Amelia’s obsession with Georgy represents one potential obstacle to Dobbin’s love, particularly since part of Amelia’s devotion to Georgy is a way to continue to be loyal to her dead husband George. While previous sections strongly implied that Amelia’s love for Georgy was making her overlook his flaws, this passage confirms it. She claims that Georgy delights people at parties, but in fact, his pranks mostly only delight Mr. Osborne and annoy everyone else. Furthermore, Georgy’s essay on selfishness isn’t very extensive and seems to have been written solely to please the pretentious Mr. Veal (who would be impressed by the reference to the ancient Greek Achilles).