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Chapter 39
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
Sir Pitt survives several more months but is unable to speak and has seemingly lost his “intellect.” Pitt Crawley inherits his father’s property and soon learns of how many lawsuits and other disputes Sir Pitt was involved with. Mrs. Bute ends up never carrying out any of her threats against Miss Horrocks. While he's still alive, Sir Pitt goes to live in the rooms where Lady Crawley died, and on sunny days, the servants take him outside using the same chair that once belonged to Miss Crawley.
Sir Pitt has presumably had a stroke, although medical knowledge was less advanced during this time period, so his diagnosis isn’t very specific. Sir Pitt minimized the role of his second wife, and so it’s a fitting reversal that he himself ends up in her room when he falls ill. The presence of Miss Crawley’s chair suggests that like her, Sir Pitt has become little more than a pawn in his family’s arguments about inheritance.
Themes
One day, a nurse informs Pitt Crawley that Sir Pitt has finally died (officially making Pitt Crawley the new Sir Pitt). Lady Jane asks whether she should write to Rawdon, but Pitt Crawley volunteers to do it. Lady Jane suggests that maybe he should invite Becky as well, but Pitt Crawley disagrees strongly. Lady Southdown won’t even consent to inviting Rawdon and threatens to leave in her carriage. She acts as if she’s going, but Pitt Crawley is pretty sure she’s just bluffing.
Once again, arguments over inheritance drive the Crawley family apart. While the main argument is between Pitt’s side of the family and Rawdon’s, even the relatively harmonious relationship between Pitt and his wife, Lady Jane, experiences some friction over how to proceed after Sir Pitt’s death. With his new title, Pitt Crawley becomes the head of the whole family, and he uses his new power to begin mending some old feuds (even if he does so reluctantly and at his wife’s request).
Themes
When Rawdon gets Pitt Crawley’s letter, he wonders what’s even the point of going to the funeral if he isn’t receiving any inheritance. But Becky seems surprisingly excited to go, making plans for them to buy new mourning clothes. Rawdon wants to take Rawdy with them, but Becky doesn’t want to pay extra for the space to take him.
This passage shows how Rawdon always thinks in the short-term about the immediate benefit to him. While Becky isn’t quite a long-term planner herself, she nevertheless is capable of planning more elaborate schemes, seeing the potential to make some money by reuniting with Pitt Crawley.
Themes
Becky talks with Miss Briggs about how if she’d accepted that marriage proposal from Sir Pitt (which Miss Briggs overheard), Becky would be a widow right now. Having been dismissed from the Crawley house by Lady Southdown, Miss Briggs is now Becky’s “sheep-dog” companion who keeps men at bay. Miss Brigg’s friend warned her to be careful with Becky, but even after promising to be cautious, Miss Briggs ended up lending Rawdon 600 pounds.
When Becky muses that she nearly ended up as a widow, she almost seems regretful, as if being a widow would have been the best outcome for her. As a widow, since she’d be independent, and she’d inherit Sir Pitt’s wealth. Meanwhile, the 600 pounds that Miss Briggs lends Rawdon is quite a large sum of money, particularly for a servant. The fact that Miss Briggs lent this money shows her naivete and her trust in authority, while also showing how Rawdon and Becky are so short on money that they have to seek loans from their own servants.
Themes
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