❖ Thackeray is known in English Literature as an essayist as well as a novelist. His English Humorists and The Four Georges are among the finest essays of the nineteenth century. Thackeray was Dickens's contemporary. 

❖ He is first of a realist, who paints life as he sees it. As he says himself, "I have no brains above my eyes; I describe what I see". He pictures notably the weak and vicious elements of society/ they are accurate and true to life.

❖ He was more interested in the manners and morals of the high society than in the great upheavals of the age. He gives in his novels accurate and true picture especially of the vicious elements of society.

Vanity Fair" is an excellent work depicting society and people in the context of England in the early 19th century which witnessed a moral decline. However there are still praiseworthy moral values and people with simple desire for happiness, sincere love and undying loyalty. They are Amelia and Dobbin.

Rebecca represents the lower-class in British society. Rebecca was a child of poor artist and dancer, she was despised and treated unfairly. When she was in Miss Pinkerton’s school. She was generally disliked by all the other girls due to the family condition.

Although Miss Crawley is fond of Rebecca, Miss Crawley chagrined and angry when Rebecca married to her nephew, Rawdon Crawley because she did not want scandal or unwise marriage in her family.
Rebecca aspires to integrate into aristocracy to have a better life.

*Sedley's Family

Mr. Sedly was a wealthy merchant who was always respected by everyone. When Sedley’s family went bankrupt, his family was pushed down from a rich merchant to the lower class. No longer respected but despised, lowly to the pitiful.

*Miss Pinkerton
Miss. Pinkerton belongs to the aristocracy, is the founder of Miss Pinkerton School at Chiswick Mall, specializing in educating young ladies of the lineage. She is the representative image of contemporary British education.

Miss Pinkerton is a person who has a high status and fame in society. In fact, it's all just "fake flaunting"! 

Miss. Pinkerton was widely respected as a person who "didn't know a single word in French. A person who works in education but is unfair. 

Through Thackeray's sarcastic pen lashed out strongly education in contemporary society. Even when people are in the environment of upbringing, they still suffer from class and class distinctions, suffer injustices in treatment...

*The Crawley House
Old lady Crawley was a rich aunt with her enormous sum of more than seventy thousand pounds. Although Aunt Crawley was very fond of Rebecca and kept her close to her, and though she also admired the scandals and foolish marriages of others, she refused to allow scandals and scandals. That foolish marriage happened in his   family.

Caste is the measure of all social relationships. She did not allow a low-class, low-status person like Rebecca to enter her aristocratic family.

*Ossborne's Family
Mr. Osborne was born in a poor family, uneducated man, but through wisdom and opportunity, he rose to the status of a merchant. 

When he became rich, Osborne repaid his benefactor - Mr. Sedley - with blatant betrayal. When the Sedley family went bankrupt, difficult, Osborne broke the engagement between George and Amelia. 

This is a person who is ungrateful, unfaithful, and values social status and money more than gratitude and morality.

Throught out some typical characters, Thakeray show class prejudice in British society:

There are two main causes of the moral decline: The magic of money and Class prejudice in society. 

THE MAGIC OF MONEY 

* Money dominated the entire contemporary British society.
 

"Vanity Fair" by William Makepeace Thackeray is an excellent novel of English literature in general and typical of the realism movement in particular in the nineteenth century. On the background of a society full of political, social and cultural changes ... life becomes a mess, the sprawling reality has led to an inevitable consequence that is a change in human relationships, and view of the world and society. 

The great happenings of this period have pushed people to an alarming state of moral decay, and the values in life are brutally reversed. So, Thackeray reflects vividly and honestly the society of this era in his writings with a sarcastic and lashing attitude.  

Morality in British society is in a sharp and serious decline, the root cause is also due to the power of money. Money rules all aspects of life; fame and fortune always go together; money is the measure of false values; and money degrades morality. 

In more than 1200 pages of Vanity Fair, the word "money" appears in a dense frequency with more than 550 words. The power and nature of money are illustrated by the author in a dark and evil way, just as dark as society and humanity. In Vanity Fair, humanity is a luxury aspect, greed for fame is the essence and money is a witch who can transform and burn good values on the heartless fire to ashes. 

 

* The force of money pushes people to a moral decline 

Money and fame reign in society, human morality is so pale as porridge that in order to get that kind of feeling called luxury, one has to “No money, no talk”.  

Social classes race to climb the ladder of fame and fortune, because they think that the happiest thing is to have a noble position and have a lot of money. Money returns to its original nature and its "noble" role is to build a new "moral morality", which is both practical and useful. As well as Woe to the people who only know how to flatter and fear those with money and status.  

Here are some typical characters like:  

* Money is a measure of human emotions and values

The upper class in Vanity Fair are very rich in material but poor in spirit, Or rather, spiritual values are bankrupt.  

