Author(s)

Xia Zhang, Lin Cheng

Corresponding Author

Xia Zhang

ABSTRACT

William Makepeace Thackeray is a great critical novelist in English in the nineteenth century. Vanity Fair is generally acknowledged as his most remarkable masterpiece, which makes him well known around the world. In the novel, the female images are endowed with vivid personalities, especially the character Becky Sharp, which enchants appreciation from a great deal of students. It is acknowledged that the female image in Vanity Fair has a dual character-viciousness and virtuousness. Becky is dehumanized from the perspective of her tucking into the upper class at all costs, but from the angle of view that she endeavors to achieve a better life, she deserves compliment. She seeks after wealth and fame, she is self-concerned and lives a fairly life, but she is struggling to change her destiny. This article analyses Becky's negative image at first, then pays more attention to the feminism of Becky's image under two parts: characters and differences on traditional women roles, and finally concludes Becky's image and its' enlightenment on modern society.

KEYWORDS

Vanity Fair, Becky, feminism.