2. 2 Personal experience of Thackeray
Thackeray was born a gentleman, so brought up and educated; charterhouse, trinity college Cambridge, European travel, inns of court—his youth followed a high road to Victorian success. Had he not gambled away part o f his patrimony and lost the rest in a bank crash, not idled at college, not been bored by law, and above all not compounded every thing with a horribly unlucky marriage, Thackeray might have entered the leisured , lettered, professional life for which birth and upbringing destined him. One can imagine him, in later years, a mallow Fieldingesque magistrate; an MP regularly prosing away in the heavier journals; a subtle diplomat —most likely of all—a historian. For all of literary men, it was the historians that Thackeray most revered. Had he lived longer, in his later prosperity he would certainly have written the history of Queen Anne’s reign that he promised himself. Failing all else, the young Thackeray could have married money; he was charming and personable enough. Instead he chose Isabella Shawe. She brought him no dowry, no connections (except those of an Irish mother-in-law, whom he punished relentlessly in fiction to the end of his life), gave him two surviving daughters but went incurably mad in1842. His life itself, losing his parents when he was young, losing his draughts when he was old, was misery and a tragedy to some extent. He had a clear mind to the society. He wrote his life and thought in and out of writing.
3 Positive analysis of Becky
The author has introduced the social background and the experience of Thackeray which have been reflected in his novel. At the bourgeois society, Becky, a daughter of artist, is doomed to suffer more than the one from upper class. But she does not compromise to her fate and difficulties. What she has done deserves the reader’s admiration and pity.
3. 1 Character deserving pity
From what the author has discussed, there is no doubt that Becky suffers a lot if she fights against her fate. The author holds that she is character deserving pity. In the following passages, the reasons will be listed.
3. 1. 1 Miserable life
Becky came from a petty-bourgeois poor family. At the age of ten, she lost her parents. Fortunately she had the ability to look after herself. She was a genius girl who had inherited the gift of her father for art and the art of her mother for performance. After the death of her parents she had to earn her living at Pinkerton. “All the people in the school had to recognize her wisdom, but she still suffered discrimination from the rich ladies and the headmaster because of her poor and humble origins. She had only one friend who was a girl loved everything. Becky hated snobbery of the world, because she thought that she was much more intelligent and elegant than the other rich ladies but she was deserved to enjoy the honor and glory of life.”[6] She was not satisfied with her mean place and brought about her resistance. She decided to fight against the unfair society by researching the world. Her resistance had got great success when she showed only a part of her talent in Pinkerton. The headmaster had to give her a rise and write a recommendation letter with a good pinion of Becky. The young priest was crazy about her. The treatment of Becky was determined that she could find her feet in the world only by lighting fire with fire. Her success represented an exploration of the petty bourgeoisie in the special historical period of Britain. Besides, she realized that her individual resistance could not change the living conditions.
3. 1. 2 Social condemnations
In the society of vanity, “money is the only standard of social status. Her husband could not bring any incomes. As a member of social weak group, she has to pay more attention than the others to realize her dreams which was to get a position in the upper class and live an honorable life.”[7] She had to spend more time in earning their life. She had ignored the growth of her son and was regarded as lack of mother love, which was the most important and common condemnation to her. However she took good advantage of her ability to helping her husband get an admiring job with 3000 pounds per year and providing a sound environment of education. Although she had done a lot for her relatives, her husband could not recognize her efforts and acclaimed that he could not bear the humiliation from his wife. In the end, she had to leave home and go abroad because of indifference of her husband. At the same time, the condemnation of the society is unfair. Becky took the blame of the invitation of elopement from Osborne. “When adultery between Becky and Sir Steyne blew its cover, Becky was abandoned by his husband and was criticized and treated as an outcast, while there was on changes for Sir Steyne except a scar on his head and he still persisted his old ways.”[8] It was even as Engels said: “All that was a serious crime for women and was bound to bear legal responsibilities was regarded as an honor for men and at most could be deemed to be a blot on their morality which might be accepted by the society easily.”[9] “In the society of male chauvinism, people held the belief in the innate superiority of men, justifying denial of equal treatment to women. The behavior of women was standardized by the affection of men.”[9] Amelia was a good example. She was described to be selfish because she had taken up all the loves of Dobbin. But she was always praised for her stubborn loyalty to her husband and was regarded as a pure wife. This kind of honor is based on the change of women’s personality and sacrificed the women’ characteristics. In the novel, male and female are required by different laws. Male imposed their thought on female. Traditionally female was regarded as the partner of male in their recreation. On the contrary, male have proved the meaning and validity of female’ existence. Male was thought to be the master of female and must be loyal to her wife, but he could do what he wanted to in an opener degree of freedom. Love is not the true emotion between male and female but the service of female to male.
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