Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair

by

William Makepeace Thackeray

George Character Analysis

George Osborne is the son of the wealthy Mr. Osborne and the godson of Mr. Sedley. It’s long been assumed that George and Amelia will marry once George inherits his father’s business. From the start, though, it’s clear that Amelia’s feelings for George are stronger than George’s feelings for Amelia, and this unevenness grows after Amelia’s father, Mr. Sedley, loses his fortune, sending Sedley family into poverty. George has been friends with Dobbin ever since Dobbin defended George against a school bully. Dobbin goes to great lengths to look out for George later in life, too, urging him to marry Amelia even though George’s father condemns the marriage after the Sedley family loses their fortune. Still, George tends to disregard Dobbin because Dobbin doesn’t come from money. Despite this, he follows Dobbin’s advice and marries Amelia, which leads Mr. Osborne to disown him. A spoiled and vain young man, George isn’t a great husband to Amelia, ignoring her feelings and flirting with Amelia’s good friend Becky—in fact, toward the end of the novel, after George’s death, Becky shows Amelia a note that suggests George was even willing to leave Amelia to be with Becky. George becomes a captain in the British Army and dies in battle before his son, Georgy, is born. Following George’s death, Mr. Osborne takes an interest in raising Georgy, seemingly to make up for his failure to make amends with George before George’s death.

George Quotes in Vanity Fair

The Vanity Fair quotes below are all either spoken by George or refer to George. 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 5 Quotes

In consequence of Dobbin’s victory, his character rose prodigiously in the estimation of all his schoolfellows, and the name of Figs, which had been a byword of reproach, became as respectable and popular a nickname as any other in use in the school. ‘After all, it's not his fault that his father’s a grocer,’ George Osborne said, who, though a little chap, had a very high popularity among the Swishtail youth; and his opinion was received with great applause. It was voted low to sneer at Dobbin about this accident of birth. ‘Old Figs’ grew to be a name of kindness and endearment; and the sneak of an usher jeered at him no longer.

Related Characters: George (speaker), Dobbin, Miss Pinkerton, Cuff, Dr. Swishtail
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

‘Only I wish you had sown those wild oats of yours, George. If you could have seen poor little Miss Emmy’s face when she asked me about you the other day, you would have pitched those billiard-balls to the deuce. Go and comfort her, you rascal. Go and write her a long letter. Do something to make her happy; a very little will.’

Related Characters: Dobbin (speaker), Amelia, George, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Sedley
Related Symbols: Billiards
Page Number: 135
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 24 Quotes

Having examined these papers, and pondered over this one and the other, in that bitterest of all helpless woe, with which miserable men think of happy past times—George’s father took the whole of the documents out of the drawer in which he had kept them so long, and locked them into a writing-box, which he tied, and sealed with his seal. Then he opened the book-case, and took down the great red Bible we have spoken of a pompous book, seldom looked at, and shining all over with gold. There was a frontispiece to the volume, representing Abraham sacrificing Isaac. Here, according to custom, Osborne had recorded on the fly-leaf, and in his large clerk-like hand, the dates of his marriage and his wife's death, and the births and Christian names of his children.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Amelia, George, Mr. Osborne
Page Number: 266
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 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 38 Quotes

In this room was all Amelia’s heart and treasure. Here it was that she tended her boy and watched him through the many ills of childhood, with a constant passion of love. The elder George returned in him somehow, only improved, and as if come back from heaven.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Amelia, George, Georgy
Page Number: 450
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 42 Quotes

One can fancy the pangs with which Miss Osborne in her solitude in Russell Square read the Morning Post, where her sister’s name occurred every now and then, in the articles headed ‘Fashionable Reunions,’ and where she had an opportunity of reading a description of Mrs. F. Bullock’s costume, when presented at the drawing room by Lady Frederica Bullock.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George, Mr. Osborne, Maria, Jane Osborne
Page Number: 496
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 56 Quotes

A quick brain and a better education elsewhere showed the boy very soon that his grandsire was a dullard, and he began accordingly to command him and to look down upon him; for his previous education, humble and contracted as it had been, had made a much better gentleman of Georgy than any plans of his grandfather could make him. He had been brought up by a kind, weak, and tender woman, who had no pride about anything but about him, and whose heart was so pure and whose bearing was so meek and humble that she could not but needs be a true lady. She busied herself in gentle offices and quiet duties; if she never said brilliant things, she never spoke or thought unkind ones; guileless and artless, loving and pure, indeed how could our poor little Amelia be other than a real gentlewoman!

