The Influence of Environment on Values in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.doc

本科生毕业论文（设计）题目The Influence of Environment on Values in Thackerays Vanity Fair姓名 学号 200910201091 院系 外国语学院 专业 英语 指导教师 职称 副教授 曲阜师范大学杏坛学院教务处制16-The Influence of Environment on Values In Thackerays Vanity FairA ThesisSubmitted toCollege of Foreign LanguagesXingtan CollegeQufu Normal UniversityIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of Bachelor of Arts ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI am deeply indebted to Peng Fang, my supervisor, who has not only helped me to decide the topic of my graduation thesis, but also has offered incisive comments on the content. Without her constant and valuable advice, this thesis could never have completed on time and reached its present form. I owe particular thanks to the library teachers, who have provided me with so much warm and timely useful advice when I search for the materials in the library. I am also extremely grateful to my classmates who always give me support and encourage when I have difficult in the process of writing this thesis. My sincere gratitude also goes to all my teachers who have given me excellent lectures and professional knowledge, which are indispensable to the completion of this thesis. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to all the writers whose works have been referred to in this thesis.摘 要名利场是十九世纪英国最为著名批判现实主义作家之一，威廉梅克比斯萨克雷的代表作。名利场深刻地代表了维多利亚时期的伦敦社会状况。小说的发展根据传统女性代表艾米利亚和非传统女性代表丽贝卡的生活经历展开。她们在萨克雷时期都是十分具有代表性和令人印象深刻的女性角色。本文首先从分析名利场的创作背景出发，结合作者萨克雷的亲身经历，拟对此著作中的几位主人公的生活环境的分析对比。然后参考萨克雷本人对主角的态度来分析著作中主要人物形象，概括其价值观的不同之处。最后得出结论，环境对人价值观的形成有制约作用。关键词：名利场；人物形象；环境影响；价值观ABSTRACTVanity Fair is the masterpiece of William Makepeace Thackeray who is one of the most famous critical realistic novelists in the middle nineteenth century in England. Vanity Fair represents profoundly the society of London in the Victorian age. The story in this novel is developing according to the experience of the traditional woman Amelia Sedley and the non-traditional woman Rebecca Becky Sharp. They are quiet vivid and impressive female characters in Thackerays age. Firstly, this thesis studies the background of creation of Vanity Fair, according to the private experience of the author, aims to analyze and contrast the living environment of the major characters in this novel. Then refer to the authors attitude to the major characters to analysis the character image and sum up the difference among their values. Finally, make a conclusion that the environment has influence on peoples values.Key words: Vanity Fair, character image, influence of environment, valueCONTENTS0. Introduction11. The background of creation11.1 The background of English society in nineteenth century21.2 The private experience of Thackeray31.3 The theme of novel42. The character images in Thackerays writing52.1 Thackerays attitude to women52.1.1 Thackerays sympathy to Rebecca52.1.2 Thackerays sympathy to Amelia72.2 George Osbornes image82.3 William Dobbins image83. Analysis of different values in different classes103.1 Womens value in capital society103.2 Parasite peoples value in capital society113.3 Other peoples value in capital society114. The influence of environment on values in Vanity Fair124.1 The social influence on the formation of values124.2 The influence of environment on peoples development135. Conclusion14Works Cited160. IntroductionVanity Fair is the masterpiece of William Makepeace Thackeray who is one of the most famous critical realistic novelists in the middle nineteenth century in England. Thackeray made such a significant achievement because he was so observant and he knew much about humans live and heart. Besides, Thackerays work was filled with humor and the characters which he portrayed were extremely accurate. Thackeray used realistic and moving style of writing to finish Vanity Fair. It reveals the truth on political event and social problems. The fact which all the politicians, political commentators and moralists exposed may not as much as this critical realistic writer did. He described of every level of the middle class: contempt from all the commercial supper shareholders to small economic dispensers and even law mens secretaries.The story in this novel developed according to the experience of traditional woman Amelia Sedley and non-traditional woman Rebecca Becky Sharp. There are different people from different social classes, such as Amelia Sedley, Rebecca Becky Sharp, George Osborne, and William Dobbin. They are born in different environment so their character and value must be different. This is not only a novel, but also a miniature of the society. The United Kingdom at that time is just an example, because even in the modern world, who will not be tied by the fame? All the other things are based on it. When the material issue has not been resolved, who will pursue a pure and trumped ideal? With the analysis of these major characters images in this novel, there is no doubt that environment which people live in may have some influence on the form of their values.1. The background of creation No matter which century we live in, the present political or economic environment will influence the creation and development of the social culture. Therefore, the creation of literature will always be constrained by the current environment. Before read a literary work, we had better know its social background and the personal experience of the author.1.1 The background of English society in nineteenth century England in the nineteenth century was a country which had supper power in many areas such as politics and economy in the world, leaving other countries far behind. Besides, England was also supremacy at sea. So it had the title of the worlds factory. Whats more, England was the first country that began industrial revolution and industrialization, advocated western capitalism and the birthplace of early parliamentary democracy. England also had significant contribution no matter in scientific technology or in literature and art. At its peak, the empire of British used to control a quarter of land and one-third of the population on the world. Because of the land which it controlled covering all the latitudes on earth, the sun could always shine on the British territory, so it is known as the empire of the sun. Thackeray lived in Victorian period. That was a period of rapid development in the English history. The economic strength of the empire of British was unprecedentedly powerful and sphere of influence expanded rapidly. A steady stream of wealth that plundered from colonies swarmed into the United Kingdom, this seemed to be part of the real world for granted. In the late Victorian period, the empire of British experienced from prosperity to decline. On the one hand, when the dominance of England was challenged by America and Germany, England was intensified to plunder the colonies. On the other hand, the export of capital and the expansion overseas leaded to the depression and atrophy in domestic industry and agriculture. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the economy had further exacerbated the divide between the rich and the poor. Whats worse, the social ethics and values which were highly respected in Victorian period began to collapse.The wave of scientific inventions in Victorian period was surging. Victorians were believed in scientific progress and full of optimism and confidence for the Industrial Revolution. The emergence of steamer made the transport and trade reach an unprecedented prosperity. In conclusion, nineteenth century was a century that full of opportunities, a century that made people seem to be much more self-confident.1.2 The private experience of ThackerayThackeray was born in India in 1881, and his father was a taxman working in the East India Company. Thackeray was the only boy. When his father died, he was only four years old. Therefore, he had a large number of heritages for about seventeen thousand pounds. He went back to England to go to school when he was six years old, then entered several noble schools step-by-step. But this series of education was not satisfactory to him. He was not interested in his lessons when he was studying in secondary school. He was only interested in reading books in other areas. University of Cambridge focus on mathematics but Thackeray fixed his attention on the despise literature which mathematicians had no regard for and the modern literature which the college looked down on. He went to Germany for study tour before he got a degree, and then went back to England for studying the law. However, he hated the law very much. Studying the law was only an excuse. in fact, he was just wandering around, and becoming familiar about the life in London.In the winter of 1883, the bank where Thackeray deposited his money closed so that his property was almost wiped out. That made him to lift up and helped him get rid of the shackles given by his social status. As usual, the man who was born in that kind of family should be a lawyer, a doctor, a judge, a clergyman or an officer. If you became an artist or a scholar, you would be looked down on. Because of his bankruptcy, he could do the work whatever he wanted. After that, he began to draw pictures but soon after he gave it up because he was only good at drawing sketch which was not sold well at that time. Then he worked as a journalist and in 1836 he got married with the daughter of a Ireland colonel, Isabella Shaw. They went back to motherland and made a living on writing. Although their life was a little hard, they enjoyed it a lot. Thackeray printed several books and received much favorable comment. But only after the publishing of Vanity Fair in 1847, he was recognized as a great novel genius. Then his works had a stable market and his life began to be better and better. He became the editor-in-chief of Cornhill Magazine in 1859, when he had the highest reputation. He was susceptible to premature aging and sick, died in London in 1863.Some famous writers also praised that Thackeray always observed everything carefully, understood the life and peoples spirit deeply. They thought Thackeray was a genius. In his time he was always being compared to Dickens, but they belong to two entirely different types of writer. For example, they have differences such as the nature of inspiration. 1.3 The theme of novel Among Thackerays novels, Vanity Fair is certainly the most influential one and has great artistic accomplishment. It secured Thackerays position as literary giant of English literature and was considered one of the English classical. The theme of this masterpiece, that is, English society of that stage in history was an absolute vanity fair. As usual, there are always many kinds of heroes in novels, but in Vanity Fair, Thackeray mainly talked about the common people and trivial matters. Vanity Fair remains a classical example of social satire up to the present day. In this novel, the major characters were not perfect people but the common persons so that this novel got another subtitle, “A Novel without a Hero”. This title emphasized on the fact that the authors intention was not to portray individuals but the bourgeoisie and the aristocratic society. Under such social background, when the money expanded its influence to the social environment, peoples ambition also became larger. However, there were always someone thinking that money or social status should be coming secondary. Vanity Fair exposed the social evils of capitalism. In the first chapter, Rebecca Sharp was on behalf of the middle class. The second chapter commentaries Amelias performance of superiority as one of the upper class compared to the middle class. The next chapter tells the impact and assimilation of the middle class to the upper class. In the forth chapter, the author discussed the review of the novel and set off the rise of the middle class. The conclusion of this novel summarized the views expressed in this masterpiece and pointed out that because of the novel showed perfectly the middle class peoples firm, efforts and advantages during the process of entering the center of the Victorian upper social class. So the theme of Vanity Fair should be adjusted once more. And the detailed description of the social life of the upper class in the novel, witnessed the rise of the middle class in Britain. Thackeray thought that there were many people that have no hope, faith or love living in that kind of society. They seemed to be either a liar or a fool. So this novel exposed their ugliness ruthlessly.2. The character images in Thackerays writingThackeray thought that in the environment of capitalist society, most people have no hope, faith or love. They seemed to be either a liar or a fool. They seemed to be ungrateful and intrigue as long as they could get what they want. So this novel exposed their ugliness ruthlessly.2.1 Thackerays attitude to women In this novel, there are two main women characters, Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Becky Sharp. Although they came from two different classes, Thackeray expressed sympathy to them from different aspects.2.1.1 Thackerays sympathy to RebeccaThackeray set the road of Rebeccas life full of tragedy. She was born in a low background of status, so that her life was marked the stigma of inequality from the outset. The environment of birth also doomed that she had to climb to the upper class deliberately with anger but that failed because of her tragic fate in the end. Rebecca was the daughter of an impoverished British painter and a French chorus woman. Whats worse, her parents passed away when she was just a minor. Living in poverty had led her to adopt a gloomy temple, and more sensible than the children of the same age. This is the prelude of her tragic life that Thackeray gave her. She had demonstrated wary, cunning and mercenary habits in her life. When she lived in Amelias home, she tried her best to tease Amelias brother, Josepha fat, bloated, brutal and stupid colonial tax man in every possible way. She made up his mind to rein in this mast man, even though she did not fall in love with him. She just pretended to be affectionate to him. Unfortunately, the provocation of George Osborne did not succeed. Later, she found out the old wealthy womanMiss Crawleys ins and outs by her own ingenuity, knowing that Miss Crawley loved her nephew Rawdon very much. So she married Rawdon secretly without telling the Crawleys. Because Miss Crawley opposed to their marriage so she cut off their financial assistance, so that Rebeccas wishful thinking came to in vain. After the Battle of Waterloo, Rawdon came back with victorious celebration and entered into the Parisian society, trickster boldly. Rebecca also used good words and hue, entered the palace to meet the king with the introduction of Rawdons brother, becoming a blooming star of the upper class. She dealt among the debauchery of the upper-class aristocratic society all day. Later due to her husband Rawdon found and exposed the affair between her and Lord Steyne, her fate came to a standstill. Rebecca just performed a scene of ridiculous tragedy in the upper class.From Thackerays point of view, Rebecca never paid attention to the fate of her country in the future and she never had a consciousness of collective. Besides, she treated her relatives indifferently such as her husband and her friend Amelia. But she was a woman who had the courage to challenge the Victorian custom. Rebecca had the choice of self-struggle because she could not choose her own family. She had her own consciousness, courage and guts. She was independent and indomitable. Her image overthrew the typical understanding of women in the patriarchal society: women were born inferior to men. Thackerays attitude to Rebecca is appreciated and full of sympathy.2.1.2 Thackerays sympathy to Amelia Thackeray set Amelias origin, character and encounter different from Rebeccas. But the point of their fate is the same, full of tragedy. Although Amelia was kind and innocent, tender and honest, she was weak and incompetent, receiving the mercy of the men willingly. Faced with the repressed and dominated subordination, she felt justified and contented. She was lack of courageous spirit of fighting against the misery and misfortune in life, just accepted them and doing nothing. She looked forward to Osbornes love and relied entirely on it. She completely devoted herself to Osborne and gradually lost herself. She regarded Osborne as a supper hero in her heart, adored him and be faithful to him. However, Amelia did not receive happiness from Osborne because the supper hero in her heart was just a man like Rawdon. He could not bear the weight of his own fate, not to mention the responsibility of Amelia.Amelia is Beckys opposite, she was pale, passive and emotionally. When her husband George died at the battle of Waterloo, she brought up little George alone in her parents home. She was obsessed with her son and the memory of her husband, ignoring William Dobbin who courted her for years. It was only after Rebecca showed her Georges letter to her that Amelia realized what a good man Dobbin was. Then she realized her wrong thoughts and wrote to him, asking him to come back. Eventually, Amelia married Dobbin.From Thackerays point of view, Amelia was fully complied with the role that class or society had given h