Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair,
in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress , a fair in the town of Vanity, on the way to the Celestial City: the ‘Vanity’ tradition begins in Eccles. 1: 2 (‘Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher …’). Here Bunyan satirizes Restoration society in which all ‘merchandise’ is for sale, including houses, wives, souls, and precious stones, and which penalizes dissidents who only ‘buy the truth’. The episode culminates in the trial and martyrdom of Faithful, who is burnt to death after being abused by Judge Hategood, a compound personification of Puritan-hounding judges such as Kellynge and Jeffreys.