A Social-psychological Study of Charles Dickens’s Dombey and Son 1848

Abstract

This thesis is framed about a study of Charles Dickens‘s novel Dombey and Son within the field of social psychology. Therefore, it is of purpose in this study to get knowledge of how Victorian society came to influence its people by looking at how characters in this novel interact with it. Four research questions are at the heart of this research: how was society at the time of the novel, how this society influenced its writer, how the characters and how the language he used reflects all this? To answer these questions, a social psychological approach was adopted. It follows that this thesis was divided into two chapters, the first in which a luminous insight into social psychology was provided, whereas the second chapter was intended to put this approach into application on the analysis of the novel. From this study it has been concluded that the composition of the Victorian society at the time pulled the strings that made the writer and his characters move, and that even if some characters like Florence seemed immune to its influence but this could no longer continue; this proves that society in a way or another shapes their deeds.