26 was also a product of a society. This product also revealed the social issues and it
would “lead to an ethical judgment concerning the truth of an author’s statements” Rohrberger and Woods 10. This approach was used because I would like to
study the sociocultural-historical aspect of the story as the reflection of the society in the Victorian era, the time when Vanity Fair took place. It helped me to relate
the perception of the characters in the novel with the society at that time. Therefore, the appropriate approach for this study was the sociocultural-historical
approach.
3.3. Method of the Study
In gathering the data, library research was used. A Library research was selected since most of the data were found in the library. The references were
particularly on the used approach, the literary theories, criticisms on the novel, and the information about review on British society of the early Victorian Era.
There were two kinds of sources that were used in this study. They were primary source and secondary sources. The primary source was the novel itself,
William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, published by Everyman and edited by Pat Rogers in London 1997.
The secondary sources included the books, articles of related theories, reviews on the British society in the early Victorian Era, and the criticisms on the
novel and the author. Some of the main sources that were used are Stanton’s Introduction to Fiction, Henkle’s Reading the Novel, Wellek and Warren’s
Theory of Literature, Langlard’s Society in the Novel, Holman and Harmon’s A Handbook to Literature, and Forster’s Aspect of the Novels, Rohrberger and
27 Woods’ Reading and Writing about Literature, and other books and articles
related to the study. The complete lists of sources can be seen in the References section.
Some steps were taken in analyzing the novel. The first step was reading the novel, Vanity Fair as the main source of this study and trying to find out what
the story was about. The second step was selecting the interesting topics or the problems that were going to be discussed in this study. In obtaining good
understanding of the novel, it needed more than once to read the novel. The third step was reread the novel and watched the movie under the same title, Vanity Fair,
to find details that were related to the problems. The fourth step was summarizing and taking notes of the points discussed. The fifth step was collecting the
information about the related theories and criticisms to analyze the problem, including choosing the most appropriate approach for this thesis. The sixth step
was trying to answer the problems. The last step was concluding the result of the study.
28
CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS
This chapter contains an analysis to answer the problems. The discussion is divided into two parts, character analysis and satires on British Society. The
first section, character analysis of Rebecca Sharp, is an attempt to answer the first problem, how Thackeray describes Rebecca Sharp’s character. In this part, the
character of Rebecca Sharp is revealed along with the method of characterization. The second discussion is to answer the second problem, what satires toward
British Society that Thackeray tries to expose in Vanity Fair.
4.1. Character Analysis of Rebecca Sharp
“Characterization is an aspect of the novel which Victorians regularly chose to emphasize” Rogers xxvii. In Vanity Fair, characters play an important
role in building the story. One of the many interesting characters is Rebecca Sharp, or often called Becky. Like ordinary people living in reality, Thackeray
describes Becky’s characters from two sides, her strengths and her weaknesses. Thackeray constantly compares Becky’s virtues with her vices. Thackeray keeps
emphasizing that behind Becky’s positive attitude, she is still an evil woman. As mentioned in Chapter 2, according to Murphy, characters have the
qualities of ordinary human beings. They are named, given sexes, provided with personalities and completed with physical and psychological aspects 38.
Therefore, the analysis of Becky’s character will be divided into three parts;
28 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
