Let's Talk About Bex Trivia Quiz

Answer: She throws it out of the carriage window.

Amelia is loved by many of the girls at Miss Pinkerton's academy, and some of them even cry at her departure. Becky, on the other hand, is treated as an afterthought and nobody is sad to see her leave. Both she and Amelia are given a copy of Johnson's dictionary as a parting gift, although Miss Pinkerton protests when Jemima says she wants to give one to Becky too. As their coach leaves, Miss Jemima gives Becky her dictionary, but Becky throws it out of the window.

As we find out later, there is no love lost between Becky and Miss Pinkerton, who calls her a 'viper'. Becky lives at the Mall after her father's death and teaches the younger girls French. Miss Pinkerton tries to get her to teach music on hearing her sing, but Becky flatly refuses, and Miss Pinkerton is shocked at her defiance. Becky tells her that she will be happy to leave the academy if Miss Pinkerton can get her a job elsewhere.

Answer: Artist and art teacher

Becky's parents are both dead. Her mother was a French opera dancer - a profession seen as shameful in those days - and her father an art teacher and artist, who taught drawing at Miss Pinkerton's academy. He was also a violent alcoholic who abused both Becky and her mother, and was constantly in debt. From a young age, Becky used her charm and intelligence to talk debt collectors round, or persuade tradesmen to give her food. She also sat for her father and met many of his artist friends. When Becky is seventeen, her father becomes ill; he writes to the academy and asks them to take her in. She earns her keep at the academy by teaching French.

When Becky enters society later on in the novel, she embellishes her family's past, claiming her mother was from a noble family. She is also fluent in French (and makes a big point of talking to Miss Pinkerton in French, knowing Miss Pinkerton can't speak it).

Answer: Curry

Becky is to stay with the Sedleys in London before starting her job as a governess. Amelia's older brother Joseph works for the British East India Company as a tax collector in the fictional district of Boggley Wollah. He is a fat dandy who suffers from liver problems, and Amelia adores him, while Becky is unimpressed and Mr Sedley makes fun of his vanity. The Sedleys have curry for dinner, which Becky has never eaten before, and she gets a shock at how hot it is. She eats a green chilli pepper, which makes her feel even worse and she begs for water, much to Mr Sedley's amusement.

Becky later meets George Osborne, Mr Sedley's godson and Amelia's prospective future husband, and his friend William Dobbin, a gentle giant who once protected George from a bully at school. They go to the pleasure gardens at Vauxhall, where Joseph gets drunk and makes a fool of himself, and heads to Cheltenham (much to Becky's relief). Osborne looks down on Becky because of her background, and Mrs Sedley does not trust her; the Sedleys' servants also dislike her and are glad when she leaves.

Answer: Very thin insignificant little chits

Becky meets the repulsive Sir Pitt Crawley at his London home and drives with him and Mrs Tinker, his maid, to his manor in Queen's Crawley, Hampshire, where she is to teach his daughters, Rose and Violet. Rose is a great reader, while Violet is a tomboy. Becky does not like children, and in a letter to Amelia, she writes that the girls are 'very thin insignificant little chits of ten and eight years old'. She also meets Sir Pitt's second wife Betsy, aka Lady Crawley, an ironmonger's daughter, and his older son with his first wife, also called Pitt, who is very religious and disapproves of his father's ways. He also disapproves of his rich aunt Matilda, Sir Pitt's sister, who he describes as 'a godless woman of the world'. The Crawleys all curry favour with Miss Crawley as they hope to inherit her money.

Sir Pitt has a brother, the Reverend Bute Crawley, whose wife writes his sermons; she is also a shameless gossip and takes an interest in Becky. She writes to Miss Pinkerton, who tells her about Becky's background.

Answer: False

Miss Crawley enjoys having Becky around to talk to and make fun of people with, but only as long as she knows her place! Rawdon Crawley, Sir Pitt's younger son and the black sheep of the family, is Miss Crawley's favourite, and clumsily flirts with Becky over dinner. Miss Crawley becomes ill and Becky looks after her, and goes to London with her. When Rawdon comes to visit, it turns out that he knows George Osborne through the army. Rawdon and Becky dine with George and Amelia, and George warns him to stay away from Becky.

Lady Crawley dies and when Sir Pitt comes to London, he makes a pass at Becky. Becky refuses, telling him that she is already married. Miss Crawley asks who Becky's husband is, and Becky refuses to tell her at first, but assumes that Miss Crawley will approve of the marriage. She turns out to be wrong. Becky runs away with Rawdon, leaving behind a letter to Miss Briggs, Miss Crawley's companion, explaining what she has done. When Miss Briggs, Mrs Bute Crawley and Miss Crawley's maid break the news to Miss Crawley, she has a breakdown, accusing Miss Briggs of being in on it, and faints. Sir Pitt is also furious and wrecks Becky's old room when he goes back to Queen's Crawley.

Miss Crawley subsequently disinherits Rawdon and leaves her money to his older brother instead.

Answer: Gambling

Rawdon is a notorious gambler, playing both cards and dice, and has won money from George on multiple occasions. However, he is also in debt to several people, and he and Becky have to be careful while on holiday in Brighton (where Miss Crawley is also staying). Miss Crawley gets a letter purporting to be from Rawdon, but she knows Becky wrote it because the grammar and spelling are too good. Rawdon has the opportunity to speak to his aunt in Brighton, but declines, much to Becky's anger. Becky turns out to be right, as Miss Crawley speculates that Becky has made Rawdon start drinking, and becomes even more determined to have nothing to do with them. When she dies, Rawdon only inherits a hundred pounds.

