Analysis of Female Major Characters' Social Conflicts in William Makepeace Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair'.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan tugas akhir untuk memenuhi persyaratan memperoleh

gelar Sarjana Sastra di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen

Maranatha, saya memutuskan untuk menganalisis sebuah novel karya William

Makepeace Thackeray yang berjudul Vanity Fair. Hal yang akan saya analisa dari

novel ini adalah konflik yang dialami oleh tokoh utama di dalam novel tersebut,

penyebab konflik, dan solusi yang diambil untuk memecahkan konflik tersebut.

Novel Vanity Fair menceritakan dua orang perempuan yang berasal dari

latar belakang keluarga yang berbeda. Becky Sharp berasal dari keluarga miskin,

sedangkan Amelia Sedley berasal dari kalangan atas. Dengan motif, karakteristik,

dan latar belakang mereka yang berbeda menimbulkan terjadinya konflik. Becky

Sharp lebih ambisius untuk mencapai apa yang dia inginkan, sedangkan Amelia

Sedley lebih naif dalam menghadapi konflik yang ada. Becky Sharp dan Amelia

Sedley mengalami konflik-konflik sosial yang tidak lepas dari masalah uang,

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of Vanity Fair

The story opens at Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for Young Ladies, where

the two major female characters, Amelia Sedley and Rebecca (Becky) Sharp, have

just finished their studies. Amelia is portrayed as good natured, kind, sweet, naïve

and shallow, and she is a daughter of a successful businessman, while Becky is

portrayed as a strong-willed and cunning young woman, determined to make her

way in society and she is an orphaned daughter of a poor artist and disreputable

opera dancer. Becky stays with Amelia in Amelia’s house at Russel Square.

After some time, Becky joins Queen’s Crawley as employee and as a governess of Sir Pitt Crawley’s daughter (a wealthy nobleman). After a couple of times, Sir Pitt’s second wife dies, and he proposes Becky. However, Becky rejects

Sir Pitt’s proposal because she is already secretly married to Sir Pitt’s second son, Captain Rawdon Crawley. Crawley’s fortune is huge and Becky wants it so much,

which leads to social conflicts in Crawley’s family.

While Becky Sharp achieves anything she wants, money and social status,

Amelia’s family is bankrupt because of the stock market failure, which causes

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join a battle. Unfortunately, George dies in the battle. After George’s death, Amelia marries Dobbin, who really cares about her and has loved her for a very

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25 Biography of William Makepeace Thackeray

William Makepeace Thackeray was born on July 18, 1811, in Calcutta,

India. In 1816, after his father’s death, William was sent to Chiswick, England.

He was educated at Southampton, Chiswick, and then at Charterhouse School. In

1828, Thackeray entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he left the college

without a degree. On August 20, 1836, he married Isabella Gethin Shawe and they

had three daughters, but their second daughter, Jane, died at 8 months.

In the early 1840s, Thackeray travelled between London and Paris. He

published his first essays, The Paris Sketch Book and The Irish Sketch Book. The

publication of Vanity Fair really made him famous, which first appeared in

serialized installment beginning in January 1847. His other works were

Pendennis, The Newcomers, and The History of Henry Esmod. In 1860s, he

became the first editor of Cornhill Magazine, but eventually he preferred to

contribute to the magazine as a columnist, producing his Roundbouts Papers.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Of the three literary genres, I decide to analyze novel. Through analyzing

the novel, I can get a lot of information and I can certainly know about issues or

events in various periods. Novel is described as “a lengthy fictitious prose

narrative portraying character and presenting an organized series of events and

setting. Every novel is an account of life; every novel involves conflicts,

characters, actions, setting, plot and themes” (Shaw 257). I will analyze a novel

written in Victorian period that describes middle and upper-class societies. There

are many great novelists in Victorian period, such as Jane Austen, Charles

Dickens, Charlotte Brönte, and William Makepeace Thackeray. The last novelist

is one of the most prominent novelists, satirists, and realists in the era, which is

why I choose to analyze Thackeray’s greatest work, Vanity Fair.

