Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair

by

William Makepeace Thackeray

Becky Sharp Character Analysis

Rebecca “Becky” Sharp begins the story as an orphan who is friends with Amelia. The two of them meet at Miss Pinkerton’s school, where Amelia follows the rules but Becky always challenges authority. After leaving the school, Becky decides that the only way for her to advance her low social position is to marry a man who’s richer than she is. Initially, she tries to marry Amelia’s brother Jos, who has made a fortune from his work in India, but Amelia’s fiancé, George, intervenes and convinces Jos to reject her. Undeterred, Becky moves on to her governess job, where she ends up marrying Rawdon, the son of her employer; the marriage causes a minor scandal because Becky is only employed by Rawdon’s family and thus beneath them socially. Despite putting so much effort into securing a marriage, Becky shows little interest in wanting to be a wife or mother—she completely ignores their son, Rawdy, and it’s plausible that she has several affairs, including possibly with George and with a rich neighbor named Lord Steyne. Ultimately, Becky ends up damaging just about every relationship in her life, traveling from place to place and trying to swindle money out of unsuspecting people. At the end of the story, after Becky and Rawdon have separated, she manages to secure her fortune from Jos by winning his favor, taking control of his life and finances, and possibly even poisoning him to secure an inheritance. Becky’s character is defined by her constant striving for more. She repeatedly claims that if she just had enough money, she could be a virtuous person, and her regular attendance at church and dedication to charity at end of the story seems to support this. Still, Becky caused a lot of suffering along the way, and given her past actions, it’s reasonable to suspect that she never will be satisfied and will return to her scheming once she becomes dissatisfied with what she has.

Becky Sharp Quotes in Vanity Fair

The Vanity Fair quotes below are all either spoken by Becky Sharp or refer to Becky Sharp . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Greed and Ambition Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton’s academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, Miss Pinkerton
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

When Miss Sharp had performed the heroical act mentioned in the last chapter, and had seen the Dixonary, flying over the pavement of the little garden, fall at length at the feet of the astonished Miss Jemima, the young lady's countenance, which had before worn an almost livid look of hatred, assumed a smile that perhaps was scarcely more agreeable, and she sank back in the carriage in an easy frame of mind, saying—‘So much for the Dixonary; and, thank God, I’m out of Chiswick.’

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, Miss Pinkerton, Jemima
Related Symbols: Dictionary
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

‘Try a chili with it, Miss Sharp,’ said Joseph, really interested.

‘A chili,’ said Rebecca, gasping. ‘Oh yes!’ She thought a chili was something cool, as its name imported, and was served with some. ‘How fresh and green they look,’ she said, and put one into her mouth. It was hotter than the curry; flesh and blood could bear it no longer. She laid down her fork. ‘Water, for Heaven’s sake, water!’ she cried.

Related Characters: Jos (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

‘Where is Sir Pitt Crawley’" said Miss Sharp majestically.

‘He, he! I’m Sir Pitt Crawley. Reklect you owe me a pint for bringing down your luggage. He, he! Ask Tinker if I aynt.’

Related Characters: Becky Sharp (speaker), Sir Pitt (speaker), Miss Pinkerton, Mrs. Tinker
Related Symbols: Dictionary
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

‘Come as Lady Crawley, if you like,’ the Baronet said, grasping his crape hat. ‘There! will that zatusfy you? Come back and be my wife. Your vit vor't. Birth be hanged. You're as good a lady as ever I see. You've got more brains in your little vinger than any baronet's wife in the county. Will you come? Yes or no?’

Related Characters: Sir Pitt (speaker), Becky Sharp , Miss Crawley , Lady Crawley, Rose and Violet
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

‘Why, Rawdon, it’s Captain Dobbin.’

Related Characters: Becky Sharp (speaker), Amelia, Dobbin, Rawdon
Related Symbols: Piano
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

‘I ain’t going to have any of this dam sentimental nonsense and humbug here, sir,’ the father cried out. ‘There shall be no beggar-marriages in my family. If you choose to fling away eight thousand a year, which you may have for the asking, you may do it: but by Jove you take your pack and walk out of this house, sir. Will you do as I tell you, once for all, sir, or will you not?’

