The Shackles of “Things” and the Prison of Class: A Material Semiotic Interpretation of Marriage Transactions in Vanity Fair

Abstract

William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair is set in the Victorian era and vividly portrays a society obsessed with material desires. This article takes the perspective of material semiotics, selecting key material objects such as dowries and jewelry in the novel’s marriage transaction scenes for analysis, aiming to explore the class implications these material symbols carry and the hidden power struggles behind them. The study shows that these material symbols are not only indispensable bargaining chips in marriage transactions but also become class barriers and invisible shackles. The female characters in the novel make markedly different choices in this marriage game mediated by material wealth, yet their fates ultimately converge, as none manage to break free from these shackles, becoming victims of the class prison. So, this article attempts to uncover the hypocritical veil of the Victorian marriage system by interpreting the symbolic meanings of these material objects, thereby revealing the real survival difficulties and struggles of women at that time under the dual pressures of materialism and class.