Thackeray comments on life:
. . . think how mysterious and often unaccountable it is — that lottery of life which gives to this man the purple and fine linen, and sends to the other rags for garments and dogs for comforters.
And so, if you properly tyrannize over a woman, you will find a halfp'orth of kindness act upon her, and bring tears into her eyes, as though you were an angel benefiting her.
Oh, be humble, my brother, in your prosperity! . . . whose virtue is a deficiency of temptation, whose success may be a chance, whose rank may be an ancestor's accident, whose prosperity is very likely a satire.
Some examples of Thackeray's figures of speech are: "To a traveller returning home it [the English landscape] looks so kind it seems to shake hands with you as you pass through it." Dobbin's dream of Amelia is a "bread-and-butter paradise." Joseph's Indian servant's brown face is the "colour of a turkey's gizzard." William sighing over Amelia's indifference is like ". . . the poor boy at school who has no money may sigh after the contents of the tartwoman's tray."
Thackeray uses names to characterize. Some of the names in this section are: Little Ricketts, who has fevers; Fogle, Fake & Cracksman, a business firm; Baron Bandanna; The Reverend Felix Rabbits, who has fourteen daughters.
"Waterloo Sedley," unchanged since the reader met him, shows his character by vanity in dress and in the tales of himself and great personages, and in his love of nobility; but he is generous with his family when he is forced to see their need. He can't stand Georgy's making fun of him. He has books but never reads them, gifts for people he hasn't yet met. He loves to eat, sleep, and talk.