Related Characters: Mr. Osborne (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Jos, Mr. Sedley, Miss Swartz
Page Number: 240
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

That period of Jos’s life which now ensued was so full of incident, that it served him for conversation for many years after, and even the tiger-hunt story was put aside for more stirring narratives which he had to tell about the great campaign of Waterloo.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Dobbin, Jos, Rawdon
Page Number: 310
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

No more firing was heard at Brussels—the pursuit rolled miles away. Darkness came down on the field and city: and Amelia was praying for George, who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Rawdon
Page Number: 375
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 34 Quotes

Lady Southdown, from her neighbouring house, reigned over the whole family—Pitt, Lady Jane, Miss Crawley, Briggs, Bowls, Firkin, and all. She pitilessly dosed them with her tracts and her medicine, she dismissed Creamer, she installed Rodgers, and soon stripped Miss Crawley of even the semblance of authority.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Rawdon, Miss Crawley , Pitt Crawley, Lady Jane, Lady Jane Southdown, Miss Briggs
Page Number: 405
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36 Quotes

On nothing per annum then, and during a course of some two or three years, of which we can afford to give but a very brief history, Crawley and his wife lived very happily and comfortably at Paris. It was in this period that he quitted the Guards and sold out of the army. When we find him again, his mustachios and the title of Colonel on his card are the only relics of his military profession.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Rawdon
Related Symbols: Billiards
Page Number: 419
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 41 Quotes

“I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.”

Related Characters: Becky Sharp (speaker), Rawdon, Miss Crawley , Lady Jane Southdown, Miss Pinkerton
Page Number: 490
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 46 Quotes

Out of the hundred pounds a year, which was about the amount of her income, the Widow Osborne had been in the habit of giving up nearly three-fourths to her father and mother, for the expenses of herself and her little boy.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Georgy, Mr. Sedley, Mrs. Sedley
Page Number: 534
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 51 Quotes

‘Mrs. Rawdon Crawley was quite killing in the part,’ said Lord Steyne. Becky laughed, gay and saucy looking, and swept the prettiest little curtsey ever seen.

Related Characters: Lord Steyne (speaker), Becky Sharp , Rawdon
Page Number: 598
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 53 Quotes

All her lies and her schemes, and her selfishness and her wiles, all her wit and genius had come to this bankruptcy.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Rawdon, Lord Steyne
Page Number: 625
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 64 Quotes

If we were to give a full account of her proceedings during a couple of years that followed after the Curzon Street catastrophe, there might be some reason for people to say this book was improper. The actions of very vain, heartless, pleasure-seeking people are very often improper (as are many of yours, my friend with the grave face and spotless reputation—but that is merely by the way); and what are those of a woman without faith—or love—or character? And I am inclined to think that there was a period in Mrs Becky's life when she was seized, not by remorse, but by a kind of despair, and absolutely neglected her person and did not even care for her reputation.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, Dobbin, Rawdon, Lord Steyne
Page Number: 748
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 67 Quotes

Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?—come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, Dobbin, Jos
Page Number: 809
Explanation and Analysis:
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Becky Sharp Quotes in Vanity Fair

The Vanity Fair quotes below are all either spoken by Becky Sharp or refer to Becky Sharp . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Greed and Ambition Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton’s academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, Miss Pinkerton
Page Number: 7
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

When Miss Sharp had performed the heroical act mentioned in the last chapter, and had seen the Dixonary, flying over the pavement of the little garden, fall at length at the feet of the astonished Miss Jemima, the young lady's countenance, which had before worn an almost livid look of hatred, assumed a smile that perhaps was scarcely more agreeable, and she sank back in the carriage in an easy frame of mind, saying—‘So much for the Dixonary; and, thank God, I’m out of Chiswick.’

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, Miss Pinkerton, Jemima
Related Symbols: Dictionary
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

‘Try a chili with it, Miss Sharp,’ said Joseph, really interested.

‘A chili,’ said Rebecca, gasping. ‘Oh yes!’ She thought a chili was something cool, as its name imported, and was served with some. ‘How fresh and green they look,’ she said, and put one into her mouth. It was hotter than the curry; flesh and blood could bear it no longer. She laid down her fork. ‘Water, for Heaven’s sake, water!’ she cried.

Related Characters: Jos (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

‘Where is Sir Pitt Crawley’" said Miss Sharp majestically.

‘He, he! I’m Sir Pitt Crawley. Reklect you owe me a pint for bringing down your luggage. He, he! Ask Tinker if I aynt.’

