Emmy comes from wealth and has an aura of innocence. Becky is smart and conniving and from a poor background. They are friends but have more differences than similarities. As the novel opens, Becky and Emmy are at Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for young women.

Thackeray’s novel centers on the lives of Becky Sharp and Emmy Sedley during and following the Napoleonic Wars. The title, Vanity Fair, comes from a reference in John Bunyan’s novel-like allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, in which a city called Vanity hosts an ancient festival, Vanity Fair, where the devil is worshipped and Christians are mocked for their faith. Its characters are virtually lacking in positive qualities and are obsessed with social climbing and the acquisition of wealth. When the satire was published in book form in 1848, the subtitle was changed to A Novel without a Hero.

The reader feels that Georgy and little Rawdon will be better men than their grandfathers.William Makepeace Thackery’s novel Vanity Fair was originally published as a serialized fiction in nineteen volumes in 1847 and was subtitled, Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society. Thackeray's idea, then, is that although one may live in Vanity Fair, one need not be a slave to its values, which in the final analysis turn into futility and emptiness. The winners at the end of the story are those who cherished human relationships first: Amelia, Dobbin, and Lady Jane, with the children Georgy and little Rawdon. Yet, there are some people, the reader hopes and Thackeray indicates, who do not bow down to the idols of Vanity Fair. Women still berate and betray women relatives still fight over money mothers still sell their daughters for popularity, money, or position. The vanity of man is universal and ever present. The setting could be changed to modern times and the observations would be true today. If the book appears to ramble, it never strays from the focus of attention on the foibles of human nature in its struggle to reach the highest strata of Vanity Fair.

The book is so saturated with the vanity of Vanity Fair, the duplicity of social climbers, and the weakness of human nature, that it would be impossible to separate idea from plot or plot from characters. Thackeray does not underestimate the importance of having a home, clothes and food but he does expose the cruelty, the deception, the futility of making possessions and power the only aim in life. The gaiety, the mask of the ball, do not stay with the person when he faces death. The treasures of Vanity Fair, that is, money and position, are desirable but transient. The title suggests the idea: Vanity Fair.

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