Adam Smith’s Moral Sentiments in Vanity Fair by Rosa Slegers

Author:Rosa Slegers
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319987316
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Becky, too, wants to obtain these “conveniencies,” and has distinguished herself in a “laborious profession,” i.e. that of modest, unassuming domestic angel. She labors with “unrelenting industry” and beats out the competition, becoming mistress of the house and the favorite of everyone in the Crawley household. She too builds “castles in the sky,” and inhabits them in her imagination. But unlike the poor man’s son, she seems to enjoy her labors and industry. Becky does not “suffer” like the poor man’s son, who deprives himself of pleasures that he could have enjoyed had he not been enthralled by the “superior rank of beings.” His “fatigue of body” and “uneasiness of mind” are, in Smith’s account, not only unnecessary but not worth the trouble: a life lacking the “conveniencies” the poor man’s son is aiming to obtain would have been more comfortable. But unlike the poor man’s son, Becky enjoys the “bustle” of her industry and though she keeps her eye on the prize, the game itself energizes her. She likes her “laborious profession” of artful mimicry and play-acting. Continuing his account of the poor man’s son, Smith’s writes:

He endeavours next to bring those talents into public view, and with equal assiduity solicits every opportunity of employment. For this purpose he makes his court to all mankind; he serves those whom he hates, and is obsequious to those whom he despises. Through the whole of his life he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repose which he may never arrive at, for which he sacrifices a real tranquillity that is at all times in his power, and which, if in the extremity of old age he should at last attain to it, he will find to be in no respect preferable to that humble security and contentment which he had abandoned for it (TMS 201).7

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