3. 1. 3 Lack of love
Becky’ mother was a showgirl rather than a good wife and devoted mother. When Becky was young, she lost her mother and almost never got the love from her family and her mother. After she grew up, she had to fight the society by herself. Her indifference to her son was understandable, because she never felt the love from her mother and she did not know how to be a good wife and devoted mother. It is too harsh for us to require a person never getting love from family to be a good housewife. In a society of vanity, money is the only norm. If you have no money, you have nothing. “Becky’ husband, a vagabond could not bring benefit for the family, so Becky had to bravely replace the role of her husband to be the real master of the family. At the same time, female were strictly restrained by the social morality. Becky, as a female with no high social background, had to pay more time and hardship in the things which male could get easily.”[10] It was forgivable for her attitude to her husband, her son. Anyway, she was a successful practicer. She lifted the statue of the family and arranged a good job for her husband and a favorable educational environment. The truth and real reason for the condemnation to her was laid on the replacement of her husband role in the family. Her action could not be accepted by the social morality and public requirement for female.
3. 2 Warrior deserving admiration
In spite of what Becky has suffered, she still did not obey her fate. The author holds that she is a warrior deserving the reader’s admiration. In fact, Becky makes success. Here the author will discuss how she gets her achievements.
3. 2. 1 Insurance of the aim
Becky lived in Britain where great changes had taken place in the social morality and concept in the 19th century. “The rule position of the bourgeois has been consolidated and money became the only one standard of judging the position of a person. As a result, human has increasingly become subservient to material in every aspect of life: economy, political, culture and so on and their thoughts has been becoming one-dimensional, malformation, and completely dominated by Commodity Fetishism.”[11] People were eager to create material wealth and relied on material wealth which could display the values of human’ existence. Bourgeois has fanatically destroyed the norm of aristocratic hierarchy, meanwhile established a new material standards more crucial than that of the former. Just receiving freedom from the feudalism, they lost their spirits of freedom and human dignity in the new society dominated by Commodity Fetishism. “The petty bourgeoisie deeply worried that their wisdom and ingenuity could not come into their own in the poor living environment. In order to improve their living conditions and social status, they often use special means to struggle and strive for getting a seat in the community. This also reflected their courage and ability.”[12] Becky was from a poor petty bourgeois family. At her age of ten, she lost her parents. Fortunately she has inherited her father’s talent and her mother’ performing arts and obtained the ability to live independently. She was a genius. On account of the living, she had to work her way through school by teaching in Pinkerton. Although all the people in the school had to admit her talent, she still suffered discrimination from the riches and the headmaster because of her origin of poverty. She had only one friend, a girl loving everything around her with no personality. She hated the snobbery of the society and thought that she was not worse than the girls from upper class in the Vanity Fair. She should be entitled to be respected and live a lordly life. She was dissatisfied with her current status and had the emotion of resisting the discrimination to her. She studied the society and decided to fight against it. Such resistance of cutting edge had made great success at the school. 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. While she also realized that her individual resistance could not change the living conditions. So she was eager to leave school.
In 19th-century Britain, women mainly played the role of housewife rather than the role of career woman. Although civilian democracy has been rising continuously, the discrimination and prejudice to women still has not taken substantial changes. Their social position has been limited.
“Women were only vassals and servants of men. It was difficult for women to attain rights, especially for the women from a small bourgeois family with no money in spite of getting education. So the ladies from poor families were less competitive in their marriage. They were turned out in the cold for their underprivileged status.”[9] In the end, they could not avoid the fate of the savant charging a penniless and depending on others for a living. The only ways to change this situation relied on their marital life—improve their social status through family. Since money was the only measure for human’ behavior, and the materialization of marriage had became a natural social phenomenon, it is inevitable that marriage became the first and best mean for Becky to fight against the social injustice. The goal of women was to marry with a good man without exception. However what kind of men was their target? In the early 19th century Britain, nobles were gradually declining with the victory of the bourgeoisie. But just as Engels said: “in Britain, bourgeoisie has never controlled government, even after the victory of 1832, the landowners still controlled all senior positions in government.” [14] Only aristocratic women had the right to go to court which was regarded as a mark of women of figure and a good woman. Becky made up her mind to marry with a noble and became the grand lady. This was a reasonable choice for the people in the Vanity Fair and also a shortcut to be a member of the upper class. We could not condemn that her wish of entering the upper class was a dirty mind. Can she only get married with the man in line with herself? “She found a husband of high status on her own, so she deserved the cheer from all the people. In the specific historical conditions where almost all the female had lost their consciousness, Becky had made outstanding achievements and reached the arduous goal of marry with a noble by herself with her unique talent and finally she changed her social status and gained equality and esteem from the others.”[15] To some extent, this reflected the difficult course of the petty bourgeoisie to strive for equality and freedom.
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