Vanity Fair Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

The idea of a fair where a bunch of different kinds of human vanities are for sale comes from John Bunyan's Christian allegory Pilgrim's Progress. (We'll pause a sec here while you check out the "W...

The piano, besides being a tangible object and plot point, is a symbol in the book. Bankruptcy forces the Sedleys to auction off all their things, including this little piano. Dobbin buys it and se...

Another relatively easy symbol to figure out. Amelia has a little portrait of George hanging in her room. Every time she so much as thinks about moving on after his death, she gazes at this pictur...

Becky puts on many different costumes throughout the course of the novel. Some are completely literal, like the sexy toga she busts out for her star-making turn in Lord Steyne's charade. There's...

Sometimes even Becky feels kind of guilty about her doings. When she does, she rationalizes: "I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year. I could dawdle about in the nursery an...

Napoleon is obviously a real guy, but he's important to the novel because he hugely influences the plot without ever showing up in the world of Becky, Amelia, Rawdon, and George. We'd like to sugg...