Upon re-reading William Thackeray’s 1848 novel Vanity Fair for this month's book club reading, I was fascinated again with the personality of the amoral hustler, even at a time and in a world where a poor woman of low parentage was rejected initially just for her lack of social standing.
Of course the brilliant and witty Becky Sharp takes her life in her hands, but for all her courage and striving loses the sympathy her situation initially evokes. Cruel and impetuous, she really mocks a kindly woman at her ladies' academy with no intent other than to prove herself superior and then launches a life of extraordinary focus on keeping one step ahead of the creditors and at all cost avoiding introspection. Her hubris might have completely defeated her but she keeps turning up after living and NOT learning.
Unable to bond, unable really to love even her children, she is an early example of a personality disorder. One marvels at the weird modernity in the depiction of her pathological lying and con artistry. She gathers circles of friends she impresses (until they learn of her past), men she collects for their usefulness, and then finally tops it off with some war profiteering during the Napoleonic wars.
A great scene involves a troop of friends going out to "watch" a battle of the war as if it were a sports game- and the terror with which they flee as they realize they may be killed.
This literary tradition is in line with Madame Bovary and in another very different way, Anna Karenina. There's a touch of Scarlett O'Hara here. too. The tragedy of the actress, the social mask, as the only alternative to a kind of social oblivion for women makes it tempting for the modern reader to overlook the selfishness and exploitation of Becky Sharp. However, reading this at a time of political chaos in America makes it very clear that to overlook or excuse truly destructive personalities, and to tolerate their whims, just leads to a wilderness without real heroes or heroines and skepticism about whether freedom without a deep sense of caring and responsibility has to be the only way out for the oppressed.
Thackeray urges us to hope not, and to see manipulative, cruel people for who they are and not what we might want or need them to be.
Of course the brilliant and witty Becky Sharp takes her life in her hands, but for all her courage and striving loses the sympathy her situation initially evokes. Cruel and impetuous, she really mocks a kindly woman at her ladies' academy with no intent other than to prove herself superior and then launches a life of extraordinary focus on keeping one step ahead of the creditors and at all cost avoiding introspection. Her hubris might have completely defeated her but she keeps turning up after living and NOT learning.
Unable to bond, unable really to love even her children, she is an early example of a personality disorder. One marvels at the weird modernity in the depiction of her pathological lying and con artistry. She gathers circles of friends she impresses (until they learn of her past), men she collects for their usefulness, and then finally tops it off with some war profiteering during the Napoleonic wars.
A great scene involves a troop of friends going out to "watch" a battle of the war as if it were a sports game- and the terror with which they flee as they realize they may be killed.
This literary tradition is in line with Madame Bovary and in another very different way, Anna Karenina. There's a touch of Scarlett O'Hara here. too. The tragedy of the actress, the social mask, as the only alternative to a kind of social oblivion for women makes it tempting for the modern reader to overlook the selfishness and exploitation of Becky Sharp. However, reading this at a time of political chaos in America makes it very clear that to overlook or excuse truly destructive personalities, and to tolerate their whims, just leads to a wilderness without real heroes or heroines and skepticism about whether freedom without a deep sense of caring and responsibility has to be the only way out for the oppressed.
Thackeray urges us to hope not, and to see manipulative, cruel people for who they are and not what we might want or need them to be.
