

19
 “They are a part of the world in which they exist.. Their activities are modified by the air

they breathe in common. Their conduct is controlled, their ideas affected, even their desires and

ambitions dictated, by the general ideals of the society that includes them.”16

In the novel Thackeray's main attention is focused on revealing the typical characters. The

author does not only divide the characters into "good" and "evil but also into "positive" and

"negative". According to the author, in the novel each character becomes better and purer, as soon

as feelings awaken in him. At the same time, the writer wants to emphasize that even the most

natural feelings are drowned by a society which is built on selfishness.

Exploring all this we can conclude that, the continuous and intend interest of the author to

his contemporary reality, to the characters and destines of people, to the details of everyday life lead

to a desire to create a generalized allegorical picture of human being – Vanity Fair, where among

the noise and din to the music of the time, perform their dance of life, people-puppets, run by the

puppeteer.

“In the work "Vanity Fair" artistic space is defined by two parameters - macro - and

microcosm. Here a wide panorama of English life of the first half of the XIX century unfolds. It

depicts the capital of the British Empire, its suburbs, estates and large roads. The events of the

novel take place in England, transported to Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, India and Africa. The

places mentioned in the work are the background or the basis for all events occurring in the Vanity

Fair. It is a macro world, opposed to a narrow and closed microcosm that allows one to see the

inner world of man.”17

“There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a

pen to write.”18

And a thousand thoughts – or phrases even some more – were probably the reason why

Thackeray’s Vanity Fair became such a large piece of work. Undoubtedly, the novel belongs to the

most ambitious literary works of Victorian Age. However, this status is due not only to its

remarkably large extent stored on almost a thousand pages but also to its tartly depicted content, in

short: love, money and power.

16
https://www.bartleby.com/library/prose/5200.html
17
http://19v-euro-lit.niv.ru/19v-euro-lit/ivl-19-vek-pervaya-polovina/genieva-tekkerej.htm
18
W. M. Thackeray “ Vanity Fair” 1848
20
 Chapter 3

“Vanity Fair – its Impact on World Literature”

21
 "Thackeray's work must be read like witty poetry - a poetry expressed in delicate conceits and

sustained allusions rather than in the traditional narrative rhetoric of his own time"
John Loofbourow.

Rich in subtle observations of life of its time, sarcasm and irony in the novel “Vanity Fair”

is in the list of masterpieces of world literature. Nearly one hundred and fifty years after the

publication of his masterpiece ''Vanity Fair'', almost no one can imagine why William Makepeace

Thackeray received such demonstrative praise from his peers and readers. ''Vanity Fair'' not only

remains admired above all its contemporaries but also has a broad range of readers all over the

world.

One of the brightest manifestations of snobbery Thackeray considered vanity. In it he saw a

characteristic feature of the epoch and in his novels he persuasively revealed the inner connection

that exists between vanity and the cult of money in bourgeois society.

“Vanity Fair” is not only the name of one of Thackeray's novels; these words symbolically

summarize the vice that gives tone to all bourgeois life. And it is not by chance that the writer

compares contemporary England to a huge fair, where everything is sold and everything is bought.

In our estimation the novel “Vanity Fair” can rightly be considered a modern novel. After

all, we meet the same vices and shortcomings that the author ridicules everywhere: vanity,

arrogance, hypocrisy and stupidity. Much of what was typical for contemporary writer of time was

left without a trace, but the main thing remains: the reason for his behavior and often also the choice

of means to achieve the goal.

“Never say anything you feel .Remember the consequences of inappropriate honesty and

directness; and trust neither yourself, nor anyone else. Get married the way it is done in France,

where the bridesmaids and her confidantes are lawyers. In any case, never discover feelings that

can put you in a bad position, and do not give any promises that you could not take back at the

right moment. Here is a way to prosper, be respected and shine with virtues at Vanity Fair.” 19

The main task for W. Thackeray is to be able to accurately reproduce a sense of truth.”

Authorities, except for reason and nature, did not exist for him. Thackeray did not believe the

19
W. M. Thackeray “Vanity Fair” 1848
22
affected romantic feelings: “I do not like beauty, which, like a theater stage, needs to be admired

from afar.”

This is a new type of novel in nineteenth-century of English literature, where many plot

lines are intertwined, and there is no traditional intrigue and outcome.The author makes one of the

everlasting themes of world literature, story of two women, girlfriends and rivals, subject of the

book.

English critic Arnold Kettle wrote about the novel: “The breadth of reality, the brightness of the

picture, the vitality of Becky, the richness and beauty of comic characters and situations - all these

advantages originate in the insight with which Thackeray managed to look into the essence of the

bourgeois world, and in honesty with which he painted it. "20

In the novel “Vanity Fair”, W. Thackeray was able to say surprising things not only about his epoch

that is contemporary English society, but also about the life, moral nature of man and about the

movement of the time.

In the novel, the story is transferred from a giant social platform into the field of human, family-

personal relations, in which the moral aspect of phenomena is especially clearly visible. Moral

assessments of the writer, will help the attentive reader to develop their own criteria for goodness

and beauty. Therefore, in our days, William Thackeray's novel “Vanity Fair” has not lost its

acuteness.

When we look at the nature of the characters in the novel, we come to conclusion that the writer in

almost everyone finds a manifestation of natural humanity, at the same time the ugly, repulsive

features that are typical for the characters of the “Vanity Fair” are not inborn, they are social.

W. M. Thackeray's role in English and world literature is determined by the high realistic skill and

tremendous revealing power of his best works. The author of the “Book of Snobs” and “Vanity

Fair”, was a worthy successor to the best traditions of English satire and the art of a realistic 18th-

century novel. In turn, the traditions of Thackeray's realism remained to live in the English realistic

novel of the late 19th and 20th centuries, manifested in the creation of such broad social-critical

canvases as the J. Galsworthy’s “The Forsyte Saga”.

20
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44371953
23
 Thackeray's creativity entered the treasury of the cultural heritage of all progressive

humanity because the basis of its uncompromising satirical exposure of the bourgeois-aristocratic

ruling clique was deep sympathy to the people, sincere respect for the simple working people. He

belongs to the brilliant range of democratic writers of the 19th century, whose works, according to

N.G. Chernyshevsky, "... were inspired by ideas of humanity and the improvement of the human

fate."21

We all know that European Literature has also a great influence on Armenian Literature.The

relationships with European Literature played a major role in the emergence of new literary currents

or transformation of the old ones that at the beginning of the century became very hot and

immediate.

At this new stage of social development, Armenian literary thinking widely and directly

perceived changes in world literature and reacted to them quickly. A. Shirvanzade has a great role

in the Armenian realistic criticism.

In our research we found out that W. M. Thackeray’s ideas of critical realism have found

their reflection in A. Shirvanzade’s works. A. Shirvanzade continued to remain the central and most

reputed face of realism, both in his artistic work and in his theoretical and critical speeches.

Like W. Thackeray A. Shirvanzade was not indifferent to the natural flow of life. The great

strength of his talent and the power of art lies in the fact that he deeply felt the lifespan and became

the history of the living and the most active process. We said that A. Shirvanghade represents a

new, more perfect moment in the development of realism in Armenian literature. He creates typical

environment which is full of prose characteristics. For him the starting point of the image is

basically in a man and family relationships.

In his novels A. Shirvanzade has seriously addressed social issues of historical value, as a

painter-psychologist and uncovered a broad way of analyzing complex human emotions and

background emotions because each of these emotions is linked to the facts of objective reality.

21
https://bookucheba.com/osnovyi-filologii_1376/nikolay-gavrilovich-chernyishevskiy-64520.html
24
 The art of Shirvanzade is distinguished by perfection of realistic style. Having imagined

bourgeois relations, not “dwelling on the wild sides of life,” A. Shirvanzade achieved artistic

perfection in reproducing reality.22

Shirvanzade's colors and tones become richer when he describes living people. They are

individuals in the real world with their ambitious aspirations. His characters are in a continuous
motion they are fighting, colliding, falling, getting up, crying, sighing, rising, crashing. And all of

this is presented in an artistic way.

Like W. Thackeray in his novel “Vanity Fair” A. Shirvanzade raised the gray reality to the

degree of art, he portrayed the reality truthfully. A. shirvanzade also represented the egoism of

profitability, the public robbery of the people, with deep and impressive artistic imaginations. With

his mastery of spirits, he mastered the readers and made them hate materialism and vanity.

A. Shirvanzade's art of realistic novel aspires for the beauty of denying the ugliness and lust of life.

That means he doesn’t directly depict the good and the beauty, the beauty is supposed to be cruel,

dishonest, by denying the egoist.

Shirvanzade is virtually inevitable for the development of events. This is an inimitable

feature of his ornamental art. From this point of view, the beginning and plot development of the

"Chaos" novel is quite typical

If we look closely at the characters of Shirvanzade, we will notice that there are some

similarities between them and the characters of “Vanity Fair”. In both novels most of characters

have a certain relationship between psychology development and changing the process and the

environment, and often there is mutual agreement. For example, the different situations of Smbat's

psychological development, and then the description of the entire process in the novel “Chaos”.

We can see how he gradually sinks into the heat of the capitalist world, and becomes a

convincing egoist and stable owner. Eventually he reaches a moral bankruptcy when in order to

save his wealth during the fire he auctioned off the human life. And here, summarizing the whole of

22
https://yevakarapetyan.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/%D5%BC%D5%A5%D5%A1%D5%AC%D5%AB
%D5%A6%D5%B4%D5%A8-%D5%B0%D5%A1%D5%B5-%D5%A3%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%AF
%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%A9%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6-%D5%B4%D5%A5%D5%BB-19-
%D6%80%D5%A4-%D5%A4%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%B8/
25
his psychological transformation, A. Shivanzade writes: “He became a daily, ordinary mortal,

without differing from anything like it.23

The style of the both writers is very original, rich in realistic bright colors. The author's

balance is in harmony with the artistic construction of the history of the novels.

