Stepchildren’s Personality and Character Flaws: A Critique of Selected Literary Works

Abstract

The number of stepfamilies has increased globally over the past six decades, making stepfamily relations a significant area of emotional, social and psychological concern. Contemporary psychological research suggests that stepchildren face complex challenges arising from family transitions, such as parental detachment, altered household roles, unclear stepfamily boundaries, emotional displacement, and the lack of clear social and legal recognition in stepfamily relationships. These grave dimensions may have serious long-term consequences for their emotional stability, personality development, and ability to perform social roles. However, these concerns of stepfamily relations have so far received limited attention in literary criticism, particularly in the light of recent psychological insights. This paper, therefore, explores and analyzes the lasting impact of stepfamily relations on the personality and behavior of specific characters in literature, such as Hamlet in Shakespeare’s Hamlet; David Copperfield in Dickens’ David Copperfield and Khellye Withers in Franzen’s The Corrections. The paper analyzes the nature and causes of some related issues, including family transitions, role ambiguity, emotional and psychological consequences, repression, and academic and socioeconomic challenges. These issues are analyzed and discussed by adopting a mixed-method approach, comprising comparative analysis of stepfamilies and intact families, turning -points analysis, and a combination of role theory, systems theory and transition theory. The findings specify multiple lasting implications for stepchildren, including the emotional and psychological impact; loyalty conflicts and relationship maladjustment; developing externalizing and internalizing problems and lower academic and socioeconomic outcomes. This paper, therefore, examines the substantial challenges faced by an increasing number of stepchildren in modern societies.