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Chapter 56
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
Mr. Sedley is in such bad shape that he has to ask Mr. Osborne for help, which Mr. Osborne feels is a triumph. He gives Georgy money to take to Amelia, hinting that Mr. Sedley deserves bankruptcy because he brought it on himself. Amelia, who is now 30 years old, accepts the money gratefully, even though it comes from Mr. Osborne. The narrator laments that someone as worthy as Amelia has fallen so low from where she started.
With Mrs. Sedley gone, Mrs. Sedley also seems like he may soon follow her. Much of the end of the novel deals with a transition between generations, as members of the old generation die one by one. While Mrs. Sedley’s death didn’t involve any inheritance, but Mr. Sedley and Amelia seem mourn her, which contrasts with previous deaths like Miss Crawley and Sir Pitt, who were forgotten as soon as their inheritance was distributed.
Themes
After the burial of Mrs. Sedley, Amelia vows to try to make Mr. Sedley happy. It’s a sad time, but the narrator promises that things will get better for them. In fact, just then Jos and Dobbin are over at Mr. Veal’s school talking to Georgy. Before Dobbin could get his leave of absence and depart from India, he got sick and feared the worst. He instructed the servant that if he died, he should be buried with a brown hair-chain that one of Amelia’s maids took from her and which Dobbin started to wear around his neck.
While hair-chains were more common in the 19th century, Dobbin’s devotion to Amelia is still extreme, perhaps to the point where at times he becomes a parody of a romantic hero (which would make him a fitting match for Amelia, given the part in the first chapter where the narrator warns that Amelia herself is not a traditional hero).
Themes
Back in India several months earlier, while Dobbin is recovering from fever, Jos completes his 10 years of service and is free to return to England with a pension whenever he wants. He loses some weight and becomes a little more solemn. When Dobbin gets permission to leave, he and Jos take a ship back to England. They talk, and Dobbin brings up Amelia and Georgy, which helps get rid of Jos’s annoyance with his family (due to how Mr. Sedley mishandled the annuity Jos sends back).
While illness was always a particular danger for the English in colonies, Dobbin’s disease seems to be lovesickness from his long separation from Amelia. Jos’s weight loss suggests that he has begun to cut back on some of the excessive parts of his lifestyle—perhaps because he’s been away from England (where Jos particularly enjoys spending his money on food and drink).
Themes
It’s Jos who lets Dobbin know that Amelia hasn’t married yet. Although Dobbin was struggling with a relapse of his illness, fearing he might be near death again, this news seems to restore him immediately, with his new energy astonishing the others on the boat with them. Dobbin sings and tells jokes, charming people who previously thought he was quiet.
This passage further reinforces the idea that Dobbin’s illness is lovesickness—or perhaps it just suggests that Dobbin’s love is so strong that it can even help him overcome serious illness.
Themes
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