Essay Heroes as Monsters in Vanity Fair - 1330 Words

â€Å"Yes, this is Vanity Fair, not a moral place certainly, nor a merry one, though very noisy.† (Thackeray xviii) It is here, in Vanity Fair that its most insidious resident, selfishness,-veiled with alluring guises-has shrewdly thrived among its citizens, invading, without exception, even the most heroic characters and living so unheeded that it has managed to breed monsters of them. There are those in Vanity Fair, however, who have heeded the vicious selfishness, and, though not having lived unaffected by it, were still able to point out its many evils. One such man is William Makepeace Thackeray who exposed this truth in his novel Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero which was published in 1848. Thackeray draws upon the work of a fellow†¦show more content†¦Thackeray got the idea for his title from chapter twelve of John Bunyan’s book titled Pilgrim’s Progress, published in 1678. In his book, Bunyan describes the journey of a boy, Christian, from the City of Destruction, which symbolizes the secular world, to the Celestial City, which symbolizes Heaven. One of the obstacles that Christian must endure on his way to the Celestial City is his passage through the city of Vanity, where a fair, by the name of Vanity Fair is held. At Vanity Fair â€Å"everything sold or that comes there is meaningless.† All sorts of merchandise are sold, such as houses, lands, businesses, places, honors, promotions, titles, countries, kingdoms, desires, pleasures, and delights of all sorts such as prostitutes, brothels, wives., husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and so forth (Fuhrmann).† I think Thackeray truly understood Bunyan’s purpose with the Vanity Fair in Pilgrim’s Progress and was able to take it to a higher level by using specific examples of his time to illustrate the truth of vanity’s presence in people’s everyday lives. While Bunyan’s ultimate goal may have been to show how vanity keeps us from focusing on God, Thackeray, although I don’t think his intention was quite that, did see what Bunyan was able to see in society: autotheism. Autotheism, the worship of oneself, has come about in Vanity Fair as a result of selfishness-the fair’s residingShow MoreRelatedAncient Greek Myths Of Tantalus, Medusa, Achilles, And Icarus1519 Words   |  7 PagesMost people have heard a fair amount of stories from Greek mythology, and maybe they even have a favorite. These stories can have any number of different tellings, all with various tones, emotions, and purposes, depending on who wrote them and when they were created. What s most important to me, however, is not their exact replication, but the idea that these stories can be handed down from generation to generation and still hold relevance. I, nonetheless, do have favorites of my own; they are theRead More Comparing the Hero in Fall of the House of Usher, Rip Van Winkle, and May-Pole of Merry Mount1600 Words   |  7 Pagesand is almost always on some type of journey. 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