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Chapter 54
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
Becky remains stunned for a long time after her confrontation with Rawdon. She shouts for the French maid to come, but the maid has already left for good. She goes down to the other servants in the kitchen and finds some of them drinking and eating. She scolds them for being disrespectful, but they refuse to work until she pays them their salaries, which they believe won’t happen now that Rawdon has left.
This passage shows how the tables have turned, with the servants now living extravagantly even though they have no source of income anymore—just as Rawdon and Becky used to do. The passage emphasizes how so many relationships are built on money. It also shows that while Becky’s servants might seem to respect her and Rawdon, that ends as soon as they stop being paid.
Themes
Literary Devices
Becky blames Rawdon for not paying the servants and says she can pay them tomorrow, just not today because it’s Sunday. She says that in fact, Rawdon has the money with him right now. This surprises the servants so much that the temporarily go quiet. Becky leaves, heading for Pitt Crawley and Lady Jane. She insists to the servants that she has to see Pitt immediately (Lady Jane is away at church) and then bursts in on him in his study, surprising and alarming him.
Becky never backs down, always finding some excuse to explain her behavior and why she can’t pay money at the moment. She is so forceful that even people who know her well, like her servants, can be swayed by her confidence. Ultimately, Becky shows how maintaining a place in upper-class society was not just about money but also about bluster and deception.
Themes
Becky urges Pitt Crawley to remember how they used to be friends and to trust her when she says she’s innocent. She admits that she received Lord Steyne alone in her house and that she had money she was hiding from Rawdon, but she says she was just keeping the money away from Rawdon for his own good due to how careless he is.
Becky’s best lies have some of the truth in them. Rawdon is indeed careless with money—although Becky herself isn’t any better. Becky may be hoping Pitt Crawley believes her version of events, or she may simply be trying to give him plausible deniability for the offer she makes in the next passage.
Themes
Literary Devices
Becky says she knows Lord Steyne likes her, and so she claims she was trying to get some advantages out of him, including a peerage for Pitt Crawley. Before that, however, she wanted to secure he own family’s finances by getting an appointment for Rawdon as governor of Coventry Island with Lord Steyne’s influence. Rawdon walked in on them during this meeting and let his suspicions get the better of him.
Peerage is a system of hereditary ranks of nobility. Attaining peerage would be an important step up for Pitt Crawley (who, as a baronet, is the highest rank of commoner—peerage would make him a full noble, like a baron). Becky knows that Pitt Crawley will also like that Rawdon is sent away, because that means it will be easier for Pitt Crawley to see Becky.
Themes
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Just then, Lady Jane returns, surprised that Becky had the nerve to come and see her and Pitt Crawley. But Pitt Crawley takes Becky’s side and tries to explain to Lady Jane why Becky is innocent. At last, however, Lady Jane puts her foot down and says she will not tolerate Becky in the house—Pitt Crawley must choose between Jane and Becky. Becky leaves, but Pitt promises that he’ll try to get Rawdon to reconcile with her.
While Lady Jane gets very angry in this passage, she has good reason for it, given how much Pitt Crawley has been lying to her lately (like when he lent Becky jewelry for her court appearance without consulting Lady Jane). While the novel sometimes seems to favor meek women like Amelia, who suffer through problems in silence, this passage paints Lady Jane in a favorable light and shows that sometimes a virtuous woman has to stand her ground.
Themes
Meanwhile, Rawdon takes breakfast at the club near Captain Macmurdo’s residence. He talks with some young soldiers until Macmurdo comes down and takes pleasure in telling stories, even though he’s much older than most of his audience. After breakfast, someone comes up to Rawdon and congratulates him about something in the local paper. Rawdon hasn’t seen the paper and has no idea what the news is.
Rawdon’s breakfast with Macmurdo and the younger soldiers shows yet again how Rawdon is returning to his old self (or perhaps deluding himself into thinking he can). Macmurdo seems to present a vision of what Rawdon might himself eventually become, reliving his glory days by telling old stories to a new audience.
Themes
Rawdon finds the paper and learns that he’s been offered the governorship of Coventry Island. Everyone laughs at his confusion. Shortly after, a man called Mr. Wenham comes to talk with Rawdon. Rawdon directs Wenham to talk to Captain Macmurdo, believing this is about the duel, but in fact Wenham wants to speak to Rawdon directly about the governorship of Coventry Island.
The governorship on Coventry Island is clearly a bribe to make Rawdon go away and forget what he saw between Becky and Lord Steyne. Rawdon’s confusion over Mr. Wenham’s role suggests that for a wealthy man like Lord Steyne, business transactions can be like a form of dueling.
Themes
Wenham lets Rawdon know that Lord Steyne has recommended him for the governorship, a position that comes with a salary of a couple thousand pounds a year. When he hears this, Rawdon gets angry and refuses to take the position. Wenham tries to convince Rawdon that what he saw between Becky and Lord Steyne was totally innocent.
While a couple thousand pounds a year is a significant sum of money, it’s not a fortune, particularly given that Rawdon is being asked to go live by himself on an island. Rawdon feels insulted that Lord Steyne is trying to put a price on his honor—and not even an especially high one.
Themes
Wenham tells Rawdon that in fact Lord Steyne was himself insulted by Rawdon’s behavior and also ready to challenge him to a duel. Wenham says he regrets that things turned out this way, since things might have been different if he and his wife had accepted Becky’s offer to have dinner on the very night when Rawdon saw Becky with Lord Steyne. Unfortunately, however, Mrs. Wenham had a headache. Rawdon doesn’t believe any of this story, but he doesn’t know how to disprove it, and Captain Macmurdo seems to be convinced.
Becky and Lord Steyne have concocted a story not based on what’s easy to prove but on what’s difficult to disprove, trying to convince Rawdon to doubt his own eyes. It’s clear that Wenham is loyal to Lord Steyne and is willing to stay anything to vouch for Lord Steyne’s honor.
Themes
Rawdon calls Wenham a liar, but Captain Macmurdo comes to Wenham’s defense. He suggests that it would be best if everyone just put aside their animosity. Wenham repeats that it was all just a big mistake before leaving. On the way out, he greets Pitt Crawley, who is pleased to hear that Wenham has apparently managed to reconcile things with Rawdon. But Rawdon still refuses to believe Wenham’s story.
Macmurdo is a neutral observer in this scenario, showing how the reputation and grandeur of someone like Lord Steyne can easily sway a common person. Although Rawdon knows himself what he saw, with Becky and Lord Steyne together, he also learns that other people might not believe him if he tries to tell them what he saw.
Themes
Regretfully, Rawdon decides to bury his dispute with Lord Steyne, partly for the benefit of Rawdy (who gets money to go to school from Lord Steyne). And so, Rawdon accepts he deal and goes to live on Coventry Island as governor. Meanwhile, Becky disappears. The climate on Coventry Island isn’t as nice as Wenham promised, and so Rawdy instead has to go live with Lady Jane and Pitt Crawley. Rawdon writes Rawdy regularly, and he also uses some of his salary to send cigars to Captain Macmurdo.
Although Coventry Island has a very English-sounding name, it turns out to be a distant colony. On the one hand, this chapter paints Rawdon as a martyr, willing to sacrifice himself by moving to a far-away island all so that Rawdy can continue to go to a nice school. At the same time, however, this passage raises the question of whether Rawdon is truly doing something noble or if he’s just been worn down by the persistent lies of Becky and Lord Steyne.
Themes
