Vanity Fair Chapters XX–XXII Summary & Analysis

Chapters XX–XXII

Summary: CHAPTER XX: In Which Dobbin Acts as the Messenger of Hymen

Fearful for Amelia’s health and will to live, Dobbin continues to play matchmaker. Amelia is wildly in love with George, while marrying her makes George feel both powerful and generous. Their fathers remain opposed to their union, so Dobbin seeks out Mr. Sedley. While initially, Mr. Sedley refuses to entertain Dobbin’s entreaties to give the couple his blessing, once Dobbin points out how the marriage will anger Mr. Osborne, Mr. Sedley reconsiders.

Back at Amelia’s house, George makes fun of Miss Swartz, an heiress of Black and Jewish ancestry from the West Indies, whom his father and sisters have befriended. Amelia wishes his sisters treated her as well as they do Miss Swartz, but George points out that what they really like is all Miss Swartz’s money.

Summary: CHAPTER XXI: A Quarrel About an Heiress

Mr. Osborne and his daughters want George to marry Miss Swartz for her wealth. Mr. Osborne does all he can to facilitate the matching, including offering Miss Swartz’s guardian 5,000 pounds and directly ordering George to marry her. Initially, George puts off his father by citing his regiment’s upcoming deployment. Mr. Osborne tells George that if he wants to keep getting money, he will dine at home with Miss Swartz, who finds George attractive. After spending the afternoon with Amelia, George arrives for dinner, and Miss Swartz strikes him as coarse by comparison. Miss Swartz spies Amelia’s name written in a songbook. She asks about Amelia, who she knew from school, but Mr. Osborne has forbidden anyone to talk about her. Stubbornly, George tells Miss Swartz that he and Amelia have a long engagement. After dinner, Mr. Osborne lashes out at George for mentioning Amelia’s name. George reminds his father that he is a gentleman and to address him as such. After some arguing, Mr. Osborne threatens to cut off George if he doesn’t marry Miss Swartz. George says he would not marry someone of her color and departs. Later, he tells Dobbin that he will marry Amelia the next day.

Summary: CHAPTER XXII: A Marriage and Part of a Honeymoon

The next day finds George and Dobbin, dressed in good clothing, meeting in a coffee shop. They take a carriage to a church where Amelia, Mrs. Sedley, and Jos are waiting. After the ceremony, the bride and groom drive away, and Dobbin feels miserable.

Ten days later, Jos, Rawdon, and George promenade along the sea in Brighton talking about women. On their way to the station, they see Becky and Amelia. The Osbornes came to Brighton on their honeymoon, where they bumped into the Crawleys. The two couples spend lots of time together. As the men watch the coach arrive, George spies Dobbin, who looks serious. Dobbin tells them that the regiment is ordered to Belgium the following week.

Analysis: Chapters XX–XXII

These chapters detail Amelia and George’s marriage, which many people have a vested interest in. Dobbin is essential to making the marriage happen, which he does out of his love for Amelia and his desire for her happiness, even at the cost of his own. George wants to marry Amelia both because her devotion to him makes him feel powerful and because he longs to assert his independence from his father. Mr. Sedley agrees to the marriage to spite Mr. Osborne. And the naive Amelia marries for love. Mr. Osborne never consents to the union and instead pushes forward a different young woman, Miss Swartz. The sole reason that the Osbornes want George to marry Miss Swartz is to acquire her wealth. With that infusion of money, Mr. Osborne foresees George launching a new line of baronets. Just as the Osbornes refused to see Amelia’s fine qualities, they now overlook Miss Swartz’s less charming qualities because nothing is as attractive as a large bank account. This situation provides a frank view of the importance of money to marriage and status in Vanity Fair.

George pushes back against marriage to Miss Swartz, but he clearly has no idea of what being cut off, as his father warns, really means. George’s decision to marry Amelia and then go on a honeymoon shows that he doesn’t take his father’s threat seriously. Having always had money, George assumes money will always be available, so he has no qualms about spending it. George fails to consider his father’s history of using money to keep him in line. For instance, Mr. Osborne refuses to give George a regular allowance and instead has his banker dole out money upon his orders. While George should know better, he stubbornly responds to his father’s threat as a challenge and responds by marrying Amelia immediately. A more thoughtful, careful man would have tried to work out an agreement with Mr. Osborne or determine how to support himself and a wife without the influx of someone else’s money. George’s impetuosity strongly contrasts with the careful groundwork Dobbin laid while arranging the marriage.

Miss Swartz had a German Jewish father and a Black mother (her very name evokes the word black, which in German is schwarz), but she is welcomed in society because of her wealth. George describes her with mocking and racist cruelty. He also tells his father in no uncertain terms that he will never marry Miss Swartz because of the color of her skin. The narrator too speaks of her with a mean spirit. Miss Swartz’s accomplishments are simple—she can only sing three songs and play two pieces on the piano—implying that she is too stupid to learn anything more. In the characters’ reactions to Miss Swartz, Thackeray is satirizing the hypocrisy and attitudes of the time. A person of color is unacceptable unless that person happens to be rich.