روز چهارم

A SCHEMING HEROINE

William Makepeace Thackeray was known for his moralistic study of upper and middle class English life. His best known work, vanity Fair, has as its central character Becky Sharp.

She is a perfidious woman who has an insatiable desire to get ahead in the world.

She covets the wealth of one man, but when marriage is not feasible she succeeds in a plan to ingratiate herself into the heart of her employer’s son.

Their marriage is not a salubrious one and Becky, who lives ostentatiously, forms a surreptitious liaison with another man.

The affair culminates in a debacle. She is exposed, her husband leaves her, and she must live in penury in Europe.

This is the ignominious end for a clever, but misguided woman.