Why is Vanity Fair subtitled A Novel Without a Hero?

William Makepeace Thackeray subtitled his 1848 novel Vanity Fair as A Novel Without a Hero to emphasize its deliberately antiheroic nature. By choosing this subtitle, Thackeray intended to signal that his characters were not idealized figures, but rather reflections of the flawed human condition.1

Thackeray explicitly stated that his objective in the work was to indicate that people are, for the most part, "foolish and selfish" and "all eager after vanities." Rather than featuring a traditional protagonist, the novel presents a panorama of human frailties, focusing on the interwoven lives of the ambitious, amoral Becky Sharp and the passive Amelia Sedley. Through this approach, the author explores the ambivalence of human motives and provides a tragic, ironic evaluation of human ambition.1