Vanity | Analysis

Dette er Studienets vejledning til at analysere novellen "Vanity" af Charles Baxter. Novellen har været anvendt til skriftlig eksamen i Engelsk A på STX med netadgang den 25. maj 2016.

Præsentation af teksten

Titel: “Vanity”
Forfatter: Charles Baxter
Udgivet i: “There’s Something I Want You to Do” (samling)
Udgivelsesår: 2015
Genre: Novelle

Charles Baxter (f. 1947) er en prisvindende amerikansk forfatter af digte, romaner og noveller. “Vanity” er udgivet i novellesamlingen “There’s Something I Want You to Do”, hvor hver novelle er kædet sammen med en dyd eller en last.

Uddrag

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Title

The title of the short story, “Vanity”, is intriguing. On the one hand, it can make readers think of the seven deadly sins, vanity being an aspect of the sin called “pride”. Vanity refers to needless praise or bragging and, after reading the short story, readers can easily identify it as being one of Harry’s main features. On the other hand, the title can also make readers imagine that the story is going to be about a vain character, a man or a woman.

Another interesting aspect of both the title and the name of the author is that “Vanity” is also the name of an oil painting by Charles Baxter, an English painter from the 1800s. His painting, “Vanity”, depicts a young woman in front of a vanity table, which is commonly used to apply accessories or cosmetics. The woman’s upper part of the body is almost naked, suggesting her pride in her looks.