Nature and Function of a Tragedy in Vanity Fair by William M. Thackeray and The Way of All Flesh authored by Samuel Butler.

I will pay for the following article Nature and Function of a Tragedy in Vanity Fair by William M. Thackeray and The Way of All Flesh authored by Samuel Butler. The work is to be 10 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page. Modern literary tragedies still espouse the compelling narrative that the lesson must in some way lead to catharsis and reformation. Tragedies normally involved the people who were high and mighty, those who had fame, fortune, and power but suffered a fall from their high perch in society and life. Today’s tragedies have evolved to include ordinary people just like you and me who somehow missed their opportunities in life and realized their mistakes only much later to their everlasting regret. The story of “Vanity Fair” is a harsh critique of Victorian-era England during the early nineteenth century. The author Thackeray used his novel to portray the distorted values at the time through his two principal characters which were Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. The time and setting of the novel were used to illustrate the futility of how some people tried to attain the good things in life through a compromise of their cherished values, primarily in the attitude and behavior of Becky. The title of the story comes from the name of a town called Vanity in the Pilgrim’s Progress which itself was an allegory of the times when it was written. The fair pertains to a never-ending year-round fair held in the town of Vanity and so the novel of Thackeray used “Vanity Fair” to imply how people can be vain throughout their lives. This was certainly the case with Becky as she struggled to attain respectability in her life in which she tried all means to gain wealth and fame as she was orphaned at an early age.