Analysis of Theme Through Portrayal of The Female Major Characters in Daniel Defoe's 'Moll Flanders' and William Makepeace Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...............................................................................
ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION...........................................................
Background of the Study ......................................................................
Statement of the Problem .....................................................................
Purpose of the Study .............................................................................
Methods of Research ............................................................................
Organization of the Thesis....................................................................
1
1
3
3
4
4
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
PORTRAYAL OF THE FEMALE MAJOR CHARACTER
IN DANIEL DEFOE’S MOLL FLANDERS ...................................
5
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
PORTRAYAL OF THE FEMALE MAJOR CHARACTER
IN WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY’S
VANITY FAIR.................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ............................................................. 30
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................... 35
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of Moll Flanders ....................................................................
Synopsis of Vanity Fair .......................................................................
Biography of Daniel Defoe ..................................................................
Biography of William Makepeace Thackeray ......................................
ii
37
38
39
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ABSTRACT
Pada akhir abad ke 18 dan awal abad ke 19, wanita dibentuk oleh
masyarakat untuk memiliki pola pikir yang materialistis. Hal ini yang
memungkinkan Daniel Defoe dalam karyanya Moll Flanders dan William
Makepeace Thackeray dalam Vanity Fair membahas tentang kondisi perempuan
dari kelas bawah yang berusaha untuk meningkatkan status sosialnya di mata
masyarakat.
Moll Flanders dan Rebecca Sharp, tokoh dalam masing-masing novel,
memiliki ambisi yang sama kuatnya untuk menjadi wanita yang terhormat.
Ambisi tersebut membuat mereka menghalalkan segala cara untuk mendapatkan
harta yang melimpah.
Perbedaan keputusan dari keduanya dalam menghadapi kesempatan untuk
hidup lebih baik digunakan oleh kedua pengarang untuk mengangkat tema dari
kedua novel tersebut. Seseorang yang mau mengubah sifat buruknya, seperti
Moll Flanders dalam Moll Flanders, akan mendapatkan kesempatan untuk hidup
lebih baik, sedangkan seseorang yang tidak mau mengubah sifat buruknya,
seperti Rebecca Sharp, tidak akan mendapatkan kesempatan untuk hidup lebih
baik.
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APPENDICES
Synopsis of Moll Flanders
This is a late 18th century story about a young girl named Moll Flanders,
whose mother is transported to America as a pregnant criminal. She is raised by a
foster mother who is always kind to her and she starts to dream of being a genteel
woman. After the death of her foster mother, Moll has to work for staying alive
and survive. Connected with her huge ambition, she begins to find a way to reach
it by firstly covering her financial problem. She tries hard to attract rich men to
marry her so that she will get financial security and a higher position in society.
When Moll cannot use her beauty and body anymore, she rearranges her
wicked plan from attracting rich men to stealing precious things in order to
survive and be rich. Her being a thief later leads her to be arrested and sentenced
to death. At this point, she finally repents and decides to change all her bad
characteristics in order to live a new life. After her repentance, God gives her an
opportunity to stay alive. She is sentenced to be transported to a plantation where
she firmly decides to really change into a good woman. There she meets her only
son and he accepts her as his mother.
Before she turns 69 years old, she finally realizes that she could get a
peaceful life by living honestly as she has been through a very hard life. She has
to stay alive and survive for her ambition in being rich and secured. She has been
37
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twelve years being a whore, eight years being a transported felon, and five times
being a wife, in which one of her dead husbands is her own brother (from the
same criminal mother but a different father). She has also been a thief for twelve
years and has been in jail, where she meets her other husband and together with
him, she finally reconciles with her life.
Synopsis of Vanity Fair
This is an early 19th century story about two young girls named Rebecca
(Becky) Sharp and Amelia. Amelia Sedley lives in a very rich family while
Rebecca grows up in a broken family with a drunken father. Because of her tough
poor life, Becky grows to be an over ambitious woman who always uses her very
sweet lips together with her evil mind in order to be a genteel woman. She does it
in order to get a new secure life and also to exist as a rich lady.
It can be said that she is always successful in gaining everyone’s attention
with her “nice tongue”, from Joseph Sedley until Sir Pitt Crawley, who wants to
propose her after his wife’s death. However, because of her huge ambition, she
never feels satisfied. She flirts not only with the father, Sir Pitt Crawley, but also
with Rawdon Crawley, the second son.
The cunning and over ambitious Becky does not stop there. She, who is as
wicked as a viper, also tries to flirt with George Osborne, Amelia’s husband.
George Osborne gets into Becky’s trap but still she does not feel satisfied.
Another rich man, named Lord Stayne, comes to town. For the reason of playing
safe while Rawdon is in the war, Becky tries hard to attract Lord Stayne and gets
some benefits from him. One day, Rawdon finds out about her affair and sees it
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with his own eyes. He sends Becky out of the house, and keeps their son from
her.
After this occurrence, Becky still does not change at all. She stays in her
bad characteristics so that the opportunity is closed for her because no one trusts
her anymore. She does not take the chance she has been given. Finally, she lives
poor again, with nobody to rely on, with debts to pay, and her name is on the
black list.
Biography of Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe was an English writer as well as a journalist and a
pamphleteer. He wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets, and journals on various
topics. He wrote many adventure books and the greatest one is Robinson Crusoe
that was first published in 1719. The date and place of his birth were not certain
so that people often say and write 1659-1661 as his year of birth.
In his childhood, he experienced the most unusual English history which
took place in 1665. It was the Great Plague of London which strokes his
neighborhood and left only his house and two other houses still standing on that
area. Although he had been educated in a Dissenting Academy at Newington
Green, he refused to be the next dissenter of his parents. He chose to enter the
business world as a general merchant and bought a country estate and a ship.
After that, his life was surrounded by his own debt.
In 1684, Defoe married a woman named Mary Tuffley. Their marriage
seemed to be the most difficult one because of Defoe’s previous debts and also
39
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because they had eight children to take care of. He was finally arrested for debt
issue.
When he was released, he started to arrange his new life by writing a
series of proposals for social and economic improvement. He also wrote a lot of
poems, satires, and pamphlets. Moll Flanders, one of his novels, which uses first
person point of view tells about a criminal who is at the end of the story could get
the readers’ sympathy. Defoe died on April 24th 1731 and was buried in Bunhill
Fields, London.
Source: “Daniel Defoe”
Biography of William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray, the famous satirical British novelist, was
born in Calcutta, India on July 18th, 1811. His works were categorized into
historical fiction and satires. One of his satires is The Luck of Barry Lyndon,
which tells about an outsider trying to achieve status in high society. However,
his famous satirical novel of Victorian era’s upper-middle class in London was
Vanity Fair.
Thackeray’s father died when he was four years old. His mother then sent
him to Chaterhouse, a private school in London where he suffered some abuses,
while her mother stayed in India. He also went to Trinity College, Cambridge to
study law and tried his interest in painting in Paris but he did not succeed. He met
Isabella Shawe, who finally became his wife. Thackeray and his family went
back to England and tried to make a living by writing articles, essays, and
reviews as a freelance journalist. They were happy before there was something
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wrong with Isabella’s mental condition. She tried to commit suicide but she
failed. She was then taken to an asylum in Paris and not allowed to meet
Thackeray and her children. Thackeray himself tried hard to find the cure for his
wife but he got nothing until the end of her wife’s life.
Thackeray’s health became worse because he was over eating and
drinking. He could not stop his addiction to spicy pepper so that his digestion was
ruined. On December 23rd, 1863, he was found dead on his bed. It was diagnosed
that he had a stroke. He was 52 and buried beside his mother in the Victorian
Garden cemetery Kensai Green in London, England.
Source: “William Makepeace Thackeray”
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In the 18th century and the 19th century England, women are taught by the
society to be materialistic. They automatically wish to own characteristics of
genteel women such as being polite, having a proper manner, having many skills
in music, being able to write and speak French, dancing, and then last but not
least, being rich (Rowe). For women of high-class society, it will be easier for
them to be genteel women. All they have to do is training their skills so then they
can turn themselves into genteel women.
Moll Flanders in Moll Flanders and Rebecca Sharp in Vanity Fair are
examples of low-class women who try hard to be genteel women. They master all
the skills of genteel women but they are born poor and there is nothing they can
do about that. They do not have parents to arrange their marriage so they have to
find themselves rich husbands to be secure and rich to survive and also to be
highly respected. Moll Flanders, the one who is willing to change her bad
characteristics, ends up in a happy life, while Becky who does not want to change
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her bad characteristics ends up alone and surrounded by her debts which she
cannot pay.
Moll Flanders was written by a famous 18th century English writer, Daniel
Defoe, who dedicated his life to English literature in contributing his excellent
works. The interesting thing that can be found in this novel is the way Defoe tells
the story to the readers. He writes about a bad woman, named Moll Flanders, who
is a whore, a liar, and a thief. However, interestingly, at the end of the story Moll
Flanders can still acquire the readers’ sympathy on her (“Daniel Defoe”).
Vanity Fair was well written by William Makepeace Thackeray, a best
selling writer in satirizing the society of the 19th century England. He began as a
satirist and a parodist with some stories that actually have the same theme, which
is about someone sneaking for a higher position in the society (social climber).
Rebecca Sharp in Vanity Fair becomes very famous as Thackeray himself
becomes well-known as a great satirist (“William Makepeace Thackeray”).
From both novels, Moll Flanders and Vanity Fair, I find a tight bond that
can be seen from the portrayal of the female major characters. Moll Flanders and
Rebecca Sharp have nearly identical characteristics at first. They have the same
ambition that makes them do anything to reach it. However, interestingly, they
make different decisions at the end of the story. The different attitudes in their
making decisions help me reveal the theme for both novels. Therefore, in my
major thesis, I am going to analyse the theme through the portrayal of the female
major characters in Moll Flanders and Vanity Fair using formalism. The theme is
the “central idea or the central insight” (Perrine 102) of the story. “To derive the
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theme of a story, we must ask what its central purpose is: what view of life it
supports or what insight into life it reveals” (102).
Based on the facts, I find that the two female major characters serve as a
good and a bad model of women through their characteristics. Character itself
means, “A verbal representation of a human being as presented to us by authors
through the depiction of actions, conversations, descriptions, reactions, inner
thoughts and reflections, and also through the authors’ own interpretive
commentary” (Roberts 66). Here, Moll Flanders is a dynamic character, who
“recognizes, change with, or adjust to circumstances.” (70). On the other hand,
Becky Sharp is a static character, which means she “do[es] not grow” and
“remain[s] the same because of lack of knowledge or insight” (70).
Statement of the Problem
The problems I am going to discuss are:
1.
What are the themes of the novels?
2.
How do the portrayals of characters help reveal the themes?
Purpose of the Study
Based on the problems stated above, the purposes of the study are:
1.
To show what the themes of the novels are.
2.
To show how the portrayals of characters can help reveal the themes.
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Method of Research
In writing the thesis, I used the method of library research. I began the
study by reading the primary texts which are Moll Flanders and Vanity Fair. I
then read several reference books and articles in the Internet that are relevant to
the topic to support my analysis for additional information. The information and
the knowledge that I have gathered were then used to analyse the text. Finally, I
drew a conclusion from the research I have made.
Organization of the Thesis
I divided the thesis into four chapters, followed by the Bibliography and
the Appendices. In Chapter One, I present the Introduction consisting of the
Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study,
the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. In Chapter Two, I
analyse the theme through portrayal of the female character in Daniel Defoe’s
Moll Flanders. In Chapter Three, I analyze the theme through portrayal of the
female character in William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Chapter Four is
the Conclusion. Finally, the thesis ends with the Bibliography and the
Appendices, consisting of the Biography of the authors and Synopsis of the
novels.
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CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
Having discussed Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and William Makepeace
Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, I come to a conclusion that the two novels have some
similarities and differences, both in the portrayal of the characters and the theme.
The first similarity that can be found in their novels is both Defoe and
Thackeray create female major characters that come from a low class family.
They are Moll Flanders and Rebecca Sharp. From the beginning of both novels,
the characters’ social status is presented clearly. It is also obvious that the stories
are about “social climbing” in the late 18th and early 19th century England. Moll
and Rebecca, who is called Becky, are born in poor families and that is the fact
that they have to get along with.
Another similarity is that although Moll and Becky come from poor
family, both of them have one similar huge ambition. They want to attain higher
positions in the society as genteel women. Both of them are raised with some
rules and abilities of genteel women except being rich. They have already built
their castle in the air about what they want to be in the future. They recognize the
state that they can be secured or in other word, rich, by getting married to wealthy
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gentlemen. As Moll and Becky do not have parents who will arrange proper
marriages for them, they have to depend only on themselves.
In reaching their ambition, both Moll and Becky also have similar
characteristics such as over ambitious and materialistic. These characteristics are
in accordance with their desire to reach their huge ambition. They choose to
maintain some bad characteristics to gain more wealth in order to complete all of
the characteristics of a genteel woman. Besides maintaining bad characteristics,
another similarity is that they also arrange some wicked plans that later make
them become wicked people.
Defoe and Thackeray describe that Moll’s and Becky’s bad characteristics
finally lead them to bad situations in their life. Both of them happen to receive
some consequences from the society. Being arrested and jailed are the
consequences for Moll while in Becky’s case, her friends, husband, and son leave
her one by one because of her bad characteristics.
One big difference lies on the reaction of both characters to the chances
offered to them. They actually have similar opportunity to choose whether to
change their bad characteristics or not. Interestingly, Moll and Becky who are on
the same track in the beginning, finally choose two different paths which later
lead to another difference, which is the different ending. Moll chooses to repent
and change her bad traits while Becky chooses to maintain her bad characteristics
and feeds her hunger of higher position and wealth. Their decisions later become
the leading point to the theme of both novels.
The development of Moll’s characteristics leads to a contrast ending to
Becky’s story. Moll, the one who decides to change her bad characteristics,
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finally has the opportunity to make a better living. She does not reach her dream
to be a genteel woman but she lives happily with her former husband. She makes
a better living because she grabs the chance in front of her and makes the right
decision. Becky, who decides to maintain her bad characteristics, has to deal with
a life without an opportunity to make a better living. She has a bad reputation
because she clings on her bad traits so that there is no one who wants to be close
to her. She ends up miserably and lives from charity. These two contrast endings
obviously give a hint to the theme of the novels. I can conclude that the tight
bond between the portrayal of Moll and Becky, including the differences in their
decisions, obviously helps reveal the themes which are: “One who is willing to
change one’s negative traits will have an opportunity to make a better living”, in
Moll Flanders, and “One who is unwilling to change one’s negative traits will
have no opportunity to make a better living”, in Vanity Fair.
It is obvious that the themes of the two novels are similar as they deal
with one’s willingness to change one’s negative traits so as to have an
opportunity to make a better living. In Moll Flanders, Moll is willing to change
her negative traits so that she has the opportunity to make a better living. On the
contrary, Becky in Vanity Fair chooses to keep her bad traits so that she ends up
living miserably.
In my opinion, the themes of the novels are universal. Although the
background of time in these novels are the 18th and the 19th century England, the
theme statements are still applicable today. To have a better living, one must
make some changes in his or her life in order to be a better person. The one who
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does not want to change something bad in his or her life will close the
opportunity to make a better living. There is no time border for these themes.
Seeing the dynamic and the static characters in both novels, I personally
like Moll Flanders as a dynamic character more than Rebecca Sharp. She makes
the right decision about her life, so I think she deserves a better living because
she really stays in her repentance. However, Rebecca Sharp also gives me a
lesson about life. Her being a static character is an example of a person who does
not want to change the bad traits. Finally, she has to accept the fact that she has
no one to count on and there is no one who trusts her anymore. Both of them
create two different role models of what a woman should do to survive in the
society. One does not have to be rich to gain more friends and happiness in life.
One’s good traits will be the key to make good relation with others and also with
God.
When analyzing both novels, I notice that Thackeray describes the
situation and also the rules in the society in his era more clearly than Defoe. It is
likely that Vanity Fair, which is one of the early Victorian novels of manner, sets
a more specific matter. It is of course due to the fact that the novel is a satire
towards the society; therefore more information about society can be found in
Vanity Fair, especially concerning women, than in Moll Flanders. Different from
Thackeray, Defoe as “a devout Presbyterian” (Zaleski) includes religious aspect
in portraying Moll. The religious aspect plays an important role in the changing
of Moll’s characteristics, the core of the whole novel. Moll’s repentance finally
makes her become a person with good morality. Nevertheless, both Defoe’s and
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Thackeray’s different emphasis help me see the portrayal of Moll Flanders and
Rebecca Sharp more clearly.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
References:
Hornby, A. S. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. 2005.
Neufeldt, V. Webster’s New World Dictionary. New York: Simon & Schuster,
Inc. 1988.
Perrine, L. Story and Structure. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
1974.
Roberts, E. V. Writing About Literature. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.,
2003.
Internet Websites:
Celerio, Marta Correas, A. Cortina Arguelles, Almudena E. G. Uzquiza. “Love
and Marriage in the 18th Century Literature”. El Ricon Del Vago. 1998. 28
Apr. 2010
“Daniel Defoe”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2010. 19 Mar. 2010
Rowe, Linda. “Women and Education in Eighteenth-Century Virginia”. Colonial
Williamsburg. 2009. 20 Apr. 2010
“William Makepeace Thackeray”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2010. 19
Mar. 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackeray
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Zaleski, Philip. “Daniel Defoe: A Paradoxical Genius”. Catholic Education
Resource Center. 1999. 22 Jun. 2011.
Primary texts:
Defoe, D. Moll Flanders. London: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1993.
Thackeray, W. M. Vanity Fair. London: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2001.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...............................................................................
ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION...........................................................
Background of the Study ......................................................................
Statement of the Problem .....................................................................
Purpose of the Study .............................................................................
Methods of Research ............................................................................
Organization of the Thesis....................................................................
1
1
3
3
4
4
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
PORTRAYAL OF THE FEMALE MAJOR CHARACTER
IN DANIEL DEFOE’S MOLL FLANDERS ...................................
5
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THEME THROUGH
PORTRAYAL OF THE FEMALE MAJOR CHARACTER
IN WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY’S
VANITY FAIR.................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ............................................................. 30
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................... 35
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of Moll Flanders ....................................................................
Synopsis of Vanity Fair .......................................................................
Biography of Daniel Defoe ..................................................................
Biography of William Makepeace Thackeray ......................................
ii
37
38
39
40
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Pada akhir abad ke 18 dan awal abad ke 19, wanita dibentuk oleh
masyarakat untuk memiliki pola pikir yang materialistis. Hal ini yang
memungkinkan Daniel Defoe dalam karyanya Moll Flanders dan William
Makepeace Thackeray dalam Vanity Fair membahas tentang kondisi perempuan
dari kelas bawah yang berusaha untuk meningkatkan status sosialnya di mata
masyarakat.
Moll Flanders dan Rebecca Sharp, tokoh dalam masing-masing novel,
memiliki ambisi yang sama kuatnya untuk menjadi wanita yang terhormat.
Ambisi tersebut membuat mereka menghalalkan segala cara untuk mendapatkan
harta yang melimpah.
Perbedaan keputusan dari keduanya dalam menghadapi kesempatan untuk
hidup lebih baik digunakan oleh kedua pengarang untuk mengangkat tema dari
kedua novel tersebut. Seseorang yang mau mengubah sifat buruknya, seperti
Moll Flanders dalam Moll Flanders, akan mendapatkan kesempatan untuk hidup
lebih baik, sedangkan seseorang yang tidak mau mengubah sifat buruknya,
seperti Rebecca Sharp, tidak akan mendapatkan kesempatan untuk hidup lebih
baik.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Synopsis of Moll Flanders
This is a late 18th century story about a young girl named Moll Flanders,
whose mother is transported to America as a pregnant criminal. She is raised by a
foster mother who is always kind to her and she starts to dream of being a genteel
woman. After the death of her foster mother, Moll has to work for staying alive
and survive. Connected with her huge ambition, she begins to find a way to reach
it by firstly covering her financial problem. She tries hard to attract rich men to
marry her so that she will get financial security and a higher position in society.
When Moll cannot use her beauty and body anymore, she rearranges her
wicked plan from attracting rich men to stealing precious things in order to
survive and be rich. Her being a thief later leads her to be arrested and sentenced
to death. At this point, she finally repents and decides to change all her bad
characteristics in order to live a new life. After her repentance, God gives her an
opportunity to stay alive. She is sentenced to be transported to a plantation where
she firmly decides to really change into a good woman. There she meets her only
son and he accepts her as his mother.
Before she turns 69 years old, she finally realizes that she could get a
peaceful life by living honestly as she has been through a very hard life. She has
to stay alive and survive for her ambition in being rich and secured. She has been
37
Maranatha Christian University
twelve years being a whore, eight years being a transported felon, and five times
being a wife, in which one of her dead husbands is her own brother (from the
same criminal mother but a different father). She has also been a thief for twelve
years and has been in jail, where she meets her other husband and together with
him, she finally reconciles with her life.
Synopsis of Vanity Fair
This is an early 19th century story about two young girls named Rebecca
(Becky) Sharp and Amelia. Amelia Sedley lives in a very rich family while
Rebecca grows up in a broken family with a drunken father. Because of her tough
poor life, Becky grows to be an over ambitious woman who always uses her very
sweet lips together with her evil mind in order to be a genteel woman. She does it
in order to get a new secure life and also to exist as a rich lady.
It can be said that she is always successful in gaining everyone’s attention
with her “nice tongue”, from Joseph Sedley until Sir Pitt Crawley, who wants to
propose her after his wife’s death. However, because of her huge ambition, she
never feels satisfied. She flirts not only with the father, Sir Pitt Crawley, but also
with Rawdon Crawley, the second son.
The cunning and over ambitious Becky does not stop there. She, who is as
wicked as a viper, also tries to flirt with George Osborne, Amelia’s husband.
George Osborne gets into Becky’s trap but still she does not feel satisfied.
Another rich man, named Lord Stayne, comes to town. For the reason of playing
safe while Rawdon is in the war, Becky tries hard to attract Lord Stayne and gets
some benefits from him. One day, Rawdon finds out about her affair and sees it
38
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with his own eyes. He sends Becky out of the house, and keeps their son from
her.
After this occurrence, Becky still does not change at all. She stays in her
bad characteristics so that the opportunity is closed for her because no one trusts
her anymore. She does not take the chance she has been given. Finally, she lives
poor again, with nobody to rely on, with debts to pay, and her name is on the
black list.
Biography of Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe was an English writer as well as a journalist and a
pamphleteer. He wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets, and journals on various
topics. He wrote many adventure books and the greatest one is Robinson Crusoe
that was first published in 1719. The date and place of his birth were not certain
so that people often say and write 1659-1661 as his year of birth.
In his childhood, he experienced the most unusual English history which
took place in 1665. It was the Great Plague of London which strokes his
neighborhood and left only his house and two other houses still standing on that
area. Although he had been educated in a Dissenting Academy at Newington
Green, he refused to be the next dissenter of his parents. He chose to enter the
business world as a general merchant and bought a country estate and a ship.
After that, his life was surrounded by his own debt.
In 1684, Defoe married a woman named Mary Tuffley. Their marriage
seemed to be the most difficult one because of Defoe’s previous debts and also
39
Maranatha Christian University
because they had eight children to take care of. He was finally arrested for debt
issue.
When he was released, he started to arrange his new life by writing a
series of proposals for social and economic improvement. He also wrote a lot of
poems, satires, and pamphlets. Moll Flanders, one of his novels, which uses first
person point of view tells about a criminal who is at the end of the story could get
the readers’ sympathy. Defoe died on April 24th 1731 and was buried in Bunhill
Fields, London.
Source: “Daniel Defoe”
Biography of William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray, the famous satirical British novelist, was
born in Calcutta, India on July 18th, 1811. His works were categorized into
historical fiction and satires. One of his satires is The Luck of Barry Lyndon,
which tells about an outsider trying to achieve status in high society. However,
his famous satirical novel of Victorian era’s upper-middle class in London was
Vanity Fair.
Thackeray’s father died when he was four years old. His mother then sent
him to Chaterhouse, a private school in London where he suffered some abuses,
while her mother stayed in India. He also went to Trinity College, Cambridge to
study law and tried his interest in painting in Paris but he did not succeed. He met
Isabella Shawe, who finally became his wife. Thackeray and his family went
back to England and tried to make a living by writing articles, essays, and
reviews as a freelance journalist. They were happy before there was something
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wrong with Isabella’s mental condition. She tried to commit suicide but she
failed. She was then taken to an asylum in Paris and not allowed to meet
Thackeray and her children. Thackeray himself tried hard to find the cure for his
wife but he got nothing until the end of her wife’s life.
Thackeray’s health became worse because he was over eating and
drinking. He could not stop his addiction to spicy pepper so that his digestion was
ruined. On December 23rd, 1863, he was found dead on his bed. It was diagnosed
that he had a stroke. He was 52 and buried beside his mother in the Victorian
Garden cemetery Kensai Green in London, England.
Source: “William Makepeace Thackeray”
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In the 18th century and the 19th century England, women are taught by the
society to be materialistic. They automatically wish to own characteristics of
genteel women such as being polite, having a proper manner, having many skills
in music, being able to write and speak French, dancing, and then last but not
least, being rich (Rowe). For women of high-class society, it will be easier for
them to be genteel women. All they have to do is training their skills so then they
can turn themselves into genteel women.
Moll Flanders in Moll Flanders and Rebecca Sharp in Vanity Fair are
examples of low-class women who try hard to be genteel women. They master all
the skills of genteel women but they are born poor and there is nothing they can
do about that. They do not have parents to arrange their marriage so they have to
find themselves rich husbands to be secure and rich to survive and also to be
highly respected. Moll Flanders, the one who is willing to change her bad
characteristics, ends up in a happy life, while Becky who does not want to change
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her bad characteristics ends up alone and surrounded by her debts which she
cannot pay.
Moll Flanders was written by a famous 18th century English writer, Daniel
Defoe, who dedicated his life to English literature in contributing his excellent
works. The interesting thing that can be found in this novel is the way Defoe tells
the story to the readers. He writes about a bad woman, named Moll Flanders, who
is a whore, a liar, and a thief. However, interestingly, at the end of the story Moll
Flanders can still acquire the readers’ sympathy on her (“Daniel Defoe”).
