Worship A Stone Makepeace Thackery Analysis

Worshiping a Stone In an excerpt from Vanity Fair(1848), William Makepeace Thackery describes a beautiful young woman and how she goes about her life. She has a young son in which she visits once or twice a week, but ignores for the rest of the week and is engulfed with her own life. The way Thackery reveals and characterizes this woman shows that she is self centered and unconcerned with the life of her son.
The author gives away many clues implying that she spends her money on herself rather than her son. The woman is described to be “like a vivified figure out of Magazin des Modes” (Thackery 2-3). Magazin des Modes is a French high end fashion magazine. This simile is implying that spends a fortune on her wardrobe and appearance. The author complements her beautiful glow and how well she keeps up her fashion. Her new bonnets, laces, wonderful scarves, and jewels that she wears are all signs of extreme wealth, especially in the time this novel was written. Then the author changes the attention to her son, a little boy who eats dinner alone and falls in awe when she walks into the room. He wears an old brown holland and stays home while his mother is dressed in extravagant garments, …show more content…
When the mother is gone and her son is left alone with the maid, the maid finds him marveling at his mother's belongings and says, “ Oh, thou poor little benighted boy! Mother is the name of God in the lips and hearts of little children; and here was one who was worshiping a stone!” (Thackery 29-31). This indirect characterization is important because it says how most little children adore and worship their mothers, and this boy does too. But his mother is nothing to be worthy of worship, as she acts cold, lifeless, and lacks personality towards her son. The maid is a voice in which the author speaks through to show the disconcern of the boy's