Plot

Growing up poor in London, Becky Sharp defies her poverty-stricken background and ascends the social ladder alongside her best friend, Amelia Sedley.

The British Empire flowers; exotic India colors English imaginations. Becky Sharp (Reese Witherspoon), the orphaned daughter of a painter and a singer, leaves a home for girls to be a governess, armed with a keen wit, good looks, fluent French, and an eye for social advancement. Society tries its best to keep her from climbing. An episodic narrative follows her for twenty years, through marriage, Napoleonic wars, a child, loyalty to a school friend, the vicissitudes of the family whose daughters she instructed, and attention from a bored marquess who collected her father's paintings. Honesty tempers her schemes.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

The movie Vanity Fair (2004) is based on one of the most beloved of all 19th century novels, by the same name, written by William Makepiece Thackeray, a contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens. The movie opens by introducing our two heroines, Rebecca Sharp and Amelia Sedley, who are the best of friends. The girls are about to graduate from an Academy for Young Ladies. Amelia, who comes from a rich family, is a kind and innocent person loved by her classmates and "sucked up to" by her teachers. (I think I just sensed Thackeray rolling over in his grave by my use of slang!) Backy is a poor orphan, who has only been allowed to stay at the school as an unpaid teacher of the French language. She is not called "Sharp" by accident. She has no friends except Amelia, and couldn't care less. Before Becky starts to look for work as a governess, she has been invited to stay for a while at the Sedley home.

Here she meets 2 young men; one, Amelia's brother, Josiah is a figure of fun---he is home on a visit from India where he works as an administrator; the other, George is Amelia's fiancee. George has many faults; he is a dreadful snob, he is bored by Amelia and fails to appreciate her love (the two have been engaged since childhood.); he gambles recklessly with his father's money and in fact has been encouraged by dear old Dad to do anything that will raise him above his shameful background in "trade. "The 4 young people make up a party to go to a sort of pleasure garden. Becky sets her cap for Jos, and probably could have snatched him up, but George sneers to Jos that it would be dreadful for him(George) to have to tolerate having a lowly governess for a sister-in-law. Both men are very conscious of the opinion of the chaps at the club. So Becky's first try at entering society fails.

George's father has bought him a commission in a military regiment. Through this connection, we are introduced to another Army man, Captain William Dobbin. Dobbin adored Amelia with the pure love