Alderman William Beckford (Snr) became Mayor of London twice and made a fortune in sugar and slaves in the West Indies. William was his only son and inherited his father’s fortune in 1770, aged nine. From childhood, he was fascinated with Asia and Islam. By eighteen, his headstrong personality was fixed, and he was determined to enjoy his life. One desire that his wealth could not make acceptable is his homosexuality. What sealed his reputational ruin was his attraction to pre-adolescent boys. This can be seen in the novel with the race of the young boys who take off their clothes to display their delicate limbs. A race that ends in death. Beckford also shows disdain for religion by having Vathek renounce Muhammad in order to acquire forbidden knowledge to enter the Palace of Subterranean Fire, where Suleiman, son of Daoud, resides, surrounded by the talismans that subdue the world.

Romantic Orientalism has its roots in the earliest translations of The Arabian Nights (1705-8). In common with gothic novels, they feature exotic settings and supernatural happenings, along with extravagant events, characters, behavior, emotion, and speech. Both Gothic and Orientalism give the reader an escape from everyday reality. In common with gothic novels, when Vathek was first published, it was claimed to be a translation from an ancient Arab manuscript. The accompanying notes were based on d’Herbault’s Bibliotheque Orientale (1697), but critics have now shown these notes are inaccurate, based on superstition and ignorance.

Beckford portrays the Orient as predominantly evil with the corrupting indulgence of the seven deadly sins. In contrast, goodness is portrayed as weak and helpless. In an evil world, goodness cannot survive without supernatural intervention. There is then a clear distinction between Mohamet and his genii and Eblis and the Giaour. Ordinary characters are not as black and white but demonstrate contradictory characteristics, Fakreddin has both virtue and stupidity, Carathis claims puritanism and but demonstrates wickedness, Vathek is lazy and vicious, and displays majesty and absurdity of action, Gulchenrouz shows childish naughtiness and sterile innocence. The populace is angered at the sacrifice of the children, but they are then ready to be persuaded and appeased when money is thrown at them. This shift in behavior demonstrates opposing values and the fact that the majority can be swayed in either direction.

Vathek is dark, mysterious, selfish, immoral, and handsome, with a terrible eye approaching the supernatural in power and ambition. He is also a sensualist creating palaces of pleasure. The first describes an eternal banquet with exquisite dainties, delicious wines, and cordials flowing from fountains. In the palace devoted to sight, there are items from all over the world, designed to invoke curiosity and wonder. The palace devoted to smell contained various perfumes found naturally and disseminated by aromatic lamps. The retreat of mirth was devoted to touch and consisted of beautiful women. His sensual indulgence is said not to have caused him to experience any loss of devotion from his people.

Equally, his pride and ambition prompt him to build a tower with fifteen hundred steps. When he climbs to the top, everything beneath him looks small, and he is inspired by his own grandeur. However, when he looks up, he realizes that the stars are just as far above him as they are when standing on the earth. Beckford is showing that despite all the trappings of wealth and power, he is still human. As if to reinforce this point, Bababalouk, the chief eunuch, points out that when wild beasts attack them, the animals will have no reverence for his person, and they will eat him the same as anyone else. Equally, when Vathek believes Nouronihar is dead, he vows to go and live like a hermit, upon which Bababalouk asks how he will live.

The quest is a popular motif and in romance leads to identifying with God, or a spiritual pilgrimage. In the book, the pilgrimage is made by the pilgrims to Mecca. For Vathek the quest does not lead upward towards God but downward. He renounces Mohamet to acquire forbidden knowledge and to enter the palace where Suleiman, son of Daoud, lay surrounded by the talismans that subdued the world. Northrop Frye suggests romantic literature identifies nature with the ultimate communion being death. However, death is denied Vathek as he endures an eternity of agony.

The romantic motif also includes the mother figure, seducer, and the hero. Carathis is the ironic parody of the mother figure who stays in the background and leads the hero forward out of confusion with her wisdom. Her wisdom is based on the occult, and her domineering nature proves hard for Vathek to resist. Nouronhar represents the traditional lady of pleasure or temptress, offering him a path away from the Infernal powers. Only Carathis’ violent, overbearing influence moves Vathek away from the enjoyment of Nouronihar’s charms and towards suffering damnation. Vathek achieves a final union with Eblis (Satan), but his strivings are not on a heroic scale. He is also not seeking hidden truths; he is happy with sensuality and indifferent to good and evil.

Beckford seeks to undercut the horror and violence through the gullibility of the Caliph's subjects. He describes the ceremony of strangulation as never being performed with so much facility on faithful servants without a struggle. In order to ward off wild beasts, torches were lit, and the cedar forest caught fire with the flames extending to the drapes that covered the cages of the ladies. The caliph then has to touch the naked earth with his sacred feet, and the ladies, not knowing how to walk, fall into the dirt. They argue they would rather be eaten by tigers than fall into their present condition. Such scenes of violence and horror are made to appear absurd and even comical.

Beckford’s Vathek owes much to oriental stereotypes, romance, and the gothic in its portrayal of sensuality, horror, and the supernatural. It reflects the eighteenth-century fascination with the East and the oriental other as a source of mysticism and superstition. Its influential legacy can be found in Byron’s Giaour.