There is one clear, overarching theme in Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero, and Thackeray telegraphs it in his title and subtitle. In the pages of Vanity Fair, all is vanity and all are vain. Some are more vainmore obsessed with self and with the ephemeral treasures of social position and moneythan others, but none, in the author's estimation, can be called heroic.