Becky and Rawdon live in Paris for a while after the war, and although Rawdon can't speak French, he wins a large amount of money by gambling. Becky does her bit by attracting 'marks' and buying off creditors. However, Becky becomes dissatisfied with Paris and wants to enter London society. In London, she and Rawdon rent a house from a Mr Raggles, Miss Crawley's former butler, and although they employ servants, they never pay them or the various tradesmen from whom they get meat, coal and so on.

Answer: Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra was the wife of the Greek general Agamemnon, and resented him for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia to ensure safe passage (although the goddess Artemis actually rescued her). When Agamemnon comes home from the Trojan War with Cassandra, a slave girl, Clytemnestra plots his death and stabs him while having his bath, with the help of her lover Aesgisthus (though the version Becky acts has her murdering Agamemnon, played by Rawdon, in his bed). There are other shout-outs to the myth elsewhere in the book, such as the Sedleys' clock with Iphigenia on it. Becky is an excellent actress and becomes the star of the party.

The Marquis has been giving Becky money, which she hides away in a secret compartment. After the party, Rawdon is arrested and taken to a debtors' prison, or 'spunging house'. Lady Jane Crawley, his sister-in-law, pays off his debt and gets him out (much to her husband's fury, as he needed the money for a solicitor). When Rawdon comes home, he finds Becky - who claimed she was ill - covered in jewellery, with the Marquis about to kiss her hand. Rawdon is furious and beats the Marquis up, and Becky claims innocence, but the Marquis argues that he gave her thousands of pounds and that Rawdon has 'sold' her.

Rawdon forces Becky to take off her jewellery and goes through her drawers to see whether the Marquis is telling the truth. He finds the money in a pocket book, including a note from the Marquis for a thousand pounds. Disgusted that Becky could have paid off his debt but chose not to, Rawdon walks out on her and goes to the barracks. The next day, Becky's French maid abandons her, making off with some of her valuables, and the servants effectively go on strike because they are sick of not being paid. Becky begs Pitt Crawley for help, but Lady Jane orders him to kick her out.

Answer: Germany

Becky, like Rawdon before her, gets by on the money she wins from gambling. Rawdon accepts the post offered to him by the Marquis of Steyne as governor of Coventry Island, leaving his son in the care of Sir Pitt the Younger and Lady Jane; he later dies of yellow fever. Sir Pitt and Lady Jane's son dies, making young Rawdon the heir to Queen's Crawley. Becky originally goes to France, but her reputation precedes her, and word gets around about her after her former friends from London spot her in various places. She travels across Europe, leaving a trail of debt in her wake. While in Italy with a fake 'Major', Becky runs into the Marquis of Steyne at a party. He is not pleased to see her and his manservant later warns Becky to get out of Italy, hinting that the Marquis could have her killed.

Georgy meets Becky in a casino; she is wearing a mask and he does not recognise her, but she recognises him and gets him to place a bet for her. Dobbin drags him out of the casino, but Joseph stays behind and meets Becky, who gives him her address. When Amelia sees Becky again, Becky is living in an extremely dodgy boarding house, frequented by students, artists, alcoholics and all sorts of Bohemian types. She herself is an alcoholic and has to hide her bottle of brandy in her bed when Joseph comes into her room. Amelia invites Becky to stay with the party and ignores Dobbin when he tries to warn her that Becky is bad news. Dobbin is so fed up with Amelia's ungrateful behaviour, after supporting her and Georgy for years, that he returns to England.

Answer: She shows Amelia a card George gave her, asking her to run away with him.

Ever since George's death, Amelia has been mooning over his portrait and refusing to remarry, and spoils Georgy rotten, at the expense of her parents (which causes a rift between them). Dobbin pines over her for years, even panicking when he is wrongly informed that a minister has proposed to Amelia, but grows disillusioned with her when they are in Germany and she gets angry with him for 'disrespecting George's memory'. Dobbin had reminded Amelia of George flirting with Becky before going off to war, and Amelia resents him for reminding her of it.

In one of her rare unselfish moments, Becky warns Amelia that she is not cut out for the world Becky lives in - there have been some rather unsavoury types taking an interest in Amelia - and that Joseph is useless and cannot protect her, and she needs to marry Dobbin. When Amelia says she can't, Becky calls George all sorts of names and reveals that when they were in Belgium during the war, George was planning to elope with her, and had slagged Amelia off behind her back, and only stayed with her because of his promise to Dobbin. As proof of this, she shows Amelia a card George wrote to her. Amelia recognises George's handwriting and although she is upset about it, she finally gets over George. Dobbin returns to Germany after Amelia writes to him, and he and Amelia are reunited.

Answer: At a charity fair

Amelia and Dobbin are married, and Dobbin leaves the army. He proves to be a good influence on Georgy; they also have a child together, Janey, who Dobbin dotes on (and Amelia notes that he loves Janey far more than her). After Sir Pitt dies, young Rawdon inherits Queen's Crawley, which he shares with his aunt Jane and her children, and becomes a baronet. He is estranged from Becky, due to her being an abusive and neglectful parent, but makes sure she is looked after (and is surprisingly nice for someone with such horrible parents). Georgy and Rawdon become friends and go shooting together, while Mrs Bute Crawley's son James takes over at the vicarage.

Joseph is in Brussels and Becky stays in the same hotel as him; Dobbin tries to warn him to stay away from Becky, but he is ill and too much of a coward to leave her. His illness gets worse and he eventually dies, and it is hinted that Becky poisoned him (though Thackeray never provided a straight answer when asked). She inherits half of his money. The insurance company is suspicious about Joseph's death, but Becky, now calling herself Lady Crawley, sics her solicitors (who Thackeray named after various famous murderers) on them. Amelia and her family see Becky at a charity fair in London, and hurry away from her when she recognises them.