Vanity Fair Narration

In Vanity Fair the narrator switches from a sarcastic know-it-all tone to a voice of shock and awe at the affects life inflicts upon the characters. The narration asserts the players are not masters of their own destiny's, rising and falling according to the whims of nobility. The narrator declares himself as a character in the work itself, making him the puppet master. In the narrators eyes, all of the character's are laid down on the page for a comical, social lesson. They are manipulated by "unforeseen" circumstances and time, answering to their own versions of karma for their stupidity. Ultimately, because Becky and Dobbin play the game laid out for them and are patient, they are rewarded, whereas Jos and Amelia refuse to play and receive their unhappy endings.

Whereas Becky plays the courtly games of cat and mouse, Amelia sits idly back, an outcast to an unsympathetic, unromantic time period. The play master and narrator only finds it acceptable to give her half a happy ending. Whereas Dobbin conquers his love for Amelia before it is too late and is rewarded for his emotional patience by the endearing and unquestioned love of Amelia's daughter, Amelia herself is duped into forever being jealous of the love she could possess had she only allowed it.

This is not the case in the mis-matched pair of Jos and Becky whom the narrator throws together as a seemingly inconsequential pair towards the beginning of the play. The narrator makes a point of showing these four people in social and emotional contrasts as they ascend and descend the social ladder. He is the sole commentator on all their actions regardless of his need to cast himself as just as helpless as his puppets. It is no surprise that the narrator reveals Becky as she had always wished to be, a church going "lady", because she allowed herself to be a puppet to fate and his own narrative whims. This eclipse of her social climbing is showcased when the narrator states:"The dazzled eyes close before that Magnificent Idea. Loyal respect and decency tell even the imagination not to look too keenly and audaciously about the sacred audience chamber, but to back away rapidly, silently, and respectfully, making profound bows out of the August Presence,"(559). This is the narrator's turning point for the foreshadowing of her social climb. This is Becky's big moment through the narrator's eyes, she has earned both her rise in power and the privacy of being with the King by herself, without the puppeteer to play her strings. She has one more showcase to play in that of Lord Stain and then she will receive her ultimate reward and come into a karmic full circle in her relationship with Jos. However, Jos was outcast and eventually met his death with his assets divided because he refused to play his part in the entertainment, though unbeknown to him he was the brunt of most society jokes.

Clearly, the narrator's whim's define the strings the character's must pull to reach their "destined" fate and it is no surprise that the narrator has this to say of his players: "Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out,"(809).

Thackeray, William Makepeace. Vanity Fair. Penguin Classic, 2003.