There is not only a minimal amount of happiness, but also a lack of respect in their marriage, especially since Sir Pitt is generally rude to Rose, often leaving her completely alone and beating her Often . Thackeray contrasts this passionless love with an abandoned past relationship that attracted Rose to give her a truer and purer love: “O Vanity Fair – Vanity Fair! She might have been, if it had not been for you, a cheerful girl; Peter Butt and Rose are a happy man and wife, on a homely farm, with a warm family and an honest portion of pleasures, worries, hopes and struggles: - but a title, a coach and four are more precious than happiness in Vanity Giusto...” (Thackeray 83). Thackeray insinuates that the lower classes, much less concerned with social position, are perhaps happier than those with wealth and power. In contrast, the high socialites of the Fair are willing to sell their happiness for social prestige. Thackeray further develops this idea about Lady Crawley's death when he says, "Her heart had died long before her body. She had sold it to become Sir Pitt Crawley's wife" (140). Although this narrative has a rather blunt tone, there is no doubt that it is a harsh condemnation of the "business" of marriage. Vanity Fair's most interesting character engaged in marriage transactions is understandably Rebecca 'Becky' Sharp in Thackeray's novel, the anti-heroine continually plots to advance her station in life through marriage by any means necessary. Rebecca's considerable wits and schemes, however, are more than enough to captivate several men. Her first attempt to advance in society through marriage centers on Joseph. Jos' Sedley Before she even meets him, Rebecca decides that she will try to marry him: "If Mr. Joseph Sedley is rich and unmarried, why shouldn't I marry him? I only have a