Vanity Fair is a new attempt to describe the truth. Thackeray thinks that characters, stories and emotions are not true enough in many novels that are appreciated by the common people. So he joked about several novels that were popular at that time. Vanity Fair is written differently. He deliberately pursued truth and broke the routine of writing novels in many places.
There is no "hero" in Vanity Fair. The subtitle of this novel is Novel without Heroes, which is also the original title. This subtitle has two interpretations. One is "a novel without a protagonist" because it is not centered on a protagonist; When the novel was published in Clumsy magazine, the subtitle was "Sketch of British Society", which also illustrated this point. The other is A Novel Without Heroes. Heroes are unparalleled figures who can change the social environment. The characters in this novel are all ordinary people dominated by environment and times. The two theories are not contradictory and can be unified. Thackeray did not take an outstanding hero as the protagonist in Vanity Fair. In the first chapter of the book, he said the novel was trivial and vulgar. If readers only admire great heroic deeds, it is recommended not to read this book, otherwise it will be too late. Thackeray believes that ideal characters and lofty emotions belong to the category of tragedy and poetry, and novels should reflect the truth realistically and try their best to write true emotions. He wrote about a group of little people who were ups and downs in the tide of the times, such as bankrupt Szeitli, rich Osborne and George who died in battle. Even like Rebecca, although she refused to give in to the environment, she never overcame her own environment. Their tragic fate is not a tragedy, but the irony of life.
There are always some desirable characters in general novels. Vanity Fair has not only no heroes, but also few positive characters, and all of them have great shortcomings. Thackeray said Dobbin was a fool and Emiria was selfish. He said that he wouldn't write a perfect person or a nearly perfect person. Everyone in this novel is ugly except Du Bin. There is often a pleasant justice in traditional novels: good people get what they deserve and evil people get what they deserve. Thackeray thinks this is not true, so there is such justice in this world. Success or failure of honor or disgrace is like winning or not in the lottery, which is accidental and depends on luck. Gentle, kind and intelligent people are often poor and frustrated, while selfish, stupid and vicious people are often smooth sailing. In this way, what is the value of success? Besides, it's just a passing sight. In a few years, will the fate of these little people leave any traces in history? Therefore, he opposes the novelist rewarding his hero with success. The docile people such as Dobbin and Emiria in Vanity Fair are not proud and successful in society. The ugly Lord Stan died rich and powerful; By hook or by crook, Rebecca finally got some money and pretended to be a decent person. Fame and fortune in Vanity Fair are not distributed according to everyone's talent and morality. Ordinary novels often end with the protagonist's marriage. Thackeray doesn't think so either. He criticized this writing, as if all the troubles and troubles in life ended when they got married, but in fact, they didn't start until they got married. So we both got married in the first half of the story.
Thackeray avoided the routine of writing novels and wrote Vanity Fair in his own way.
He tried to describe the characters objectively. No matter what he likes, praises, laughs at and scolds, he always writes about their advantages and disadvantages, and never writes simple positive or negative characters because of his likes and dislikes. At that time, some people said that the characters he wrote were not demons or angels, but living people who could breathe. Thackeray praised Fielding for describing all true human nature: the good side and the bad side. He himself always "sees both sides of the truth". For example, Emiria is a docile and obedient woman, a good wife and a good mother. She is Thackeray's favorite character. Thackeray wrote about the pain she endured and was very sympathetic to her. However, he mercilessly wrote about her selfishness, ignorance, talent, boredom and so on. Rebecca is the kind of person who Thackeray reviles without faith, hope and love. She is mean, selfish and unscrupulous. However, her wit is pleasing. She never gives in to the environment and never regrets when encountering difficulties. It is not easy to have this spirit. It is also sympathetic that she was born in a lonely family and had to struggle step by step. Thackeray wrote about all these aspects of her. For example, Dobbin is a good man he praised, and Roden is a so-called "crow"-a person he hates, and he also writes about both sides of them. Many simple villains in Thackeray's early works are far less complicated and multifaceted than the characters in Vanity Fair.
Thackeray is good at narration, and his writing is vivid, interesting and humorous. His conversation is full of quarrels, which suits his position. He writes briskly, as if he had no difficulty in writing, but in fact he has thought it over carefully. Therefore, even in the part of the novel that is not very accurate, readers can read it fluently. Vanity Fair is very charming. But after reading this novel, readers often feel depressed and disappointed. This is exactly the author's intention. He said: I hope everyone is dissatisfied and unhappy at the end of the story-we should feel this way about our own stories and all the stories. He wants us to face up to the reality and feel dissatisfied, thus inspiring people to think deeply and promoting people to improve. (Jiang Yang)