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Situational Irony
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Thackeray is an entertainer, and Vanity Fair is written in a rich, conversational style that draws the reader in and keeps them on the edge of their seat. Notably, Thackeray invites the narrator into the fold as a character in his own right, and the narrator is quick to throw in his own personal judgements about any given situation—this attitude is the source of much of the novel's satire and humor. At times, the narrator gets outright chatty, as in Chapter 3:
If Miss Rebecca Sharp had determined in her heart upon making the conquest of this big beau, I don’t think, ladies, we have any right to blame her; for though the task of husband-hunting is generally, and with becoming modesty, intrusted by young persons to their mammas, recollect that Miss Sharp had no kind parent to arrange these delicate matters for her, and that if she did not get a husband for herself, there was no one else in the wide world who would take the trouble off her hands.
It is this casual nature of Thackeray's narration, combined with the clarity of his expression and his embrace of sentimental language, that makes Vanity Fair so engaging to read.
