Vanity Fair, a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray starts of introducing the setting which is Miss Pinkerton's academy for young girls. The main characters Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley are friends who aren't alike. Amelia is kind and comes from a family with money and Becky is a money hungry schemer. Becky goes to Miss Pinkerton's Academy, leaves the school on her way to stay with Amelia. She plans on staying at Amelia's home for just a few days to stay in a rich setting. Becky meets Amelia's brother, Jos Sedley and tries flirting with him. Jos works for the East India Company as a tax collector so he has money. Becky attempts to plan a wedding with him until George Osborne knocks some since into him. Becky gets upset and leaves to go to work at the Crawleys' home where she privately teaches the children in the family. She meets Miss Crawley who is a sick old woman and the rest of the Crawleys are waiting for her inheritance. She finds out that Rawdon, Sir Pitts youngest son is Miss Crawleys' favorite so she thinks a scheme. Sir Pitts and Rawdon ask Becky to marry them but she secretly marries Rawdon. When the family finds out about the marriage, they're angry because they felt it was wrong because Becky's parents; her mother was a opera dancer and her father was a art teacher. Rawdon is cutoff by his father and taken off of Miss Crawleys' will.
Amelia has a crush on George and they're later engaged. He's the son of her father's business partner. They fall into a deep financial crisis and George's father turns on Mr. Sedley, George's dad wants him to leave Amelia but he doesn't and they get married. William Dobbin is George's friend who's in love with Amelia but with do anything to see her happy. Him and George for off to war to Belgium to fight Napoleon. George dies in the Battle of Waterloo and Amelia breaks down. She sends her son to live with the Osborne's because she's going through a hard time after George's death. Dobbin tries to help Amelia after he'd came back from England. George's father dies and leaves a little bit of money for Amelia and her son. Dobbin, Amelia, and her son go to Europe where they find Becky. Becky lets them know about her and George's affair and Amelia finally finds out who George really was. Amelia and William end up marrying each other.