ore his going into the war. She does not know this. After George’s death, she doesn’t choose to remarry a new husband even though Dobbin is passionately devoted to her, she refuses him. Then Amelia persists in widowhood for fifteen years. Fifteen years can never be a short time for a lonely woman with a child. It is really hard to imagine how she can go through the tough time. From this point, we have to admit that Amelia is a brave and courageous girl.

After Rebecca telling Amelia that George ever wanted to elope with her, Amelia suddenly understand everything. That is too cruel for her who has sacrificed everything to love this man. But to our surprise, Amelia snaps out of it quickly and bravely. She realizes that George doesn’t deserve her love at all and Dubbin who loves and takes care of her all the time should be the real one deserved her love. Later, she gets married with Dubbin and lives a happy life since then. Therefore Amelia is not a weak girl.

After the analysis of Amelia, we can find that she is a pure, kind, faithful and courageous woman. The author, Thackeray gives her a perfect ending and let this beautiful angel find her true love and get out of the depression. Inferring from the author’s arrangement, we can easily know that Thackeray’s attitude towards Amelia is positive. He admired Amelia’s courage. In his eyes Amelia is an angel and fighter who has so many virtues, fight for herself, pursue what she want and courageously jumps out of the trap of the traditional concept of love and marriage in an male-oriented society at last.

3.2 Rebecca as a heroine

Becky is another the heroine of this novel who has the virtues and the feminism features such as her independence and her fighting for her own fate, her rebellious as well as her smart female images.

3.2.1 An iron-willed and independent Rebecca

Rebecca Sharp was born in a poor family. Her father was a beaten-up picture teacher, and her mother is a follower of song and dance drama. She lives a very hard life since her childhood, so she dreams of getting rid of predicament and going into the upper class. She suffers poverty, discrimination, inequity, and loneliness.

Rebecca is an iron-willed and independent woman. She wants to break away from the control of patriarchy and change her situation via her own strength. She has a mind to pursue economic independence so that she can achieve social status and realize her value. No matter what disasters happen to her, she always cheers up quickly and appears nothing has happened.

In order to survive in such a cruel society, Rebecca becomes socially active. She takes every opportunity to enter upper society. She uses her intelligence and smartness and tough characters to serve the hour. Several years later, she successfully enters into the upper class by herself. Meanwhile, hard life forges her to be an intelligent, capable, spell able woman who has her own judgment and independence. She is excellent in French, English, music and playing piano. After getting married with Rawdon Crawley, they do not live a rich life. In order to enjoy a luxurious life, they have to raise a loan. Later, Rawdon goes to the battlefield and Rebecca follows him so that their debt ends up with nothing definite. Thus, they have lived in European mainland for several years and run into much debt and then escape from the debt. They plan to return London. She knows that her husband is incapable to deal with the creditors so that she goes to negotiate with creditors by herself. In the process of dealing with debt, her intelligence and sociability are appreciated by the public.

From these it can be seen that Becky’ iron-willed and independent spirit reflect feminism features.

3.2.2 A rebellious and smart Rebecca

Rebecca is rebellious and smart. Rebecca who was born in a poor family has more chancesthan others to get in touch with various kinds of people and the horrible society. She has never missed all the ugly and evil things in the society, “the pompous vanity of the old schoolmistress, the foolish good humor of her sister, the silly chat and scandal of the elder girls, and the frigid correctness of her governesses equally annoyed her.”^[6]Because of her experience, she is strongly opposed to the unjust hierarchical regulation and she shows her dissatisfaction with society. She does not want to depend on men to achieve what she wants and she only wants to pursue economic independence so that she can enter the upper class and get equal social status with men.

Rebecca changes the traditional marriage and family roles that husband is a ruler while wife is only in the subordinate position. Rebecca becomes the economic leader and the decision-maker. She fights against Miss Pinkerton who is the supporter of patriarchy and refuses the unreasonable requirement. Rebecca is not reconciled to play a role as a family teacher and involves in Peters’ economic affairs and even more intelligent and capable than baron. In addition, she challenges patriarchy and is unwilling to be a traditional woman. She has strong female consciousness and she is an independent woman.

Becky Sharp is a crafty, smart and tricky woman. Her life goal is to gain money and get into the upper society. To achieve this goal, she does everything: flatter, betray and spoil other people. She does not love anyone except herself, even her own destiny man who always shares everything with her all the time. “Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural”^[6]shows her “revengeful thoughts” which suggests that she will manage her goal at any costs with any means. It is certain that Rebecca is a smart girl. When in Amelia’s home, she knows everyone’s characters and habits quickly, and knows how to cater to others. In a short time, she almost gets everyone be fond of her. And Rebecca’s life goal is wealth and high society status. She never gives up her dream. She tries everything to conquer the man dominated world no matter how hard it is. As a rebellious woman, she never surrenders to anyone. As smart and energetic woman, she knows how to make others like her or love her so that she could obtain her goal and dream. Thackeray portrays such a image as a female fighter in a male-oriented world. In this novel, Thackeray makes her achieve her dream at last, which is the best reward to her great spirit.

3.2.3 An ambitious and adventurous Rebecca

Rebecca is an ambitious and adventurous woman, which is caused by her miserable social and family reasons. In her early life, Rebecca is a poor girl. When she was young, her mother died. her father was a poor painter who was an alcoholic and died when she was only seventeen. Rebecca worked while studying with no dependence and receiving great discrimination and cold-shoulder. Personnel changes and the desolate life made her profoundly noticed the importance of wealth and status in that false, snobbish and cold society. She vowed to herself to be rich when she was only a little girl. Later, she did not miss any chance of entering into the upper society, just as “Rebecca’s wit, cleverness, and flippancy made her speedily the vogue in London among a certain class”^[6]. But in the society of British that time, there is no better access to the upper class than the means of marriage. She tries all tricks and means, and plays the coquette and gets married with Rawdon Crawley at the end. However, Rawdon who is from the nobility is incompetent and idles away his time. Hierarchy and the entrance of upper class are strict and impassable, so Rawdon Crawley loses the right of inheriting the property due to his unwise marriage with Rebecca who is only an orphan coming from a poor family of the lower social class. Rebecca’s early life is all about this to improve her social economic condition.

In order to win the man who dominates the society, she flirts with them. In such a man dominated society, if Rebecca wants to establish her high class status, she has to do something adventurous. Living is the most important thing for a woman, so she has to survive by hook or by crook. Just as Rebecca says, “I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year. I could dawdle about in the nursery, and count the apricots on the wall. I could water plants in a greenhouse, and pick off dead leaves from the geraniums.”^[6]In a man dominated society, women have no economic independence and they have to depend on their men only. If this way is infeasible, they have to depend on themselves. In many people’s eyes, Rebecca is an independent woman. She is an intelligent woman who insists on pursuing independence and insists on her own judgment. In order to make advancement in the world, she dares to challenge the world. In a sense, she is a new woman. She is praised by the author. Her evil tricks reflect all her feminist thoughts and behaviors. From these it can be seen her ambitious and adventurous features.

Rebecca Sharp is a new and modern female. Her ambition, willpower, wisdom, spirit of independence and fighting surpasses all the men in that male-oriented world, which makes those gentlemen feel ashamed. We can find the feminism features from her. The author actually admires Rebecca’s spirit and makes her dream come true at last. Therefore Rebecca is a heroine in this novel.

4. Conclusion

Vanity Fairis the famous work of British writer Thackeray in the 19^thcentury and also one of his works in his life standing the test of time with noticeable realism. In the work, the author shapes two different and typical female adventure images that pursue their happiness in their own way.

In this paper, it mainly discusses the two female images Rebecca and Amelia from the pe