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Amelia, George, Mr. Osborne, Georgy
Page Number: 654
Explanation and Analysis:
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George Quotes in Vanity Fair

The Vanity Fair quotes below are all either spoken by George or refer to George. 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 5 Quotes

In consequence of Dobbin’s victory, his character rose prodigiously in the estimation of all his schoolfellows, and the name of Figs, which had been a byword of reproach, became as respectable and popular a nickname as any other in use in the school. ‘After all, it's not his fault that his father’s a grocer,’ George Osborne said, who, though a little chap, had a very high popularity among the Swishtail youth; and his opinion was received with great applause. It was voted low to sneer at Dobbin about this accident of birth. ‘Old Figs’ grew to be a name of kindness and endearment; and the sneak of an usher jeered at him no longer.

Related Characters: George (speaker), Dobbin, Miss Pinkerton, Cuff, Dr. Swishtail
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

‘Only I wish you had sown those wild oats of yours, George. If you could have seen poor little Miss Emmy’s face when she asked me about you the other day, you would have pitched those billiard-balls to the deuce. Go and comfort her, you rascal. Go and write her a long letter. Do something to make her happy; a very little will.’

Related Characters: Dobbin (speaker), Amelia, George, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Sedley
Related Symbols: Billiards
Page Number: 135
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 24 Quotes

Having examined these papers, and pondered over this one and the other, in that bitterest of all helpless woe, with which miserable men think of happy past times—George’s father took the whole of the documents out of the drawer in which he had kept them so long, and locked them into a writing-box, which he tied, and sealed with his seal. Then he opened the book-case, and took down the great red Bible we have spoken of a pompous book, seldom looked at, and shining all over with gold. There was a frontispiece to the volume, representing Abraham sacrificing Isaac. Here, according to custom, Osborne had recorded on the fly-leaf, and in his large clerk-like hand, the dates of his marriage and his wife's death, and the births and Christian names of his children.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Amelia, George, Mr. Osborne
Page Number: 266
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 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 38 Quotes

In this room was all Amelia’s heart and treasure. Here it was that she tended her boy and watched him through the many ills of childhood, with a constant passion of love. The elder George returned in him somehow, only improved, and as if come back from heaven.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Amelia, George, Georgy
Page Number: 450
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 42 Quotes

One can fancy the pangs with which Miss Osborne in her solitude in Russell Square read the Morning Post, where her sister’s name occurred every now and then, in the articles headed ‘Fashionable Reunions,’ and where she had an opportunity of reading a description of Mrs. F. Bullock’s costume, when presented at the drawing room by Lady Frederica Bullock.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), George, Mr. Osborne, Maria, Jane Osborne
Page Number: 496
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 56 Quotes

A quick brain and a better education elsewhere showed the boy very soon that his grandsire was a dullard, and he began accordingly to command him and to look down upon him; for his previous education, humble and contracted as it had been, had made a much better gentleman of Georgy than any plans of his grandfather could make him. He had been brought up by a kind, weak, and tender woman, who had no pride about anything but about him, and whose heart was so pure and whose bearing was so meek and humble that she could not but needs be a true lady. She busied herself in gentle offices and quiet duties; if she never said brilliant things, she never spoke or thought unkind ones; guileless and artless, loving and pure, indeed how could our poor little Amelia be other than a real gentlewoman!

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Amelia, George, Mr. Osborne, Georgy
Page Number: 654
Explanation and Analysis: