Becky Sharp Becky Sharp Rebecca Sharp is the main protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel "Vanity Fair". She is presented as a cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate and seduce upper-class men. This is in contrast with the clinging, dependent Amelia Sedley, her friend whom she befriends at school. Becky then uses Amelia as a stepping stone to gain social position. Sharp functions as a "picara"—a picaresque heroine—or by being a social outsider who is able to expose the manners of the upper gentry to ridicule. The book—and Sharp's career—begins in a traditional manner of Victorian fiction, that
Amelia (novel) they be of England, they may well be excused if they kiss the cold tomb, as I did, of the author of Amelia, the most singular genius which their island ever produced, whose works it has long been the fashion to abuse in public and to read in secret." In recent years, critics have examined various aspects of the novel that were previous ignored; on the Virgilian images in "Amelia", Ronald Paulson claimed that they "elevate the domestic (marriage) plot and to connect it with public issues of a degenerating society and nation." However, those like Peter Sabor do not