# Vanity Fair — Character guide

> Key figures in Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.

- [Amelia Sedley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/amelia_sedley.md): Amelia is the sheltered, sweet-tempered daughter of a wealthy Russell Square family, whose devotion to the handsome George Osborne defines her youth. Her flaw is not coldness but excess of feeling: she mistakes vanity fo
- [Becky Sharp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/becky_sharp.md): Becky enters the novel as Amelia's clever, impoverished schoolfellow, already calculating how to secure a husband and a fortune. She refuses Sir Pitt Crawley's proposal not from modesty but from strategy, and her talent 
- [George Osborne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/george_osborne.md): George is the glittering prize of Amelia's girlhood, a lieutenant whose diamond shirt-pin and easy graces convince her she loves a hero. In truth he is selfish and shallow, more in love with his own image than with her, 
- [William Dobbin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/william_dobbin.md): Dobbin is the schoolboy who took a beating for a smaller child and grew into the officer who defends the helpless without expecting reward. He loves Amelia silently, watching her lavish affection on the unworthy George, 
- [Joseph Sedley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/joseph_sedley.md): Joseph returns from Boggley Wollah a wealthy, liver-afflicted nabob who fancies himself a man about town and relishes telling his Indian stories. Vain, easily flattered, and timid before women, he becomes the first targe
- [Rawdon Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/rawdon_crawley.md): Rawdon is the Life Guards captain whose prospects rest on his wealthy aunt Miss Crawley's favor, and whose contempt for his pious brother Pitt is matched only by his fondness for gambling and horses. Brave in the field b
- [Sir Pitt Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/sir_pitt_crawley.md): Sir Pitt rules his Hampshire estate with drink, blows, and cheerful indifference to anyone's good opinion, marrying a tradesman's pretty daughter and letting her fade into a household machine. His proposal to the governe
- [Miss Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_crawley.md): Miss Crawley holds the family purse strings and the family's attention, reading Pigault-Lebrun while nephews and in-laws orbit her for inheritance. When Sir Pitt proposes to Rebecca and is refused, she is more bewildered
- [Mr. Osborne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/mr_osborne_senior.md): Old Osborne rules his household with the same imperious temper he brings to Lombard Street, growing more violent and moody as his daughter Jane withers beside him. He buries George's faults and remembers only the son he 
- [Lady Jane Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lady_jane_crawley.md): Lady Jane enters the Crawley family as a softening presence amid its greed and coldness, offering affection where the household deals only in advantage. Her warmth toward young Rawdon gives the boy the maternal care his 
- [Pitt Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/pitt_crawley.md): Pitt Crawley returns from Christchurch so fastidious he would starve rather than dine without a white neckcloth, and so proper he lectures servants over a missing tray. He stands in awe-inspiring contrast to his father's
- [Lord Steyne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lord_steyne.md): Lord Steyne is the great peer whose partiality Becky cultivates with perfect frankness, turning his attachment into appointments, introductions, and hope of a peerage for Pitt. He moves through Vanity Fair as its most cy
- [Mrs. Sedley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/mrs_sedley.md): Amelia's doting mother, whose kind heart has already arranged a score of little schemes for her daughter's marriage and settlement.
- [John Sedley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/john_sedley.md): A once-prosperous London merchant whose comfortable world of turtle dinners and champagne collapses into ruin, embittering the family he adored.
- [Bute Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/bute_crawley.md): Sir Pitt's clergyman brother, whose living and dignity depend on the family fortunes he can neither command nor escape.
- [Mrs. Bute Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/mrs_bute_crawley.md): The rector's ambitious wife, who maneuvers relentlessly to secure Miss Crawley's fortune for her own branch of the family.
- [Miss Briggs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_briggs.md): Miss Crawley's gentle, tearful companion, still cherishing a lock of yellow hair from a writing-master twenty-four years dead.
- [Georgy Osborne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/georgy_osborne.md): Amelia's cherished little son, whose copybooks and drawings she displays like miracles to make old Mr. Osborne repent his cruelty.
