Abstract Vanity Fair was the work of William Makepeace Thackeray, one of the most representative British critical realist writers of the 19th century。 Vanity Fair was known as “a novel without a hero” and it was also the beginning of Thackeray’s fame。 This paper aims to study Vanity Fair through the perspective of Sartre’s existentialism theory。 First is the discussion about the absurdity of vanity fair, a place where pedigree and money almost always dominate everything。 The alienation and bad faith are two main factors in this thesis。 Explanations will be given on alienations in Vanity Fair and how bad faith in Amelia makes her life miserable。 In Sartre’s existentialism theory, people define themselves through their actions and they always have the freedom to choose what they do。 From the perspective of Sartre’s existentialism theory, this paper analyze the two main characters, Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp in Vanity Fair, and want to emphasize the positive side Rebecca revealed through her willingness to make choices for herself。 Considering all the points of view mentioned above, this paper wants to draw some implications for the current generation to seek better optimization and balance since China’s economy has grown too fast for over three decades and the current generation, like Rebecca in Vanity Fair, is in a rush to succeed。94738

Key words: Vanity Fair; existentialism; bad faith; alienation; freedom

摘要《名利场》是19世纪英国著名批判现实主义作家萨克雷的成名作，也被称为“没有英雄的小说”。本文旨在从萨特的存在主义视角浅析名利场。首先本文将讨论名利场的荒诞性，在名利场上血统和金钱几乎主导了一切。人的异化和恶信是本文中的两大主要讨论点，文章中会举例分析名利场中人的异化和爱米丽亚身上体现的恶信以及对她造成的痛苦。萨特的存在主义中，强调人总可以通过自由选择及行动来塑造自身。本文从萨特的存在主义视角分析名利场中的两大主人公利蓓加和爱米丽亚，并着重体现利蓓加身上体现出的勇于替自己抉择所体现的积极意义，中国经济快速发展三十多年，像名利场中的利蓓加一样，这一代的人大都急于成功，透过以上的视角，希望能为当代的中国人提供一些合理和平衡的参考。

毕业论文关键词：《名利场》；存在主义；恶信；异化；自由

Contents

1。 Introduction 1

2。 Literature Review 2

3。 The Absurdity of Vanity Fair 2

3。1 Pedigree’s role in Vanity Fair 2

3。2 Money’s role in Vanity Fair 4

4。 Alienation and Bad Faith5

4。1 Definition of alienation and bad faith。。。5

4。2 Alienation in Vanity Fair 6

4。3 Bad faith in Amelia Sedley 8

4。4 Rebecca Sharp’s struggles against alienation 10

5。 Conclusion 12

Works Cited 14 

1。 Introduction论文网

　　William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century known for his witty and satirical works。 In his day, Thackeray enjoyed tremendous popularity and was compared to the great novelist Charles Dickens for his marvelous contribution to the Victorian domestic novel and the unusual pattern he had brought to the novel writing。 At that time the British Empire was an empire of trade, the government thought that the "invisible hand” of the market would take care of everything and therefore took a laissez-faire economic policy。 Of course the problems caused by the greedy capitalists would never evaporate into thin air。 The lower-class were suffering the most and were barely scraping an existence。 Thackeray was some kind liked the talking cricket in the animated fantasy film Pinocchio, who kept telling the hard truth to his audience in the hope of the majority of the populace would realize the importance of the poverty issues and made some remedy。 Karl Marx appreciated the works done by the writers who had the conscience to reveal the sufferings of the poor people and spoke highly of them, that they "have issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together"(Marx Engels On Literature and Art, 1976)。 After all, you have got to recognize the evils first before starting to remedy the situation。