Vanity Fair was well written by William Makepeace Thackeray, a best
selling writer in satirizing the society of the 19th century England. He began as a
satirist and a parodist with some stories that actually have the same theme, which
is about someone sneaking for a higher position in the society (social climber).
Rebecca Sharp in Vanity Fair becomes very famous as Thackeray himself
becomes well-known as a great satirist (“William Makepeace Thackeray”).
From both novels, Moll Flanders and Vanity Fair, I find a tight bond that
can be seen from the portrayal of the female major characters. Moll Flanders and
Rebecca Sharp have nearly identical characteristics at first. They have the same
ambition that makes them do anything to reach it. However, interestingly, they
make different decisions at the end of the story. The different attitudes in their
making decisions help me reveal the theme for both novels. Therefore, in my
major thesis, I am going to analyse the theme through the portrayal of the female
major characters in Moll Flanders and Vanity Fair using formalism. The theme is
the “central idea or the central insight” (Perrine 102) of the story. “To derive the
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theme of a story, we must ask what its central purpose is: what view of life it
supports or what insight into life it reveals” (102).
Based on the facts, I find that the two female major characters serve as a
good and a bad model of women through their characteristics. Character itself
means, “A verbal representation of a human being as presented to us by authors
through the depiction of actions, conversations, descriptions, reactions, inner
thoughts and reflections, and also through the authors’ own interpretive
commentary” (Roberts 66). Here, Moll Flanders is a dynamic character, who
“recognizes, change with, or adjust to circumstances.” (70). On the other hand,
Becky Sharp is a static character, which means she “do[es] not grow” and
“remain[s] the same because of lack of knowledge or insight” (70).
Statement of the Problem
The problems I am going to discuss are:
1.
What are the themes of the novels?
2.
How do the portrayals of characters help reveal the themes?
Purpose of the Study
Based on the problems stated above, the purposes of the study are:
1.
To show what the themes of the novels are.
2.
To show how the portrayals of characters can help reveal the themes.
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Method of Research
In writing the thesis, I used the method of library research. I began the
study by reading the primary texts which are Moll Flanders and Vanity Fair. I
then read several reference books and articles in the Internet that are relevant to
the topic to support my analysis for additional information. The information and
the knowledge that I have gathered were then used to analyse the text. Finally, I
drew a conclusion from the research I have made.
Organization of the Thesis
I divided the thesis into four chapters, followed by the Bibliography and
the Appendices. In Chapter One, I present the Introduction consisting of the
Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study,
the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. In Chapter Two, I
analyse the theme through portrayal of the female character in Daniel Defoe’s
Moll Flanders. In Chapter Three, I analyze the theme through portrayal of the
female character in William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Chapter Four is
the Conclusion. Finally, the thesis ends with the Bibliography and the
Appendices, consisting of the Biography of the authors and Synopsis of the
novels.
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CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
Having discussed Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and William Makepeace
Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, I come to a conclusion that the two novels have some
similarities and differences, both in the portrayal of the characters and the theme.
The first similarity that can be found in their novels is both Defoe and
Thackeray create female major characters that come from a low class family.
They are Moll Flanders and Rebecca Sharp. From the beginning of both novels,
the characters’ social status is presented clearly. It is also obvious that the stories
are about “social climbing” in the late 18th and early 19th century England. Moll
and Rebecca, who is called Becky, are born in poor families and that is the fact
that they have to get along with.
Another similarity is that although Moll and Becky come from poor
family, both of them have one similar huge ambition. They want to attain higher
positions in the society as genteel women. Both of them are raised with some
rules and abilities of genteel women except being rich. They have already built
their castle in the air about what they want to be in the future. They recognize the
state that they can be secured or in other word, rich, by getting married to wealthy
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gentlemen. As Moll and Becky do not have parents who will arrange proper
marriages for them, they have to depend only on themselves.
In reaching their ambition, both Moll and Becky also have similar
characteristics such as over ambitious and materialistic. These characteristics are
in accordance with their desire to reach their huge ambition. They choose to
maintain some bad characteristics to gain more wealth in order to complete all of
the characteristics of a genteel woman. Besides maintaining bad characteristics,
another similarity is that they also arrange some wicked plans that later make
them become wicked people.
Defoe and Thackeray describe that Moll’s and Becky’s bad characteristics
finally lead them to bad situations in their life. Both of them happen to receive
some consequences from the society. Being arrested and jailed are the
consequences for Moll while in Becky’s case, her friends, husband, and son leave
her one by one because of her bad characteristics.
One big difference lies on the reaction of both characters to the chances
offered to them. They actually have similar opportunity to choose whether to
change their bad characteristics or not. Interestingly, Moll and Becky who are on
the same track in the beginning, finally choose two different paths which later
lead to another difference, which is the different ending. Moll chooses to repent
and change her bad traits while Becky chooses to maintain her bad characteristics
and feeds her hunger of higher position and wealth. Their decisions later become
the leading point to the theme of both novels.
The development of Moll’s characteristics leads to a contrast ending to
Becky’s story. Moll, the one who decides to change her bad characteristics,
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finally has the opportunity to make a better living. She does not reach her dream
to be a genteel woman but she lives happily with her former husband. She makes
a better living because she grabs the chance in front of her and makes the right
decision. Becky, who decides to maintain her bad characteristics, has to deal with
a life without an opportunity to make a better living. She has a bad reputation
because she clings on her bad traits so that there is no one who wants to be close
to her. She ends up miserably and lives from charity. These two contrast endings
obviously give a hint to the theme of the novels. I can conclude that the tight
bond between the portrayal of Moll and Becky, including the differences in their
decisions, obviously helps reveal the themes which are: “One who is willing to
change one’s negative traits will have an opportunity to make a better living”, in
Moll Flanders, and “One who is unwilling to change one’s negative traits will
have no opportunity to make a better living”, in Vanity Fair.
It is obvious that the themes of the two novels are similar as they deal
with one’s willingness to change one’s negative traits so as to have an
opportunity to make a better living. In Moll Flanders, Moll is willing to change
her negative traits so that she has the opportunity to make a better living. On the
contrary, Becky in Vanity Fair chooses to keep her bad traits so that she ends up
living miserably.
In my opinion, the themes of the novels are universal. Although the
background of time in these novels are the 18th and the 19th century England, the
theme statements are still applicable today. To have a better living, one must
make some changes in his or her life in order to be a better person. The one who
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does not want to change something bad in his or her life will close the
opportunity to make a better living. There is no time border for these themes.
Seeing the dynamic and the static characters in both novels, I personally
like Moll Flanders as a dynamic character more than Rebecca Sharp. She makes
the right decision about her life, so I think she deserves a better living because
she really stays in her repentance. However, Rebecca Sharp also gives me a
lesson about life. Her being a static character is an example of a person who does
not want to change the bad traits. Finally, she has to accept the fact that she has
no one to count on and there is no one who trusts her anymore. Both of them
create two different role models of what a woman should do to survive in the
society. One does not have to be rich to gain more friends and happiness in life.
One’s good traits will be the key to make good relation with others and also with
God.
When analyzing both novels, I notice that Thackeray describes the
situation and also the rules in the society in his era more clearly than Defoe. It is
likely that Vanity Fair, which is one of the early Victorian novels of manner, sets
a more specific matter. It is of course due to the fact that the novel is a satire
towards the society; therefore more information about society can be found in
Vanity Fair, especially concerning women, than in Moll Flanders. Different from
Thackeray, Defoe as “a devout Presbyterian” (Zaleski) includes religious aspect
in portraying Moll. The religious aspect plays an important role in the changing
of Moll’s characteristics, the core of the whole novel. Moll’s repentance finally
makes her become a person with good morality. Nevertheless, both Defoe’s and
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Thackeray’s different emphasis help me see the portrayal of Moll Flanders and
Rebecca Sharp more clearly.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
References:
Hornby, A. S. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. 2005.
Neufeldt, V. Webster’s New World Dictionary. New York: Simon & Schuster,
Inc. 1988.
Perrine, L. Story and Structure. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
1974.
Roberts, E. V. Writing About Literature. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.,
2003.
Internet Websites:
Celerio, Marta Correas, A. Cortina Arguelles, Almudena E. G. Uzquiza. “Love
and Marriage in the 18th Century Literature”. El Ricon Del Vago. 1998. 28
Apr. 2010
“Daniel Defoe”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2010. 19 Mar. 2010
Rowe, Linda. “Women and Education in Eighteenth-Century Virginia”. Colonial
Williamsburg. 2009. 20 Apr. 2010
“William Makepeace Thackeray”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2010. 19
Mar. 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackeray
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Zaleski, Philip. “Daniel Defoe: A Paradoxical Genius”. Catholic Education
Resource Center. 1999. 22 Jun. 2011.
Primary texts:
Defoe, D. Moll Flanders. London: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1993.
Thackeray, W. M. Vanity Fair. London: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2001.
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