Vanity Fair Chapters LXII–LXV Summary & Analysis

Chapters LXII–LXV

Summary: CHAPTER LXII: Am Rhein

That summer Amelia, Georgy, Jos, and Dobbin travel to Germany. The group, except for Jos, goes on afternoon excursions and to evening operas. Amelia enjoys the intellectual stimulation. She and Dobbin respect each other and are quite happy together. They arrive in a town called Pumpernickel, where the narrator first meets them.

Summary: CHAPTER LXIII: In Which We Meet an Old Acquaintance

Amelia, Georgy, Jos, and Dobbin decide to stay in Pumpernickel through the autumn. They are invited to dinner at the royal court and make friends with aristocrats. One evening while Amelia is at the court, Georgy sneaks into a gambling house. Women with masks on play among the men. One woman in an old, low-cut dress is losing at roulette. She notices Georgy and asks him in French if he is playing. The woman gives him a coin to choose a number, and he wins. Georgy has just told the woman his name when Dobbin and Jos appear, looking for him. Dobbin takes Georgy home, but Jos stays behind. The woman asks him to sit with her for good luck. She tells Jos that his nephew looks just like his father and that he himself hasn’t changed. She undoes her mask. It is Becky.

Summary: CHAPTER LXIV: A Vagabond Chapter

The narrator can’t say what Becky has been doing since she parted with Rawdon because not all of it is fit to share. Pitt refused to see Becky, and after she arranged an annuity from Rawdon, she prepared to leave London. Becky wrote a goodbye letter to Rawdy, who was with his aunt and uncle, but she didn’t contact him again until she heard he had been made the heir to Queen’s Crawley. Becky moved to the Continent and traveled, situating herself with other English people. However, when she made friends, they always deserted her after learning about her past. Becky took up gambling and traveled with men. In Rome, she attended a party and saw Lord Steyne. When Becky bumped into his valet the next day, he told her Lord Steyne was in a rage and might harm Becky if she didn’t leave Rome.

Summary: CHAPTER LXV: Full of Business and Pleasure

The day after meeting Becky, Jos goes to her seedy hotel. She invites him in and proceeds to reinvent her past, casting herself as a victim. Becky also makes Jos think that she is still in love with him. She has an explanation for all the stories about her, including the rupture of her friendship with Amelia, and Jos leaves convinced of her innocence. He is determined that Amelia befriend Becky and that Becky return to good society. Jos shares his story with Dobbin, who remains suspicious. Jos and Dobbin decide to let Amelia choose if they should have anything to do with Becky. At first, Amelia refuses, but Jos paints a picture of Becky as friendless, miserable, and suicidal. He then talks about Becky losing her son, causing Amelia to rush to her old friend.

Analysis: Chapters LXII–LXV

The beginning of the trip to Germany is idyllic, particularly for Amelia, and she grows intellectually, culturally, and emotionally under Dobbin’s care. Readers will recall that in Chapter LIX, Dobbin concluded that Amelia was much like a child in her insistence on holding on to her fantasy of George. Away from Vanity Fair, of which she was never a comfortable resident, Amelia finally moves beyond her childhood ideas of romance, where George’s premature death cemented her. This joyful, contented Amelia is the one the narrator met, for unexpectedly, he emerges as a flesh-and-blood person in Chapter LXII, claiming that everything he writes is true. Previous to this chapter, the narrator had never been self-referential and had spoken from the omniscient point of view. Indeed, only an omniscient narrator could know all the events and details that comprise Becky’s and Amelia’s stories. Throughout the novel, the narrator has proved unreliable, and this new claim only adds to that sense. It is safe to say, however, that at least in Chapter LXII, the narrator is a fan of Amelia.

Becky, who readers knew would turn up eventually, makes her reappearance in Germany, looking worse for the wear. Georgy, the only member of the family who is wholly innocent as to who Becky is and what she is capable of, is the first to engage with her. This initial meeting is undercut with subtext that speaks to the dangers Becky poses. The setting of the encounter, a gambling hall, is an immoral place, particularly for children. Becky inappropriately singles Georgy out, raising the possibility that she has previously noticed him or has been targeting him. When Becky gives Georgy a coin and asks him to choose a number, she highlights her ability to toy with men and make them do her bidding, even pitting them against their own natures.

As indicated by Becky’s clothing, lodgings, and use of a false name, she has come down in the world. When the narrator relates what has happened to Becky since she left England, her story is one of getting bumped down the social ladder. Becky’s stupendous rise in England is now matched by her fall on the Continent. The narrator makes clear that Becky has been grasping at anyone from her past who can help pull her up again, such as Lord Steyne. Now she tells Jos that she spied Amelia earlier that day. Since Becky is constantly scheming, readers can infer that she already has a plan to get back in Amelia’s good graces. Whatever story she is going to concoct for Jos and Amelia has already been thoroughly reasoned and will be employed with maximum impact. When Jos visits Becky at the hotel, part of her plan is revealed when she makes Jos think she has held on to her love for him all these years. Jos, always vain, believes her lies.

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