“Vanity Fair” by W. M. Thackeray (post 2): Chatty narrator is embarrassed by his previous ignorance of Rebecca’s marriage

“If, a few pages back, the present writer claimed the privilege of peeping into Miss Amelia Sedley’s bedroom, and understanding with the omniscience of the novelist all the gentle pains and passions which were tossing upon that innocent pillow, why should he not declare himself to be Rebecca’s confidant too, master of her secrets, and seal-keeper of that young woman’s conscience?” (1, p. 185).

The narrator is embarrassed by the fact that he has not previously indicated any knowledge that Rebecca was already married. He asks “why should he not declare himself” to have known it, but he does not affirmatively declare himself to have known it.

So another, reticent narrator or certain characters have been doing things behind the chatty narrator’s back, either of which is multiple personality. But now that the chatty narrator has been belatedly briefed (by the other narrator or the characters), he shares the facts of Rebecca’s marriage.

1. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero [1848]. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Helen Small. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015.