Modern literary critics say that none of Thackeray's later works has the rise of satirical skill, which

rightly makes the “Vanity Fair” the brightest and most memorable book of the writer. To a certain

extent, all late works of Thackeray repeat the same idea. Of course, costumes, scenery are changed,

but the drama of human life, defined by W. Thackeray as the “Vanity Fair”, remains the same.

He is not inclined to portray a man as a villain, nor an ideal. It is important for him to reveal

the complexity of the interaction of various elements in the character of a person, to understand the

reasons for performingthis or that act. W. Thackeray was convinced that man is a mixture of heroic

and ridiculous, noble and low, that human nature is infinitely complex, and the duty of an honest

writer who cares about truth does not create fascinating stories to the needs of the crowd, but to

show the person all its contradictions, complexity, originality. Then this kind of thinking was still in

the future. It will begin to develop in the late nineteenth century will be mastered at the beginning

of the twentieth.

From our research, we can conclude that the novel “Vanity Fair” being one of the great

masterpieces of English literature it also ha a tremendous impact on world literature. By examining

these two works, we came to conclusion that they not only have an image and plot similarities but

also ideological similarities. The main idea in this two works is that the glory and vanity leads only

to destruction.

“Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum!” the novel concludes; “which of us is happy in this world? Which

of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?” 24 There is enormous satisfaction in finishing a

reading of Vanity Fair. But if we finish it satisfied with our world or with ourselves, we betray our

own vanity, which is no less epic, perhaps, than Becky’s.

W. M. Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” is considered a masterpiece and continues to have its

actuality in our days.

23
Shirvanzade A. M. “Chaos” 1898
24
Thackeray W. M. “Vanity Fair” 1848
26
 And in addition to the high place in literature won for him by his insight into the human

heart, Thackeray’s social picture has given him a distinction that is perhaps unique. In virtue of it, at

any rate, the writer who passed his life in rivalry with Dickens and Bulwer and Trollope and Lever,

belongs with Shakespeare and Moliere.

27
 Conclusion

From all the research we have done in the present graduation paper, we may draw the

following conclusions:

In his novel “Vanity Fair”, W. M. Thackeray managed to say much not only about his era,

his contemporary English society, but also about life, the moral nature of man, about the movement

of time. The satirical mastery of W. M. Thackeray makes the “Vanity Fair” the brightest and the

most memorable book.

While observing contemporary bourgeois England, the writer realized that egoism is the

norm of bourgeois society. The author looked for moral values that could be contrasted with the

ugly amorality of the world of property owners, but he also looked for them in the same world that

he condemned.

From all the above mentioned we understand that the “Fair” is the main symbol which

generalized the image of England, a society where the laws of buying and selling reign.

This work has dealt with the theme of history. Some historical events which have a great

value in the world history are represented in the novel.

Another key point of our term paper is to expose the greatness of the novel. So we the author

of the ''Vanity Fair'' created an image of the bourgeois-aristocratic English society. Doing our

research, we revealed what kind of literary forms the author used to express his attitude towards a

morally corrupted society. We noticed that he uses four types of allusions: historical, cultural,

biblical, and literary.

We also come to conclusion, that although the book takes place at the beginning of the 19th

century, Thackeray talks about his contemporaries and his contemporary morals. And even more,

the images mentioned in the work are common, simultaneous representatives of all times and

peoples.

Comparing the two works “Vanity Fair” and “Chaos” we come to conclusion that W.

Thackeray and A. Shirvanzade have much common notions in presenting the real life in their

works.

28
 He first of all evaluates from the moral point of view what is going around him. But under

such an authorial position the real power of the book, which criticizes the bourgeois society and its

main driving force, has not become less.

The fact that the blame of every sin is put on money, is seen from the headline of the novel.

That is why this particular work was brought to the glory of William Thackeray himself.

29
 Bibliography

1. Ch. Bronte Tillotson, 1992

2. Edwin Percy Whipple, The Atlantic Monthly, May 1865

3. Ivasheva V. A.”The History of foreign literature” 1832-70

4. Shirvanzade A. M. “Chaos” 1898

5. Solovyova N.A. “The history of the foreign literature of the 19-th century” 1830-

1872

6. Thackeray W. M. “Vanity Fair” 1848

7. Vaxrushev V. “The history of the foreign literature of the 19-th century”

8. https://www.bartleby.com/library/prose/5200.html

9. http://19v-euro-lit.niv.ru/19v-euro-lit/ivl-19-vek-pervaya-polovina/genieva-
tekkerej.htm

10. https://www.shmoop.com/vanity-fair-thackeray/literary-devices.html

11. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/v/vanity-fair/summary-and-analysis/chapters-
14
12. https://www.enotes.com/topics/vanity-fair/in-depth

13. https://bookucheba.com/osnovyi-filologii_1376/nikolay-gavrilovich-
chernyishevskiy-64520.html

30