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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Vanity Fair, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Greed and Ambition
Vanity
Social Class and Character
Gender
Inheritance and Family Life
Summary
Analysis
While George is away in Chatham in the barracks with his regiment, Amelia writes him letters. His companions, particularly Spooney and Stubble, laugh at how many he receives, so he orders for them to only be delivered to his private room. Other men speculate that maybe George has several different women in love with him, until one day, Dobbin overhears them and tells them about Amelia, warning them that no one had better make fun of Amelia while he’s around.
Rather than taking pride in Amelia’s overwhelming love for him, George begins to see it as a source of embarrassment. Dobbin’s defense of Amelia provides yet another indication that, while he is ostensibly sticking up for George, it seems clear that he secretly loves Amelia but doesn’t dare to act on it because of his friendship with George.
Themes
Dobbin asks George at one point if he’s engaged to Amelia, and George gets surprisingly angry about it. Dobbin asks him if he’s ashamed of the engagement, and George gets even angrier. Dobbin says George has been neglecting Amelia, and so at last, George relents and makes plans to see her in town the next day. Amelia imagines to herself what George is doing while he’s away, perhaps overseeing sentries or helping a wounded companion. In fact, the men in the barracks are drinking whiskey and singing.
Even though Dobbin would probably rather marry Amelia himself, he encourages George to marry her instead. This highlights how selflessness is a major aspect of Dobbin’s character, perhaps even to a fault. Dobbin is so interested in making Amelia happy that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get her to marry George, whom Dobbin knows Amelia loves. Dobbin is too blinded by loyalty to George to realize that perhaps George’s wavering is a sign that he might not make the ideal husband for Amelia after all.
Themes
The next day, George borrows money from Dobbin to buy a present for Amelia. But George spends the money on a diamond pin for himself, and when he comes back, Amelia is so happy to see him that she doesn’t even care about the lack of presents. Amelia thinks George is one of the greatest men in all of Britain. They walk around and make plans for when they eventually live together, then George invites Amelia to dine with his sisters.
This incident with the present provides the perfect encapsulation of Dobbin and George’s relationship with Amelia: Dobbin is willing to do anything to make Amelia happy, even if he doesn’t get credit for it, but George always puts his own happiness first. Amelia doesn’t realize that George was supposed to buy her a gift instead of the pin—she even appreciates the pin—and this shows how her love makes her fail to see George’s clear shortcomings.
Themes
George leaves Amelia with Jane Osborne and Maria, goes to play 11 games of billiards, then comes back half an hour late for dinner. While George is out, his father, Mr. Osborne, enters the drawing room where Amelia is with the sisters. He is scowling and shouts at the servants to get dinner started. At dinner, Mr. Osborne keeps complaining and sends back the soup. Eventually, George arrives. After dinner, Amelia and the other women go to the drawing-room.
George’s behavior makes it clear that he is not nearly as devoted to Amelia as she is to him. In many ways, the way he goes off to play billiards resembles how Jos uses food and drink to avoid responsibility (and ultimately to avoid proposing to Becky). Mr. Osborne’s bad temper at the meal suggests that he is making no particular effort to charm Amanda and perhaps also has doubts about George’s potential engagement to her.
Themes
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George, Mr. Osborne, and the other men still at the dinner table talk business. They discuss gambling debts, and Mr. Osborne asks George why he hasn’t tried to marry someone of higher status than Amelia. George says that Mr. Osborne himself and Mr. Sedley arranged the match, and George is just doing what he’s told. Mr. Osborne acknowledges that Mr. Sedley helped him make his fortune, but he feels that recently Mr. Sedley’s business has been failing.
This passage makes clear how brutally pragmatic and money-focused marriage negotiations could be during this period. While other characters approach the topic with more tact, Mr. Osborne is straightforward about his concerns (perhaps because he feels he can speak freely in the company of just men), and he makes it clear that he believes marriage should be about status and money.
Themes
Mr. Osborne states it plainly: unless Amelia’s family pays 10,000 pounds, George shouldn’t marry her. George leaves in a good mood, being tender and trying to make Amelia happy. The next day at the bank, George sees Mr. Sedley looking depressed. George takes out enough money to repay what he borrowed from Dobbin. That night, George goes back to the barracks and receives a long letter from Amelia. He laments how she’ll react if the engagement gets called off, and he also laments the hangover he has.
George’s good mood might seem surprising, given that Mr. Osborne is interfering in his marriage, but in fact, earlier passages revealed that George is hesitant about marrying Amelia, and now he seems glad about having a way out that he can blame on someone else. Still, the regret that George feels later seems to be genuine, showing how the novel can find sympathetic moments with characters even when they’re in the middle of taking unsympathetic actions (as George does by continuing to string Amelia along after his feelings change).
Themes
