Reading_Report_of_Vanity_Fair_名利场阅读报告

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Reflection on Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray, the author of the book Vanity Fair, is one of the greatest critical realistic writers. His description of the general mood and human feelings of the society is sharp and penetrating. Vanity Fair has superb artistic accomplishment.
In this novel, the author described many different kinds of characters, but most of them were selfish and hypocritical. As the subtitle of Vanity Fair said ---- A Novel without a Hero, it was true. Vanity Fair had no big hero. It just related the tales of two main female characters in the 19th century in England, Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley, who had near relationship but the opposite characteristics. Amelia was born in a merchant family, who gained happiness ultimately. She was kindhearted, softhearted woman, but she looked weak and ignorant. After her husband died , she devoted herself to her son and her dear memory of her husband. Only when reading her husband’s letter to Sharp, she realized how foolish she was. And finally she found that Dobbin was just her Mr. Right.
Compared with Amelia, Becky has an angel’s appearance but an evil heart, which mostly attracts me. It is more close to real life, and reveals the social conditions at that time, which are worth thinking about.
Becky Sharp was the most beautiful and charming women. Her father was a frustrated painters and her mother was a French opera dancer who was dead when Becky was still young. Being an orphan without social position or noble family, Becky looked seductive but had a calculating mind. In order to step into the high levels of society, she made full use of her charm and tricks and became a vain and greedy liar. She was energetic and tried to control her own fate, with the belief that she was not inferior to the other.
Becky Sharp began her socially ambitious career due to the friendship with Amelia, who was softhearted and sentimental. Becky tried to marry Jos Sedley, Amelia’s brother, a foolish but rich man. While later on, she then began her love with the mean and greedy Sir Pitt Crawley, but made the mistakes of marrying his second son, Rawdon. Her marriage did not prevent her from pursuing her social ambition. She then became the mistress of Lord Steyne. Finally, Rawdon discovered Becky’s betrayal and then le ft her. Her ambitions were eventually defeated and she appeared to be respectable in the end.
The image of Sharp is neither idealized nor simplified. She is real and complicated, which can be seen everywhere. As an woman who struggled for a better living condition and for a higher state of the upper class, she is shrewd, selfish and pursues wealth and position by any means. But she is intelligent, energetic and has a keen sense of humor and a deep understanding of people. The author successfully presents a striking contrast between Sharp and Amelia. In my opinion, such writing techniques make the characters much more distinctive and attractive.
From the author’s skilled writing, I know more about the innate features and the human beings, particularly the bad and dark side. Maybe, everybody can find some shadows of himself on one of the characters in the novel. Every character in the novel is alive. Everybody has their own story, their own anxiety and happiness, which can timely arise the reader’s emotional resonance.。