Portrayal of Jane Osborne in Vanity Fair Essay -- Victorian Era Willia

The wasted WomanThackerays portrayal of Jane Osborne in Vanity Fair is very troubling to the lector of the twentieth century. Grown to be a fair sex who is stuck under her compulsive fathers roof, her life appears to be very confining and menial. Her child snubs her, her nephew mocks her behind her back, her father mocks her to her face, and her main role in life seems to be as her fathers housekeeper. However, Thackerays portrayal would gravel had a very different effect on the Victorian reader. While exclusively of these things which affronted us would have been equally awful to them, Thackeray uses another key say which has lost its effect on our modern minds that unfortunate and now old young lady (448). Jane Osbornes future has progressed from being uncertain, waiting reasonably impatiently for a suitors attentions, to a dreadful demonstration she is quickly becoming what the Victorians referred to as a redundant woman.DestinyA Victorian woman was bred up with the hon ored ideals of someday being wives, daughters, and guardians of the spot (Parkinson). A model young woman was designed as a bargaining tool her person, characteristics, skills, and, for those who were fortunate, dowry were key chips to be laid in a game of houses which defined the noblest aspirations of Victorian society. The very spheres of warp compose about by so many authors of the time, both male and female, placed that what the woman is to be within her fates, as the centre of order, the balm of distress, and the mirror of beauty that she is also to be without her fates, where order is more(prenominal) difficult, distress more imminent, loveliness more rare (Ruskin). However, being bred for marriage produces a snatch of problems hundre... ...n has become very antiquated, and purposeless in a world where women have more and more opportunities for equal advancement, affirmative action, etc. It is interesting, however, to note that the ideas of spheres of influence still p ersist, though somewhat altered.Works CitedGreg, W. R. Why Are Women Redundant? (excerpt). Phoebe Junior. Elizabeth Langland. Broadview literary Text. Toronto Broadview Press Ltd., 2002. Pages 449-450.Ruskin, John. Of Queens Gardens (excerpt). Phoebe Junior. Elizabeth Langland. Broadview Literary Text. Toronto Broadview Press Ltd., 2002. Pages 446-449.Parkinson, Allison. Sphere Switching Polly, Work/Life Choices and the redundant woman in 19th Century London. November 9, 2004. Thackeray, William M. Vanity Fair. New York Random House, Inc., 2001.