In contrast, the middle and lower classes are poor, but their love and humanity constantly sublimate creating beautiful values. Reading the work, we can't help but be surprised when we discover the tiny light spots full of humanity. It was Dobbin's noble and quiet love for Amelia Sedley for 12 long years. The major was infatuated with her, sending her money regularly and helping her a lot when her husband George Osborne died in battle. Or Rawdon paid the debt for Mrs. Brigo, and he also provided monthly support for his son and Rebecca. 

In the race of fame and fortune, money makes people love and hate each other in just a moment; People without money and status are despised and scorned. So, you can see that money in vanity society is extremely important and becomes a measure of human value. It is the direct cause of pushing people to the position of a king, a queen, and it also sinks people into the lower classes of society. 

=> In summary, the money in the Vanity Fair was fully utilized by the author to highlight the moral decline in society. The magic of money is terrifying. The icy nature of money corrupts morality in British society at that time. 

Through the eyes of a director looking down at the Vanity Fair, The author Thackeray not only highlights the aspirations of human life but also deals a drastic blow to their thoughts and psychology. The prejudice of social class, the attraction of money magic is one of the causes of the moral decline, which is the voice protesting against injustice in society. With that bitter laugh, Thackeray indirectly expressed anger in the masses. Dive into the philosophy of this realism, The author has brought to the reader the color of morality and ethics, which is the bridge for the writer to stand on the moral point of view and condemn life through the typical characters in the work. 

Besides, The morality in the Vanity Fair is clothed with a luxurious and splendid brocade coat, but inside is a picture of moral decadence that emerges with naked, vile emotions. It is hypocrisy, selfishness, self-interest, and deception; as well as tarnishing the most sacred human emotions: the love of father and son, husband and wife, mother and child, friends, etc... The author successfully portrays famous characters in the upper society with all classes and walks of life. 

Moreover, In the "Vanity Fair", Money-Love-Ethics go hand in hand. Thackeray has shown that when money reigns on the highest ladder of society, it leads to emotional vanity and moral decadence.  

In short, Society in that vanity world is constantly changing; gaining and losing in the blink of an eye; no position is stable such as the character Rebecca or Mr. Sedley, etc... People find ways to get money, and then use the money to buy fame, rank, and status; They compete for a social position, and carry out one plot after another to affirm, to advance, and to be respected. 

Every human is born, grows up and matures with dreams and ambitions. And they will try their best to achieve those things. There are different ways to do it, some people try with their own abilities and strengths, but some people rely on the status of those around them, rely on the power of money to achieve their goals.

Rebecca is the character that is put lots of heart by the author. She was born in poor family. As a young girl “the daughter of a lowly family”,  her father is a debauched painter, her mother is a French dancer. Lack of education from a young age, soon spoiled in a still opaque environment, but in return Rebecca was smart with good look and talent.

With the death of her mother, she spent her childhood with her rude, irascible father. With growthing up, she met  different people and saw the ugly side of society. Therefore, she understood that she had to work her way into upper - class society by anyway.

In order to achieve her ambitious, after leaving school, she rushed to the path of advancement. Arriving at Amelia's house, she launched an attack on your rich brother, Joseph. The greed for fame and gain has obscured the shyness of a seventeen - year - old girl. The job failed, Rebecca went to tutor Pitt Crawley's family, a noble family in the countryside and quickly became the daughter - in - law of this family. 

It can be said that Rebecca is a typical character for the aspiration to step into the upper class in the work, through Rebecca's actions, it has also exposed the false and ignorant face of the nobility, and has represented both degenerates, defying tricks to rise to the aristocracy.

REBECCA'S DESIRE FOR LOVE IN "VANITY FAIR"

Love is one of the most sacred human emotions and also an inspiration that never dies in literature. In Vanity Fair, Rebecca’s Love shows up with clear trend : pragmatic love trend. For Rebecca, getting married is not for love, not for sex, but rather as a ladder for her to climb to the high status of the elite.  
Rebecca comes from a "luxury and frivolous" society, which has corrupted human morality and personality. Living in a dusty environment, Rebecca cannot avoid temptations, ambitions.

Rebecca believes that there is no faster way to the rich world than marrying a rich man. To fulfill her life-changing ambition, Rebecca did not hesitate to exchange both her youth and love. Love for Rebecca is only pragmatic, not sincere love. With her inherent beauty and intelligence, Rebecca is ready to seduce any man she thinks has a lot of money. The first is Joseph - Amelia's brother, she has "decided in her heart to win the heart of that handsome guardian".
In order to secure stable position for herself, she flirted with men such as General Tufto and the Marquis of Steyne to get Rawdon promoted after marrying. She never cared about her love or her family. The only thing she wanted to do was to enter the upper class. 

What she cared about was not who she would get married to, but the social status which could bring to her in this marriage.