Related Characters: Becky Sharp (speaker), Sir Pitt (speaker), Miss Pinkerton, Mrs. Tinker
Related Symbols: Dictionary
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

‘Come as Lady Crawley, if you like,’ the Baronet said, grasping his crape hat. ‘There! will that zatusfy you? Come back and be my wife. Your vit vor't. Birth be hanged. You're as good a lady as ever I see. You've got more brains in your little vinger than any baronet's wife in the county. Will you come? Yes or no?’

Related Characters: Sir Pitt (speaker), Becky Sharp , Miss Crawley , Lady Crawley, Rose and Violet
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

‘Why, Rawdon, it’s Captain Dobbin.’

Related Characters: Becky Sharp (speaker), Amelia, Dobbin, Rawdon
Related Symbols: Piano
Page Number: 188
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

‘I ain’t going to have any of this dam sentimental nonsense and humbug here, sir,’ the father cried out. ‘There shall be no beggar-marriages in my family. If you choose to fling away eight thousand a year, which you may have for the asking, you may do it: but by Jove you take your pack and walk out of this house, sir. Will you do as I tell you, once for all, sir, or will you not?’

Related Characters: Mr. Osborne (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Jos, Mr. Sedley, Miss Swartz
Page Number: 240
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

That period of Jos’s life which now ensued was so full of incident, that it served him for conversation for many years after, and even the tiger-hunt story was put aside for more stirring narratives which he had to tell about the great campaign of Waterloo.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Dobbin, Jos, Rawdon
Page Number: 310
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32 Quotes

No more firing was heard at Brussels—the pursuit rolled miles away. Darkness came down on the field and city: and Amelia was praying for George, who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Rawdon
Page Number: 375
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 34 Quotes

Lady Southdown, from her neighbouring house, reigned over the whole family—Pitt, Lady Jane, Miss Crawley, Briggs, Bowls, Firkin, and all. She pitilessly dosed them with her tracts and her medicine, she dismissed Creamer, she installed Rodgers, and soon stripped Miss Crawley of even the semblance of authority.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Rawdon, Miss Crawley , Pitt Crawley, Lady Jane, Lady Jane Southdown, Miss Briggs
Page Number: 405
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36 Quotes

On nothing per annum then, and during a course of some two or three years, of which we can afford to give but a very brief history, Crawley and his wife lived very happily and comfortably at Paris. It was in this period that he quitted the Guards and sold out of the army. When we find him again, his mustachios and the title of Colonel on his card are the only relics of his military profession.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Rawdon
Related Symbols: Billiards
Page Number: 419
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 41 Quotes

“I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.”

Related Characters: Becky Sharp (speaker), Rawdon, Miss Crawley , Lady Jane Southdown, Miss Pinkerton
Page Number: 490
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 46 Quotes

Out of the hundred pounds a year, which was about the amount of her income, the Widow Osborne had been in the habit of giving up nearly three-fourths to her father and mother, for the expenses of herself and her little boy.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, George, Georgy, Mr. Sedley, Mrs. Sedley
Page Number: 534
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 51 Quotes

‘Mrs. Rawdon Crawley was quite killing in the part,’ said Lord Steyne. Becky laughed, gay and saucy looking, and swept the prettiest little curtsey ever seen.

Related Characters: Lord Steyne (speaker), Becky Sharp , Rawdon
Page Number: 598
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 53 Quotes

All her lies and her schemes, and her selfishness and her wiles, all her wit and genius had come to this bankruptcy.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Rawdon, Lord Steyne
Page Number: 625
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 64 Quotes

If we were to give a full account of her proceedings during a couple of years that followed after the Curzon Street catastrophe, there might be some reason for people to say this book was improper. The actions of very vain, heartless, pleasure-seeking people are very often improper (as are many of yours, my friend with the grave face and spotless reputation—but that is merely by the way); and what are those of a woman without faith—or love—or character? And I am inclined to think that there was a period in Mrs Becky's life when she was seized, not by remorse, but by a kind of despair, and absolutely neglected her person and did not even care for her reputation.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, Dobbin, Rawdon, Lord Steyne
Page Number: 748
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 67 Quotes

Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?—come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Becky Sharp , Amelia, Dobbin, Jos
Page Number: 809
Explanation and Analysis: