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Before the Curtain & Chapters I–VI 

Summary: Before the Curtain

An unnamed narrator, the manager of the performance, introduces the “show” as an immoral Vanity Fair. The show has traveled throughout England to favorable reviews and will be performed by puppets.

Summary: CHAPTER I: Chiswick Mall

Miss Pinkerton, who runs a school for young ladies, prepares to send home Amelia Sedley, daughter of a London merchant, who has completed her studies. Miss Pinkerton readies a copy of Johnson’s dictionary and a letter extolling Amelia’s virtues. Her sister suggests preparing a dictionary for Becky Sharp, who also is leaving with Amelia, and sneaks her one when Miss Pinkerton rejects the idea. The girls extend their farewells, with much crying surrounding Amelia’s departure. Amelia and Becky get into the Sedleys’ carriage, and as it pulls away, Becky flings her dictionary out the window.

Summary: CHAPTER II: In Which Miss Sharp and Miss Sedley Prepare to Open the Campaign

In the carriage, Becky expresses her hatred for Miss Pinkerton and the school, stunning Amelia. Becky met Miss Pinkerton through her father, who taught art. After his death, Becky taught French in exchange for room and board and some lessons. When she spurned Miss Pinkerton’s offer to have her take on more duties with no extra pay, Miss Pinkerton got her a job as a governess. Now Becky will spend two weeks with Amelia before going to her place of employment.

At the Sedleys’ London home, Amelia offers her friend fine gifts. Becky asks about Amelia’s brother, Jos, who is unmarried and wealthy and has just returned from India. Becky privately vows to make him marry her.

Summary: CHAPTER III: Rebecca Is in Presence of the Enemy

Amelia and Becky find Jos in the drawing room dressed in flamboyant clothing. Becky whispers loudly how handsome he is and then acts coyly. Embarrassed, Jos declares his intention to go out for dinner, but Mr. Sedley, who has entered the room, prevails upon him to dine at home as Mrs. Sedley has made a curry. Becky, who must arrange her marriage herself, is determined to like all things from India to appeal to Jos. Much to the amusement of Mr. Sedley and Jos, she eats fiery curry and then a chili, mistakenly thinking it will be cool. After dinner, Mr. Sedley tells Jos that Becky is setting her sights on him. Jos thinks about joining the ladies in the drawing room, but he is too shy.

Summary: CHAPTER IV: The Green Silk Purse 

Jos stays away from the Sedley house for several days. During that time, Becky doesn’t speak of him and endears herself to the members of the household. Amelia wishes that Becky’s visit could last longer. When Jos returns, Becky teases him and, as they go down to dinner, presses her hand against his. Amelia reminds Jos of his promise to take her to Vauxhall. They invite George Osborne, a suitor of Amelia’s, to accompany them. The next night George comes to dinner, but the outing to Vauxhall is canceled due to rain. The four young people stay at home. Amelia and George play the piano, while Jos sits with Becky, who is knitting a green silk purse. Jos tells her stories of his time in India. Becky sings for everyone, including a song that makes everyone think of her upcoming departure. Jos returns the next day and helps Becky wind the yarn for the purse. He plans to propose at Vauxhall.

Summary: CHAPTER V: Dobbin of Ours

Chapter V flashes back to the school attended by George and a boy named William Dobbin. The son of a grocer, Dobbin was the subject of ridicule and pranks. One day Dobbin witnessed Cuff, the school bully, beat George, a younger boy. Dobbin stood up for George, and Cuff challenged him to a fight. George rooted for Dobbin, and as Dobbin struck many blows, more students supported him too. Dobbin defeated Cuff, which led to his popularity at school. He and George formed a close friendship and as men served together in a regiment abroad.

On the evening of Vauxhall, George arrives at the Sedleys and tells his friends about Dobbin, whom he has invited to join them. Dobbin’s father has since become a rich, respected alderman. Dobbin joins George, Amelia, Becky, and Jos for dinner.

Summary: CHAPTER VI: Vauxhall

The five young people go to Vauxhall, each believing that Jos will propose to Becky that night. Amelia is eager for them to marry, as is the Sedley household, even though Mrs. Sedley believes Becky is beneath them.

The two couples split off upon arrival at Vauxhall Gardens, leaving Dobbin behind. Jos lacks the nerve to ask Becky to marry him before they regroup for dinner. He gets drunk, and his antics draw an audience. As Dobbin walks by, George tasks him with getting Jos home while George takes the ladies. Becky remains confident that Jos will propose the next day. When Dobbin and George visit Jos, however, he is hungover. Because George doesn’t want to marry into a family with a governess, he teases Jos about last night’s embarrassing behavior. George then visits Amelia and continues to ridicule Jos. Becky realizes that George may have interfered with her plans. The next day, Amelia receives a letter from Jos explaining that he has left town and asking her to apologize to Becky for his behavior at Vauxhall. Amelia alone is upset by this turn of events. The housekeeper says Becky is a thief and a snoop, and the household begins readying for Becky’s impending departure. She leaves with many gifts and Amelia’s promise to love her forever.

Analysis: Before the Curtain & Chapters I–VI

Just as “Before the Curtain” sets the frame for the novel, describing it as a puppet play that will focus on the morals and values—or lack thereof—in English society, the first chapters, focusing on Becky and the Sedleys, set the stage for the situations to come. The world into which Thackeray thrusts the reader is filled with characters exhibiting much vanity and far less virtue. Of all the characters the reader meets, Amelia and Dobbin alone seem to possess true virtue. Throughout these early chapters, readers witness Amelia’s good qualities through her words and actions. For instance, most pupils at the school love the tender and gentlehearted Amelia, and even those who don’t still speak well of her. In Chapter II, Amelia is shocked at Becky’s outburst of hate for Miss Pinkerton, calling it wicked. In Chapter III, Amelia shares her good fortune and her material goods with Becky.

Dobbin, who readers see less of, still appears to be a virtuous person. As a boy, he defends George despite George’s public mockery of him. As a grown man, he continues to sublimate himself to his higher-class friend. He raises no voice of complaint at the role he plays at Vauxhall or in George’s life, continually ignored unless he is needed. George doesn’t think Becky is good enough for his own family, but he tells Dobbin he is welcome to her.

While Becky has certain virtues, like independence and resiliency, these qualities are hardly prized traits for women in England at the time. Drawn in sharp contrast to Amelia, Becky emerges as full of vanity. She can readily be described as scheming, disingenuous, and hard-hearted. She remains so convinced of her abilities at fooling people that she believes she will win Jos in marriage right up until his departure. Becky also possesses the art of camouflage, knowing how to make herself appear to be the person her audience needs. For instance, before she came to work at the school, Miss Pinkerton perceived her as meek but soon learned otherwise. Becky plays coy with Jos, causing him to think she is a timid, lovestruck girl, but all her actions are deliberate. She knows exactly what to say to everyone in the Sedley household so that they fall in love with her.

Becky is joined in her vanity by several other characters. Mrs. Sedley, for instance, remains acutely conscientious of Becky’s social position and doesn’t want Jos to marry her. Jos, for his part, has a predilection for showy behavior, whether it be his loud clothing or his incessant tales of India. Jos’s vanity even deprives him of a wife. His embarrassment at his behavior at Vauxhall causes him to leave London and, with it, any chance at what could have been happiness with Becky.

Vanity Fair emphasizes the importance of social class and standing to individuals. Amelia comes from a middle-class family whose parents can pay to send her to a school that will ensure she acquires all the talents required of a young woman to find a suitable husband. Becky, by contrast, is a poor orphan forced to work for her living. She has only herself to depend on. Because of Becky’s background, she has no friends among the pupils at the school other than the kindly Amelia, and Miss Pinkerton doesn’t believe that Becky is worthy of even a dictionary due to her social class. While Becky’s abilities are sufficient to earn her a job as a governess, her only chance at winning a spot in higher society comes from making a match with the right husband. When she sets her sights on Jos, even though he is a braggart who eats and drinks to excess, he is still perceived as beyond her grasp because of their different social positions. George cruelly comments that Becky must learn her station.

Despite the importance of social class, Thackeray shows that movement between classes is possible. Dobbin’s father is a prime example, rising from being a simple grocer to an alderman, colonel, and knight. The Sedleys themselves are upstarts. Mrs. Sedley was the daughter of a grocer and Mr. Sedley the son of a stock clerk. Given such examples of social mobility, it is not surprising that Becky has aspirations of bettering her situation in life.

The opening chapters also emphasize the importance of matrimony to women in England in the early 1800s. Young women have few options. They can teach at a girl’s academy, as Becky did, or serve as a governess for a family, as Becky is engaged to do, or marry. Early on, upon learning of Jos’s existence, Becky resolves to do for herself what other young women’s families do for them: find a husband. Lacking a mother, she must work behind the scenes to make a marriage for herself. This reality is underscored by Amelia and George. While they seem to be falling in love, their parents arranged their pairing several years ago. The role Mrs. Sedley plays in Amelia’s future marriage is evident to Becky, who hopes that if Amelia tells Mrs. Sedley that Becky finds Jos handsome, Mrs. Sedley will get involved in arranging a wife for her 30-year-old son. Instead, Becky must rely on schemes to win Jos’s heart.

Next section Chapters VII–XI

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