 Transitivity and strict growth of the cumulative hierarchy

Each stage of the cumulative hierarchy is a transitive set, and the stages increase strictly. If $A$ is transitive, then $A\subseteq \mathcal{P}(A)$ and $\mathcal{P}(A)$ is transitive: $x\in y\subseteq A$ gives $x\in A$ and then $x\subseteq A$. Unions of increasing transitive sets are transitive. These observations prove the assertions by transfinite induction, with strictness witnessed by $V_{\alpha }\in V_{\alpha +1}$ and $V_{\alpha }\notin V_{\alpha }$ from the Axiom of foundation.