The Dissociation of Sensibility in Vanity Fair
Carol Efrati
Key Words: Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Victorian Novel, Historical Novel, Social Codes
Abstract
This paper is an exploration of the confusion of three historical periods (Late Stuart,Regency, and Victorian) in Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Aspects specific to each of these periods in costume, modes of behaviour, speech, and societal codes, mores, norms and value systems are intermingled, so that although the novel itself is set during the Regency, the ethos is drawn indiscriminately from both of the other periods as well, resulting in a subliminal unease in the reader. This historical confusion does not rise to the surface of the book but instead works subconsciously. Therefore, one of the themes of the novel – the triumph of Victorian propriety and practicality over Regency fecklessness and romanticism – can also only be apprehended subconsciously. Looking at Trollope's reflection of Victorian norms, Thackeray's own evocation of late Stuart-early Hanover norms in Henry Esmond, and Dickens' very different use of such out-of-period elements in Bleak House clarifies the extent of the confusion in Vanity Fair among these periods. In this paper I have untangled some of the threads specific to each of the three periods in question, examined the effect of the historical melange, and demonstrated that this confusion contributes to the underlying thematic thrust of the book.