William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist. Thackeray

remarks that “The art of novel is to convey as strongly as possible the sentiment

of reality”(“Literary Information of Vanity Fair”). In other words, I believe he

wants to make the event or the situation in his novel as real as possible. He was

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remarkable book, brilliant, entertaining…” (“Critical Essays on Vanity Fair”).

I choose to analyze Thackeray’s Vanity Fair in my thesis. From

Thackeray’s day to the present, Vanity Fair has been regarded as Thackeray’s

masterpiece. Many criticisms, reviews, and essays have appeared since the novel

first appeared in 1847. Through this novel, Thackeray wants to show the portrait

of English society during the Victorian period, a period of significant and

economic change in United Kingdom. The two female major characters, Becky

Sharp and Amelia Sedley, represent young ladies in Victorian era. They have

different desires and ways of living, which lead to many conflicts in the story.

That is why I would like to analyze the conflicts in the novel. By analyzing the

conflicts in the novel, I might find out about the social life in England in Victorian

period. Once, one of the greatest novelists in Victorian era, Charlotte Brontë

remarked:

“You mention Thackeray, and the last number of “Vanity Fair.” The more

I read of Thackeray’s works— the more certain I am that he stands alone;

alone in his sagacity, alone in his truth, alone in his feeling (his feeling,

though he makes no noise about it, is about the most genuine that ever

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his self-control. Thackeray is a Titan” (“Contemporary Response to Vanity

Fair”).

There are three types of conflicts, but I will focus my analysis on social

conflicts because they are the most prominent aspects in the novel. The definition

of conflict, according to Harry Shaw in his Dictionary of Literary Terms, is:

“The opposition of persons or forces upon which the actions

depends in drama and fiction. There are three kinds of conflicts:

inner/psychological conflict, physical conflict, and social conflict. Physical

conflict is a struggle between man and the physical world. Inner conflict or

psychological conflict is a struggle between desires within a person. The

last type is social conflict. Shaw also divides the social conflict into two

types: the first one is a struggle between man and man; and the second one

is a protagonist against society” (Shaw 91-92).

Statements of the Problems are:

Based on the reasons above, I formulate the statement of the problem as

follows:

1. What social conflicts are faced by the major characters in Thackeray’s

Vanity Fair ?

2. What are the causes of the conflicts?

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4 Maranatha Christian University Purpose of the Study

Based on the statement of the problem above, this study is conducted:

1. To show what social conflicts are faced by the major characters in

Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.

2. To analyse the causes of the conflicts.

3. To present how the conflicts are resolved.

Method of Research

I apply the library research, in which I read the primary text, William

Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. In addition, I get some data from the

Internet. I use intrinsic approach in analysing the novel. The intrinsic approach is

used to analyse the major characters in facing social conflicts. Then, I draw a

conclusion of my analysis.

Organization of the Thesis

In my thesis, there are three chapters, preceded by Abstract, Table of

Content, and Acknowledgements. Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists

of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the

Study, the Method of Research and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two

is the Analysis of the Major Characters’ Social Conflicts in William Makepeace

Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Chapter Three is the Conclusion, followed by the

Bibliography and the Appendices, which consist of the Synopsis of Vanity Fair

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I am going to draw a conclusion from the analysis in the

previous chapter. From the analysis, I can see that it revolves around the lives of

two women, and both female major characters are from different social

backgrounds. Becky Sharp comes from a lower-class that makes her feels

dissatisfied with her life and makes her become a social climber. Meanwhile,

Amelia Sedley, comes from a wealthy family, but later she turns to being poor.

There are three social conflicts experienced by Becky Sharp and two social

conflicts are experienced by Amelia Sedley.

