Carnival and Vanity Fair

By Onwubiko Agozino 

 Why Did C.L.R. James Read Thackeray Repeatedly? I asked and Co-Pilot responded (with some gaps and some neglected connections in the existing literature): 

 C. L. R. James loved reading Thackeray (especially Vanity Fair) because he saw the novelist as one of the greatest teachers of how society really works—not just as a novelist. Here’s why Thackeray mattered so much to James: 

📚 1. Thackeray exposed society honestly. James admired how Thackeray showed ambition, greed, and hypocrisy, and how he represented the behavior of elites without romantic illusions. Unlike writers who idealized society, Thackeray revealed its flaws, which James valued deeply. 

🧠 2. He was a “teacher” of social reality James believed Thackeray taught readers how to understand class structure, recognize how people use power, status, and influence. For James, reading Thackeray was like studying real-life politics and human behavior. 

🎭 3. Complex, realistic characters James was fascinated by characters like Becky Sharp, who are intelligent, ambitious, and morally ambiguous, and who navigate society through skill and manipulation. These characters reflected real human complexity, not simple “good vs evil.” 

✍️ 4. Literary excellence and style As a writer, James admired Thackeray’s clarity, wit and irony, and narrative control. James reread him to learn how to write with precision and depth. 

🌍 5. Relevance to colonial life Even though Thackeray (who was born in colonized India) wrote about England, James—growing up in Colonized Trinidad—saw the same class structures and values shaping colonial societies, and the same obsession with status and imitation of British elites. Thackeray helped him understand empire and colonial society indirectly. 

🎓 6. Part of his intellectual formation James treated great novels as tools for self-education and for training in thinking critically about the world. Rereading Thackeray helped shape him into a historian, critic, and political thinker. James admired Thackeray not just as a novelist, but as a master observer of human behavior and social systems. 

How Relevant is Vanity Fair to Trinidad and Tobago Carnival? 

 The concept of the "carnival" in William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair shares a powerful literary and thematic relevance to the culture of Trinidad and Tobago, particularly through its world-famous Trinidad Carnival. [1] While Thackeray wrote about a metaphorical, European social carnival, Caribbean literature directly adapted these exact structural ideas to examine post-colonial society. [1] 

The relevance is best understood through three major lenses: 1. Literary Lineage: The Dragon Can't Dance The most direct bridge between Thackeray's "carnival" metaphor and Trinidad and Tobago, apart from Minty Alley the only novel written by James (4), is Earl Lovelace’s landmark 1979 Trinidadian novel, The Dragon Can't Dance. [1, 2] 

• The Shared Motif: Lovelace uses the real, physical Trinidad Carnival as a structural framework in the exact same way Thackeray uses his metaphorical fair. Both authors populate their "carnival" with a massive, vibrant cast of characters who represent different societal archetypes. [1, 2, 5, 4, 6] •

The Performative Identity: In both novels, life is a stage where people perform. Thackeray's characters put on masks of wealth and upper-class snobbery. Lovelace’s characters—living in the poor, urban slum of Calvary Hill—put on elaborate Carnival masquerade (Mas) costumes, like the Dragon, to claim a status, power, and human dignity denied to them by society. [1, 2, 3, 6] 2. 

The Power of "Mas" and Masks Both contexts rely heavily on the duality of the mask: • Thackeray’s "Vanity": In Vanity Fair, characters like Becky Sharp use deception, charm, and social masks to climb the ranks of a corrupt hierarchy. [1, 2] 

• Trinidadian "Mas": In Trinidadian tradition, masking ("playing Mas") has historical roots in resistance and rebellion against colonial oppression. While Thackeray views masking as a sign of moral superficiality, Trinidadian culture views the Carnival mask as a tool of liberation, letting the ordinary citizen become a king, a god, or a fierce dragon for two days. [3, 2, 3] 3. The "Upside-Down" Social Satire 

• The Leveling of Class: Thackeray’s carnival is a equalizer where kings, buffoons, and pickpockets are ultimately shown to be equally foolish. [1] • The Carnival Temporary Reversal: Trinidad Carnival historically operates on the concept of carnivalesque—a brief window where the rigid social, racial, and economic hierarchies of Trinidad are turned upside down. The poor rule the streets, and the elite are satirized through traditional characters (like the Piskoeb or Dame Lorraine), echoing Thackeray’s satirical dismantling of the British ruling class. [1, 2] 

I filled some gaps. Feel free to fill in more gaps. Rest in Power to James who passed to the land of ancestors on May 31, 1989. He is rightly known for his classic historical work, cultural studies, and political activism than for works of fiction. 

 References: 

 1. https://literariness.org/2025/05/21/analysis-of-william-makepeace-thackerays-vanity-fair/#google_vignette 

2. https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:495212/FULLTEXT03.pdf 

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbnEM5ubxM&t=11s 

4. https://archive.org/details/mintyalley0000clrj 

5. https://www.google.com/search q=product&prds=pvt:hg,productid:12460536715102676400&ibp=oshop 

6. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/vanity-fair-analysis-setting 

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YegxpaQ8E0 

 Dr. Agozino is a Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Virginia Tech. He Directed and Produced a 15 part Documentary on the Black Jacobins Sociology Series. NCC Television, Trinidad and Tobago, 2008 (7).