Of all the works that Thackeray had created, the novel Vanity Fair was undoubtedly the most famous and representative one。 Vanity Fair was first published on the newspaper as a series of installments in January 1847, carrying the subtitle Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Life, revealed its author's ambition to make the early 19th-century British society as a target for satire。 It was later published in the form of book in 1848, with the subtitle A Novel without a Hero, reflecting Thackeray's interest in creating a different kind of novel from the old-style novel which usually had some positive figures and an outstanding hero。 Vanity Fair fascinated its readers with its realistic satire and it was fabulously well received at the time and established Thackeray’s remarkable position in the history of British literature。
The book's catchy title was derived from John Bunyan's allegorical book, The Pilgrim's Progress。 There was a town called Vanity stood on the pilgrim's route which was constantly hosting a fair。 The never-ending fair was meant to call the reader's attention to man's excessive attachment to the worldly things。 Using vanity fair for his novel's title, Thackeray did expect some moral implications to be understood by his audience。
2。 Literature Review
Vanity Fair enjoys a high reputation abroad and home。 There are a great number of prominent scholars who have done a great deal of research in Vanity Fair。 Professor Zelma Catalan(2010) was one of the foreign scholars who focused on the function of irony in Vanity Fair。 While on the other hand, Harriet Blodgett(1967) carried on the studies on the necessity of the narrator’s presence in the novel。 And also we can see Lilia Melani’s(2007) discussion of the attitude the novel revealed toward women。 Whereas in China, the study of Vanity Fair has also drew a lot of attention。 We can see for example, Dong Ning(1988) tried to examine Vanity Fair from the comparative literature perspective, and Deng Xiaofeng(2012) studied Vanity Fair by focusing on the author’s criticism on the British society through the character shaping of Rebecca Sharp。 Considering what has been done in the mentioned areas above, this paper tries to study Vanity Fair from the perspective of Sartre’s existentialism theory。 The absurdity of the world is one of the key insights of Sartre’s existentialism theory。 To be aware of it helps us understand that things don’t usually have to be the way they are。 In the end of Vanity Fair, Thackeray comments with emotion “Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?”(Thackeray, 2001: 470) This shows us that we often lose ourselves in chasing fortune and reputation。 Sartre’s existentialism theory encourages people not to avoid their freedom but to choose and build themselves through their actions no matter how chaos the world is。 I think this aspect is worthy of an in-depth exploration。
3。 The Absurdity of Vanity Fair
3。1 Pedigree’s role in Vanity Fair文献综述
The Victorian era is an era characterized by the big difference between social classes。 In Vanity Fair, the noble men are proud of their positions in society, they try to distinguish themselves in every way form the ordinary people and despise those people whose social status are lower compared to theirs。 Pedigree is obviously the easiest way to tell whether a person is in the upper class or not。
In the beginning parts of the novel, Rebecca and Amelia graduated from Miss Pinkerton’s school。 Amelia’s departure made everyone feel lost while Rebecca’s leave caught nobody’s notice。 Since Rebecca was born into the working class, her father made a living by giving drawing lessons at Miss Pinkerton’s academy, while Amelia’s father was a rich broker in London, Miss Pinkerton treated them differently。 However, before the graduation, Rebecca was able to make a deal with the schoolmistresses, Miss Pinkerton, a quite snobbish person who thought the visit Samuel Johnson had gave her was her reputation and fortune, that she should give Rebecca “a good place as governess in a nobleman’s family” (Thackeray, 2001: 022)。 During the visit which Rebecca paid to Amelia’s family, Rebecca found that Amelia’s big brother, Joseph Sedley, had a honorable and lucrative post in India and therefore wanted to marry him。 But Amelia’s fiancé George was such a snob who thought Rebecca was not fit to marry Joseph, because she has neither fortune nor reputation to keep up their appearance if she would be a member of Amelia’s family。 从萨特的存在主义视角浅析《名利场》(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_202839.html