Stry of higher and secondary specialized education of the republic of uzbekistan state university of world languages

CHAPTER.II. Mature writings of William Makepeace Thackeray.

2.1. Analysis of William Makepeace Thackeray’s Novels.

William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) is renowned for being the master of social satire. His writing is more realistic than that of the "novel of sensibility," a work from the early nineteenth century that sought to achieve enhanced emotional effects at the expense of plausible plot and characterization, and it is more in the style of Henry Fielding than Samuel Richardson. In both his previous writings and his first significant work, Vanity Fair, Thackeray sought to contrast the melodramatic and pretentious entertainment provided by authors like Edward Bulwer-Lytton, William Harrison Ainsworth, and even the early Charles Dickens. Instead, he aimed to reveal for his readers the cultural and social hypocrisy that, in his view, characterised the era. To accomplish this, he wrote early essays under a number of pseudonyms; these personas can be regarded as foreshadowings of those he would later utilize in his novels. While reviewing both art and literature for publications like Fraser's Magazine and The New Monthly Magazine, Thackeray adopted the Yellowplush and Titmarsh signatures, enabling him to playfully mock what he regarded to be false. No less harsh were his critiques of the current propensity to exalt criminals and outlaws, as evidenced by the popular "Newgate Novels" series. Under the alias Ikey Solomons, Jr., he created Catherine, the tale of a murderess, but even here, his efforts to deglamorize the plot were frustrated by his growing sympathy for his made-up characters. A Shabby Genteel Story sought to speak candidly to the middle class once more. Irish adventurer Barry Lyndon tells his own story in The Luck of Barry Lyndon, his first in-depth memoir. The plot of the book follows the rise and fall of its picaresque hero in order to expose the hollowness of monetary success. The most instructive of his ten-year training for fiction writing may have been two series that appeared in Punch. "The Snobs of England" is a collection of verbal portraits of social types, most of whom are drawn for their pretentiousness, while "Punch's Prize Writers" is a collection of parodic rewrites of works by well-known novelists. But rather than a collection of isolated anecdotes, Thackeray's longer works provide readers a thorough investigation of human nature under the supervision of a witty persona whose critical leaning is constrained by the realization that he himself participates in the shortcomings of his own characters. Thackeray was influenced by Samuel Johnson in addition to Fielding's prefaces to the different volumes of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749). A sensible person will stoically accept the world as it is because an ideal world is impossibly unachievable, according to Johnson's conclusion to Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759). Thackeray's experiments with the ego in The History of Henry Esmond, Esquire, a novel written in the memoir-style, undoubtedly prepared the way for such masters of psychological realism and sarcasm as Henry James and James Joyce. Thackeray's efforts with the generational form also foreshadow works like John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, which combines several novels through the links between the protagonists' families. Henry Esmond's portrayal of his grandchildren's affairs and the aging of the beautiful Beatrix Esmond in The Virginians delicately probed the type of hereditary and environmental impact that naturalists referred to as determinism. Thackeray continues to be remembered for his realistic depictions of people from various social backgrounds, notably in his early books, and for his moral philosophy, which is best summed up in the prologue to Vanity Fair as a forgiving attitude toward human frailties. However, many modern readers might not be as at ease with the idea of the authorial voice as a consistent, even crucial, part in the plot as their nineteenth-century forefathers were. Reading all of William Makepeace Thackeray's books will help you understand why his contribution to the history of the novel is exceptional, even though Vanity Fair may be his most well-known book. Alexander Welsh, a critic, calls Henry Fielding's use of the intrusive narrator a "genuine invention of narrative experiment" and a "new sort of fiction" despite the fact that Fielding foreshadowed it. Additionally, despite the fact that it resulted in the "a loose and baggy monster" novel that Henry James loathed, his wide realism tackled a lot of topics that other Victorian authors ran away from, like married life and the development of the middle-class gentleman. Several of Thackeray's writings offer explanations of the mechanics of writing fiction as well as criticisms of the flaws of some of his contemporaries, in addition to the excitement generated by the plot. For instance, Amelia in Vanity Fair is unable to visualize George's barracks because the romantic imagination is completely unsuited to the needs of daily life. In The Newcomes, Thackeray compares the process of developing the characters to that of a paleontologist who must invent the mannerisms, demeanor, and appearance of his subject from a sparse skeleton. Because the novelist, like the paleontologist, must deal with probability, he indicates that any such "reality" is really a creation. His characters are realistic and, in some ways, interact without the author's direction since they develop in a predictable manner. When his findings are taken into account, it is clear that Thackeray meant his novels to be more than just plausible illusionary worlds. For instance, Thackeray suggests that the sentimental universe he has built in The Newcomes in the end doesn't have any foundation in reality, though the reader may choose to convince himself otherwise. Similar to this, Thackeray puts his "puppets"—his characters—back into their box in the well-known conclusion to Vanity Fair. Thackeray takes on a philosophical tone instead of adopting Samuel Taylor Coleridge's idea of "voluntary suspension of disbelief," pushing the reader to reevaluate his or her own beliefs and assumptions. There is little doubt that Thackeray's sarcasm is evident here, particularly in his Punch series, Catherine, and The Luck of Barry Lyndon, in which he purposely mocked popular historical, criminal, and romance novels, respectively. The reader is asked to evaluate his own level of hypocrisy and arrogance more so than literary conventions. By doing this, the reader is constantly reminded that he is condemning himself if he laughs at his neighbors. Because of this, Thackeray's writing is really homiletic on both a literary and non-literary level. He makes marriage his theme instead of assuming that a novel should end with marriage. In contrast to many of his predecessors, who did not go into considerable depth regarding difficulties resulting from both marriage and other personal connections, he did this. Of fact, Henry Esmond's growing fondness for Rachel as well as his own sad family circumstances and his romance with Jane Brookfield reflect Rachel Esmond's troubles with her negligent husband. In the family saga The Newcomes, Thackeray explores the anguish caused by parental marriage decisions; Mrs. Mackenzie, a strong-willed virago who manages her daughter's life, is based on Mrs. Shawe, Isabella's termagant mother. He concludes by tracing the development of familial characteristics and ties in The Virginians. One of the many ways Thackeray's works are instructional is the way he redefines the term "gentleman" to refer to a person who possesses a set of character traits like clarity of vision, sensitivity, compassion, and humanitarianism. In Vanity Fair, the son of a greengrocer, Dobbin, rather than the pompous, conceited George Osborne, emerges as the paradigmatic opponent to snobbery and greed, despite the fact that his upper-class upbringing in India, education at Cambridge, and love of the high life would seem to mitigate against such a redefinition. Despite his foolish attempts to ensure his son Clive's happiness, Colonel Newcome also comes across as the gentleman. The title of Thackeray's most well-known work, Vanity Fair, is taken from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1678, 1684). Thackeray was in fact labeled "the Fielding of the nineteenth century" by some reviewers due to his attention to panoramic perspective and realistic detail, let alone the author/constant narrator's presence. Although neither the initial reviews nor the initial sales were promising, the serial's popularity slowly grew until the volume's publication, guaranteeing the author's commercial and critical success. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens (1846–1848) was as well-liked as Thackeray's writing at the time. After reading the paragraph describing the death of little Paul, Thackeray himself expressed his annoyance at having to write "against such power." A moralist who included both himself and his audience in his self-reflective vision of society, Thackeray also possessed his own authority as a satirist who authored "A Novel Without a Hero" and defied the expectations of his audience. Vanity Fair must do without the traditional romantic hero. Although George Osborne is handsome, dashing, and well-liked, he is also selfish, shallow, and pompous, and the opulent Regency court comes to mind when you hear his first name. After Joseph Sedley files for bankruptcy, George only convinces the yearning Amelia Sedley to marry him at the urging of his friend William Dobbin. He flirts with Becky Sharp, who was also newly married to Rawdon Crawley, when they are on their honeymoon. After George lost his life in the Battle of Waterloo, only Amelia still thinks of him as a hero. On the other end of the spectrum is Dobbin. He is kind and empathetic despite being gangly, socially awkward, and of poor stature. But until the novel's climax, he is so consumed by his unconditional love for Amelia that he is unaware of the flimsy foundation on which it is based. Even Rawdon lacks intellectual prowess as he changes from a typical "heavy dragoon" who survives on his gambling to a caring father for his tortured son. He accepts the position Becky's prostitution to Lord Steyne earned him after their breakup. In actuality, Thackeray employs "irony against heroes" as well as "irony against heroines," as suggested by A. E. Dyson. Amelia and Becky are incredibly different from one other, just as George and Dobbin. Amelia initially seems like a conventional heroine, but the reader who views her in that manner will be horrified to discover that he is idealizing the passivity, self-sacrifice, and hero-worship that are the defining characteristics of neuroticism. The way she treats her son Georgy, who is obscenely indulged despite Amelia and her parents' poverty, exemplifies these three characteristics. Because of her intelligence and ambition, it makes obvious that readers preferred "the famous little Becky puppet." She leaves Dr. Johnson's dictionary on the ground as she rides out of Miss Pinkerton's finishing school, demonstrating her desire to make a name for herself in society. After failing to entangle him, she eventually marries Rawdon, the wealthy aunt of Amelia's brother Jos, and she only regrets it when Lord Crawley himself proposes—too late. Her passion in luring con artists to Rawdon's card table, stealing diamonds from Lord Steyne, being presented to the queen, and playing charades at a social event belies her claim that she too could be a "good woman on £5000 a year." John Loofbourow illustrates how Becky becomes more well-known in society while Amelia falls into obscurity. Amelia lacks Becky's liveliness, but Becky lacks Amelia's sincerity. Becky has become into a female picaresque criminal who roams the Continent from shady gaming table to shady inn by the time Dobbin finally wins his prize. She and Amelia are unsuitable to be heroes. Thackeray's introduction reveals the moral message of his satire. As the "Manager of the Performance," Thackeray informs his audience that they are taking a fictional journey that is only tangentially related to the one described in Bunyan's work while passing through a symbolic Vanity Fair. Instead of experiencing it "in a solemn, introspective, not uncharitable frame of mind," as Bunyan's Christian did, Thackeray claims that Vanity Fair is a reflection of the human condition because both the reader and the author are a part of the fair. The author's observations help to distance the reader from the characters and force him to consider both his own preconceptions and the manufactured "puppets." If everyone attends the fair, then criticizing the booth owners' mendacity, elitism, ascension in social circles, or hypocrisy is equivalent to criticizing one's own flaws. Thackeray claims that having "charity"—the ability to feel empathy for others with the same worry that one has for oneself—is the greatest hope that can be held when the puppets are put back in the box.