- [James Crawley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/james_crawley.md): Younger son of Bute Crawley, a good-natured but reckless young man who disappoints his family.
- [Lady Southdown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lady_southdown.md): Pious, domineering mother of Lady Jane who meddles in the Crawley household.
- [Major O'Dowd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/major_odowd.md): Brave Irish army officer who commands the regiment, loyal friend to Dobbin and Amelia.
- [Mrs. O'Dowd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/mrs_odowd.md): Major O'Dowd's formidable, talkative Irish wife who mothers the young officers.
- [Miss Swartz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_swartz.md): Wealthy, kind-hearted heiress of mixed race, courted by George Osborne for her money.
- [Miss Osborne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_osborne.md): George's spinster sister who lives with their father and later befriends Amelia.
- [Maria Osborne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_maria_osborne.md): George's younger sister who marries Frederick Bullock against her father's wishes.
- [Frederick Bullock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/frederick_bullock.md): Wealthy merchant who marries Maria Osborne for her dowry, later regrets the match.
- [Miss Pinkerton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_pinkerton.md): Headmistress of Chiswick Mall academy where Amelia and Becky were educated.
- [Miss Jemima Pinkerton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_jemima_pinkerton.md): Miss Pinkerton's kind but timid younger sister who helps run the school.
- [Glorvina O'Dowd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/glorvina_odowd.md): Major O'Dowd's sister, a flirtatious Irish beauty who sets her cap at Dobbin.
- [Rawdon Minor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/rawdon_minor.md): Becky and Rawdon's son, neglected by his mother but loved by his father and Lady Jane.
- [Lady Bareacres](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lady_bareacres.md): Proud, cold-hearted aristocrat who snubs Becky but later needs her help in Brussels.
- [Lord Bareacres](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lord_bareacres.md): Aristocratic husband of Lady Bareacres, a gambler and debtor in high society.
- [Wenham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/wenham.md): Lord Steyne's sly, manipulative secretary who helps manage the marquis's affairs.
- [Firkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/firkin.md): Miss Crawley's loyal, gossipy maid who reports on household intrigues.
- [Betsy Horrocks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_horrocks.md): Sir Pitt's maid who becomes his second wife after Lady Crawley's death.
- [Raggles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/raggles.md): Former butler to Miss Crawley who rents his house to Becky and Rawdon.
- [Lady Steyne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lady_steyne.md): Lord Steyne's pious, long-suffering wife who endures his infidelities in silence.
- [Lord Gaunt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lord_gaunt.md): Lord Steyne's eldest son, a dissolute nobleman who dies young.
- [Lady Gaunt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lady_gaunt.md): Lord Gaunt's wife, a cold, proud aristocrat who snubs Becky in society.
- [Mary Clapp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/mary_clapp.md): The Clapps' daughter, a kind friend to Amelia during her years of poverty.
- [General Tufto](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/general_tufto.md): A vain, elderly general who commands the regiment and flirts with Becky.
- [Ensign Stubble](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/ensign_stubble.md): A young, enthusiastic ensign in the regiment who dies at Waterloo.
- [Isidor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/isidor.md): Joseph Sedley's French valet who helps him flee Brussels during the Waterloo panic.
- [Lady Blanche Thistlewood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/lady_blanche_thistlewood.md): A fashionable society lady who appears in the charade scene at Gaunt House.
- [Mrs. Blenkinsop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/mrs_blenkinsop.md): The Sedley family's housekeeper, a loyal servant through their changing fortunes.
- [Mr. Eaves](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/mr_eaves.md): A gossipy old man who knows everyone's secrets in London society.
- [Tom Eaves](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/tom_eaves.md): A minor character in the novel's social scenes, possibly related to Mr. Eaves.
- [Miss Wirt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters/miss_wirt.md): A governess in the Crawley household, a minor character.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/vanity_fair_se/characters