How Much More Do You Know About Vanity Fair ? Quiz

Answer: Miss Swartz

Miss Swartz is a half-caste heiress from the island of St Kitts. She is much in demand in society, because of her riches. Miss Swartz was actually at school with Amelia, and is very fond of her. She is a good-natured, naive girl who does not realise that her popularity is owing to her fortune.

Answer: It comes just too late

It is true that Sir Pitt Crawley's second wife has just died, and the funeral has not even taken place. And he is old enough to be Becky's father, if not her grandfather.

But the reason she is full of chagrin is that she has just secretly married Sir Pitt's son, Rawdon. She could have been Lady Crawley with all the advantages of rank and riches, and here she is married to the penniless younger son. She is obliged to refuse the baronet, with genuine tears in her eyes.
"I would have had the townhouse newly furnished and decorated. I would have had the handsomest carriage in London and a box at the opera....who would have dreamed of Lady Crawley dying so soon?" she complains to herself.

Answer: Major

When we first meet him he is Captain Dobbin, but he is promoted to Major after the battle of Waterloo. Mr Osborne nastily accuses him of stepping into dead men's shoes, meaning his son George's.

Answer: Because he doesn't ask for money

"Rawdon never wrote to me in his life without asking for money,' says his aunt. "It is that little serpent of a governess." She also notices that there are no spelling mistakes such as Rawdon is accustomed to make. It is Rebecca who has dictated the letter, of course, and much as they both need money, she advises Rawdon not to ask for funds but to express his devotion and duty to his aunt.

She also urges him to mention the fact that his regiment is about to be sent abroad to encounter Napoleon's army, and it is likely that he will be killed. Rebecca hopes that this will soften Miss Crawley's heart.

In the meantime the couple live on credit and on Rawdon's winnings at cards.

Answer: William Dobbin

But for William Dobbin there is only one woman in the world and that is Amelia.

Poor Glorvina cannot understand how Major Dobbin can resist her. She sends for boxes of silk dresses from Europe, spends hours curling her hair, uses smiles and wiles to captivate him, dances with him, sings Irish melodies to him, tries to make him jealous with other officers; and yet never does he pay the slightest attention to her.

Answer: "That bald-headed man with the large teeth"

As well as being bald and having large teeth, Lord Steyne is short and bow-legged, but Rebecca is in thrall to his money and his position. Little Rawdon is resentful that his mother spends so much time with Lord Steyne, entertaining him with songs at the piano.

She is singing to him on one occasion when she catches her small son listening at the door, and the poor little boy receives a blow from his mother. This is what leads him to ask "Why is she always singing to that bald-headed man with the large teeth?"

Answer: A most unbecoming flannel nightgown

Lady Southdown is the mother of Lady Jane Sheepshanks, who is married to Pitt Crawley (the baronet's son). Her two passions in life are quack medicine and non-conformist religion. Rebecca over-reaches herself when trying to get on the right side of Lady Southdown by feigning a great interest in both of these, and is forced to submit to the dreaded black dose.

She later reproduces the scene for the amusement of Lord Steyne and his friends, which is a great success. "Give us Lady Southdown and the black dose!"

Answer: A note for a thousand pounds

Rawdon comes home after being released from prison to find Rebecca covered in jewels, singing provocatively to Lord Steyne, with no one else in the house.

Rawdon realises Lord Steyne has contrived to have him arrested for debt in order to get him out of the way. He is devastated not only by Rebecca's perfidy, but because when he asked her to raise some money to get him out of prison, she had claimed to be too ill to get up. When he searches her desk, he finds among other banknotes a note for a thousand pounds that Lord Steyne has given her. She has been hoarding it all this time, while Rawdon was in difficulties and they owed money to everyone.

This is the final straw for Rawdon. "You might have spared me a hundred pounds, Becky. I've always shared with you," are his last words as he leaves her. He refuses ever to see her again.

Answer: She gets her own son's age wrong

Amelia is overcome with compassion when her brother Jos tells her that Rebecca's son has been taken away from her following the scandal with Lord Steyne. She imagines how she would feel if she was separated from her own son, and rushes to the lodging house to shower sympathy on Rebecca. Rebecca mentions little Rawdon's age as eleven. He is in fact fourteen, the same age as Amelia's son, Georgey. Amelia shows her surprise at this and Rebecca hastily corrects her mistake. "Grief has made me forget so many things, dearest Amelia.... He was eleven when they took him away."

Becky actually has hidden a brandy bottle under the bed-clothes, when Jos visits her; so she hastily ushers him to a chair and sits on the bed herself.

It is interesting to note that in this scene Becky is loath to start telling lies again so soon to Amelia, but what else can she do? she asks herself. Thackeray's portrayal of Becky is ingenious; in spite of her villainy, we feel sympathy for her at several points in the story. What leads to her undoing is that she always goes too far and over-reaches herself just when she could be sitting pretty.

Answer: In the West Indies, of fever

Rawdon Crawley had changed a lot from the hard-drinking, thoughtless card-sharping Guardsman whom Rebecca met at Queen's Crawley at the beginning of the book. When he first marries Rebecca, he accepts that she is much cleverer than he is, and leaves everything to her, obeying her every command. He delights in her unscrupulous methods of using other people and abusing their trust.

A gradual change comes from the time of their son's birth. Rawdon is proud of his son, and becomes attached to him; while Rebecca is a cold and uncaring mother. For the first time, Rawdon can see a fault in his wife. Later on, as Becky advances further into grand society and is presented at court etc., Rawdon becomes almost frightened of the distance between them.

After his scandalous entanglement with Rebecca, Lord Steyne not only gets out of fighting a duel; he arranges for Rawdon to be offered a position as Governor of the fictitious Coventry Island. It is well known that the climate of this island is dangerously unhealthy. Rawdon asks Sir Pitt Crawley and Lady Jane to take care of his son, and goes off to the West Indies to take up the position. He sends home all his salary but never sees Rebecca or little Rawdon again, and dies of yellow fever on the island.