07英语3班 余欣茵 200730452037

As it is known to all, Vanity Fair, written by William Makepeace Thackeray, is a classical novel. Before my reading, it is said that everyone can find his/her image in the roles described in this story, which draws my attention and arouses my interest. Although I still can’t find my full shadow in it, I indeed discover some phenomenon existed in today’s society.

Nowadays, this world is somewhat like a vanity fair, in which some people are blind. This kind of people love and keep pursuing a beautiful location in order to fulfill their conceit, which leads them to the vanity fair with a firm determination. The only thing in their eyes is fortune and power. They sacrifice everything, for instance, love or friendship, they own to pursue it. However, there is one truth they will never know. That is no matter how much money they hold, how much power they process, human being’s greedy need can never be fulfilled. In this vanity game, no one can escape from being after by fame and benefit. In other words, there is no winner at all.

Take one heroine Becky Sharp for example. She is an orphaned daughter of destitute parents, who learns early to look after her own interests in all situations. She is not content to live out the life she was born into and she want to govern her own fate. Lacking money and family, she uses the only tools at her disposal, sex and cunning, to seek advancement in the world. In fact, Becky is once a smart and beautiful, who has her own dreams and hope. Whereas, the vanity fair seduces her, which turns her into a hypocritical and greedy woman. With the aim of squeezing into the upper class, she betrays her friends and family, who will never forgive her in their lives.

 However, while people get some setbacks and frustration, they suddenly realize that what they have is nothing. Money and fame is just a matter of fireworks, which can’t be the whole life. In the persistent pursuit of fame and interest, one will become greedy and hypocritical, and get lost at last.

  As a matter of fact, I feel sympathy with Becky somehow. Amelia can attain plenty of things without effort because her rich family. Yet, people born in poverty are destined to lose. Some people will adopt their fate, but the other, like Becky, will choose to fight against fate. Although she does dozens of immoral things, her actions can be, in another way, comprehended to be forced by the reality. If she owns fortune and social status, she can have a comfortable life just like Amelia, instead of struggling for life.