vanity fair 张彦芳 朱荣ppt.ppt

Vanity fair张彦芳2010031139朱荣2010031140,Vanity Fair:A Novel without a Hero is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray,first published in 1847.The books title comes from John Bunyans allegorical（讽刺的，寓言的）story The Pilgrims Progress,first published in 1678 and still widely read at the time of Thackerays novel.Vanity fair refers to a stop along the pilgrims progress:a never-ending fair held in a town called Vanity,which is meant to represent mans sinful（有罪的，罪逆深重的）attachment to worldly things.The novel is now considered a classic,and has inspired several film adaptations（改编）.,Social background,Since the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 18th century,the class structure of English society had undergone radical changes.But from the thirties of the 19th century,the struggle between the workers and capitalists became the feudalmental contradiction in English social life.The crying social contradictions were reflected in the writers work of the time.,Characters in Vanity Fair,Amelia Sedley:the daughter of a wealthy london merchant Rebecca(Becky)Sharp:an orphan,Joseph:Amelia s brother Sir Pitt Crawley;Rawdon Crawley George Osborne Dobbin,Becky Sharpthe anti-heroine,an intelligent young woman with a gift for satire,is described as a petite娇小的 sandy haired girl who has green eyes and a great deal of wit.Fluent in both French and English,Becky has a beautiful singing voice,plays the piano,and shows great talent as an actress.She is also completely amoral and without conscience.She does not seem to have the ability to get attached to other people,and lies easily and intelligently to get her way.She is extremely manipulative（操纵的）and,after the first few chapters and her failure to attract Jos Sedley,is not shown as being particularly sincere.Never having known financial or social security even as a child,Becky desires it above all things.Nearly everything she does is with the intention of securing a stable position for herself.,Amelia SedleyAmelia is Beckys opposite:pale,passive,and emotionally devoted to her husband and son.She marries George Osborne against the wishes of Georges father,and when George dies at the battle of Waterloo she brings up little George alone while living with her parents.She is completely dominated by her spendthrift father(who steals and sells the annuity Georges friends put together to try to support her)and her mother.After George Osbornes death,Amelia is obsessed with her son and with the memory of her husband.She ignores William Dobbin,who courts her for years,and treats him shabbily until eventually he leaves.It is only after Becky shows her Georges letter to her that Amelia realizes what a good man Dobbin is,although she has already written to him to ask him to come back.She eventually marries Dobbin.,Plot,Becky and Amelia leaving schoolIn Amelias home,Becky tries to entrap JosephBecky becoming Sir Pitt Crawleys governess,secretly married to Rawdon CrawleyAmelias father got bankrupt,captain Dobbin helped Amelia and George Osborne to get married who later died in the battlefield,Rawdon Crawley imprisoned for debt,finds Becky entertaining Lord Steyne.Leaves for India and dies of feverBecky met Amelia again and told her the infidelity of George,Amelia married DobbinBecky lives with Joseph and gets all his property when he dies.Becky lives like a grand lady.,Analysis of Vanity Fair,In the novel,Becky Sharp is a classic example of this money-grubbing instinct(本能).Everyone wishes to gain something in Vanity Fair and acts almost in the same manner as Becky.,Vanity Fair is a trap that everyone is likely to step into however careful he may try to be.Thackeray has drawn a lifelike 逼真的tableau(画面）of the Vanity Fair in reality in the novel.That is the reason why the novel has been popular for so many years.,Theme,As the title suggests,this is a book about vanity fair.In the novel,under the gay mask of the balls and parties,the world is shown as full of all kinds of vanity,especially snobbery势力,duplicity二重性 of social-climbers,and the weakness of human nature.It shows that the vanity of man is universal and ever present.Now as before,people still climb over and betray each other;relatives still fight over money and property;husbands and wives still deceive each other;and mothers still sell their daughters for money and position.The fact is ugly but it is nonetheless true.,The Characteristics of Vanity Fair,(1)Vanity Fair has a sub-title,A Novel Without a Hero,which intends to portray the bourgeois and aristocratic society as a whole.Example:none of the characters are wholly evil,though,even Becky,who is amoral and cunning,is thrown on her own resources by poverty and its stigma(耻辱，污名).,The Characteristics of Vanity Fair,(2)Vanity Fair is work of social criticism,and is noted for the authors realistic depiction,the ironic and sarcastic tone and constant comment and criticism.This kind of realism is based on the authors own life experience.eg,the character of Becky Sharp is based on in part on Thackerays maternal grandmother Horriet Becher.,The Characteristics of Vanity Fair,(3)In Vanity Fair,Thackeray gives block characters(人物群体).(4)Thackeray uses symbolism in Vanity Fair.(5)Thackeray employs an omniscient(无所不知的)narrator to tell the story.,omniscient narrator,Omniscient narrator an all-knowing kind of narrator very commonly found in works of fiction written as third-person narratives.The omniscient narrator has a full knowledge of the storys events and of the movies and unspoken thoughts of various characters.He or she will also be capable of describing events happening simultaneously in different places-a capacity not normally available to the limited point of view of first person narratives.,The end,