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Chapter 2
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
Amelia and Becky go to the drawing-room to see Jos. Jos is a big man dressed in a showy outfit like a dandy, and he sits reading the newspaper. Becky whispers that she finds Jos handsome, but she begs Amelia not to tell him. Amelia tells Jos she likes the gifts he brought back from India, but Jos suddenly gets up, saying he needs to be off to dine with a friend. Mr. Sedley comes in, however, and insists that Jos stay for dinner. Mr. Sedley greets Becky and invites her to stay for dinner too.
Becky’s attempts to manipulate Amelia into helping her marry Jos aren’t subtle. Still, they end up being effective anyway, largely because Amelia herself is so obedient and trusting. Although the narrator does not necessarily say so directly, his description of Jos suggests that in fact Jos probably isn’t a traditionally handsome man and instead looks silly in his expensive clothes, which Jos can’t realize because of his own vanity.
Themes
The narrator suggests that no one should blame Becky for eagerly seeking a husband, since usually mothers do that for their children, and Becky is an orphan. The narrator muses that most things young people do, like dancing and learning musical instruments, is all, in the end, about securing a marriage.
Becky’s actions toward the Sedleys are deceptive, but here the narrator directly intervenes to explain why Becky’s actions are justified. While the narrator’s defense of Becky here is reasonable, as the story goes on, the narrator continues to show favoritism toward Becky, even at times when her actions become harder to defend, raising the question of how reliable the narrator actually is.
Themes
Literary Devices
Jos is 12 years older than Amelia and works in Bengal for the East India Company. He has lived in India for many years, mostly alone, although he did come back to London at one point due to a liver complaint, and he lived for several months as a fashionable bachelor before heading back to India. Though he often speaks highly of his time in London, he was lonely then too. He is afraid of women and self-conscious about his weight, although he enjoys a good meal too much to lose weight.
While Jos is a comic figure, this passage also delves into his psychology to help explain why he feels the need to live such a lavish lifestyle—he feels shy and self-conscious. Jos’s liver complaint suggests that Jos probably drinks a lot of alcohol, hinting at how beneath Jos’s jolly exterior, he also has a self-destructive side.
Themes
Just as Becky planned, Amelia tells Mrs. Sedley that Becky thinks Jos is handsome, and Jos is around to overhear it. But he just wonders if Becky is making fun of him. The next time Becky sees Jos, he is blushing. She decides she must be very quiet and act very interested in India. The dinner is a curry for Jos, so Becky eagerly asks for some. It’s too hot for her, and when Jos offers her a chili, she accepts it, mistakenly believing it will be cold. She cries out for water, and Sambo brings it. Jos finds this all funny, but the ladies don’t smile quite as much.
This passage provides an example of Jos’s insecurity that the previous passage hinted at: when he sees Becky talking about him, his first reaction is to assume she’s making fun of him. Becky’s extreme reaction to the chili pepper shows how, despite her efforts to educate herself and become cultured, her lower-class status and the fewer opportunities she’s had to actually see the world make her less worldly than the Sedleys in some ways. Jos is so afraid that people will judge him that he seems to take particular joy when someone else makes a mistake, as Becky does with the chili.
Themes
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After dinner, Mr. Sedley warns Jos that Becky is trying to marry him. Jos is flattered. After his father falls asleep, Jos sneaks out to go see a show. Amelia and Mrs. Sedley see him go, commenting that Becky must have scared him off.
Unlike the naïve Amelia and Jos, Mr. Sedley can easily see what Becky is plotting. Although Jos doesn’t leave specifically to get away from Becky, he seems to use food and entertainment as a way of escaping from the world around him.
Themes
