 "Vanity Fair" was the first major novel to have a governess, whether a heroine or an anti-heroine, as its main character.They had always been in the background, but Sharp was the first time a governess' ambitions to break out of her limited society were placed centre stage.Sharp's orphan status reflected a common theme in writers of the period; as Kathryn Hughes notes, for Emily Morton from "Amy Herbert", Charlotte Brontë's eponymous character from "Jane Eyre", and Jane Fairfax from "Emma", their positions as orphans are central to the books' subsequent plots.