vanity fair 张彦芳 朱荣.ppt.ppt

Social background Since the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 18th century, the class structure of English society had undergone radical changes.But from the thirties of the 19th century, the struggle between the workers and capitalists became the feudalmental contradiction in English social life. The crying social contradictions were reflected in the writers’ work of the time . Characters in Vanity Fair Amelia Sedley : the daughter of a wealthy london merchant ?? Rebecca (Becky) Sharp: an orphan , ?? Joseph: Amelia s brother ?? Sir Pitt Crawley; Rawdon Crawley ?? George Osborne ?? Dobbin Becky Sharp the anti-heroine, an intelligent young woman with a gift for satire, is described as a petite娇小的 sandy haired girl who has green eyes and a great deal of wit. Fluent in both French and English, Becky has a beautiful singing voice, plays the piano, and shows great talent as an actress. She is also completely amoral and without conscience. She does not seem to have the ability to get attached to other people, and lies easily and intelligently to get her way. She is extremely manipulative（操纵的） and, after the first few chapters and her failure to attract Jos Sedley, is not shown as being particularly sincere. Never having known financial or social security even as a child, Becky desires it above all things. Nearly everything she does is with the intention of securing a stable position for herself. Amelia Sedley Amelia is Beckys opposite: pale, passive, and emotionally devoted to her husband and son. She marries George Osborne against the wishes of Georges father, and when George dies at the battle of Waterloo she brings up little George alone while living with her parents. She is completely dominated by her spendthrift father (who steals and sells the annuity Georges friends put together to try to support her) and her mother. After George Osbornes death, Amelia is obsessed with her son and with the memory of her husband. She ignores William Dobbin,