Becky Sharp is a very ambitious woman who comes from a lower-class

family and her conflicts are all related to her efforts to achieve a higher social

status. Her conflicts are triggered by her ambition to have a lot of money. Becky

does anything to get whatever she wants, even though she knows the

consequences. The first conflict is between Becky Sharp and Mrs. Bute Crawley

concerning a competition to get a fortune, which is not resolved because neither

Mrs. Bute nor Becky agrees with each other. The second social conflict is between

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Becky, which is resolved because the Crawleys’ servants finally agree with

Becky. The third social conflict is between Becky Sharp and Rawdon Crawley,

her husband, concerning their different lifestyles, which is not resolved because

Becky and Rawdon are still of different opinions. Some of Becky Sharp’s

conflicts are not resolved because Becky does not want to change her mind and

still holds on to her opinion. The reason why she keeps to her opinion because in

Victorian era, people with a lot of money will be respected by other people and

they can control the lower-class people.

Amelia Sedley used to be rich but due to the bankruptcy, she becomes a

poor woman. She experiences two social conflicts with the Osbornes and her own

husband because they consider her to be inferior to them. The first conflict

between Amelia Sedley and the Osbornes concerning Mr. John Osborne’s refusal

to George’s marriage with Amelia is not resolved because both Amelia and the

Osbornes still disagree with each other. The second conflict between Amelia

Sedley and George Osborne concerning George’s attitude towards Jos Sedley,

Amelia’s brother, is also not resolved because Amelia still disagrees with George

even though she decides to let her husband treat her brother rudely. All of Amelia

Sedley’s conflicts are not resolved because Amelia still keeps to her opinion. She

keeps her opinion is connect to the fact that she used to be a rich girl but she turns

into poor and she is not used to be treated as the poor that is why she experiences

conflict.

There are similarities and differences on social conflicts experienced by

Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. Both of the female major characters’ conflicts

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characters experience social conflicts because they believe that they have the same

rights with those in the high-class society, even though they are from lower-class.

Different with Amelia, Becky is successful in getting her ambition of being in the

high-class society because she is more persistent and she is a social climber; thus,

she experiences conflict, whereas Amelia is not successful in placing herself in the

high-class society because she used to be rich and then she turns poor; thus, she

experiences conflicts. Moreover, Amelia is more submissive compared to Becky.

These two different characteristics result in different ways of facing the conflicts.

Through the female major characters’ social conflicts in the novel, I

find that people are selfish and materialistic. In addition, through Becky and

Amelia’s conflicts, the conflicts they had are revolves around social status and

money. I think nowadays, the conflicts of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley happen

to some of people.

In my opinion, Thackeray is successful to convey his brilliant ideas in

this novel regarding high-class people in England. I may also conclude that

through this novel, Thackeray wants to criticize the attitudes of lower-class and

high-class people in Victorian era; that social status is very important to get a

respectable reputation and to be accepted in the society, especially in high-class

society.

I believe that Becky Sharp’s and Amelia Sedley’s conflicts represent

social life in England, especially in London, in which social status becomes a

prominent cause of social conflicts. From their story, the readers will realize that

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Thackeray describes Victorian era as the era when people see social classes as the

most important matter, especially in London, which is the setting of the novel.

Thackeray describes high-class people as a group of people who let money control

them. For example, to get more money, most of them do gambling until they get

into debts, and then they are broke. I think Thackeray wants to show how money

and social status mattered a lot in Victorian period that people thought they were

entitled to do anything with money as their sole consideration. Thus, I believe

Thackeray wants to make the readers to see that having a lot of money does not

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary texts:

Thackeray, William Makepeace. Vanity Fair. New York: Barnes and Nobel Classic, 2003.

References:

“Literary Information of Vanity Fair.” 2005. Aug. 2005.

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill Paperback, 1976.

“Thackeray, William Makepeace. Vanity Fair. London: Penguin Popular Classic, 1994.

“Critical Essay on Vanity Fair. “ 2002. Aug. 2009.

Internet websites:

“Biography of William Makepeace Thackeray.” 2009. Aug. 2009.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackeray>

“Contemporary Response to Vanity Fair.” 2005. 25 Sept. 2009