On Morbid Social Characters In Mr Norris Changes Trains

Christopher Isherwood(1904-1986)is a well-known leftist writer in the 20 th century of Great Britain who is famous for autobiographical novels.Based on his sojourn experience in Berlin before the Second World War,Isherwood used the perspective of an Englishman to objectively and profoundly describe the characters of the people and the society of Berlin in Mr Norris Changes Trains.The figures of this novel share similar characteristics of social characters during social interaction despite their different professions and classes.After the First World War,social problems of inflation,limited resources and racial discrimination which lead to the dislocation of values and the lack of security of Berliners and the formation of morbid social characters aroused.Up to now Western critics have laid most emphasis on his work's autobiographical style and writing techniques;there are few researches and studies on Isherwood and Mr Norris Changes Trains by critics at home,and even fewer further researches on the individuals' characters and the social problems of the novel.Social character theory is brought by psychologist Erich Fromm.In his view,although social members have different individual personalities,most of them obtain the basic character structure.It is called the social characters.When social members interact,the morbid and unhealthy characteristics they show are called the unproductive orientation.The morbid social characters in Mr Norris Changes Trains can be better understood and analyzed by combining Fromm's social character theory and the creation background of regime changes and economic crisis in Berlin.This thesis picked the protagonists of Norris,William,Kuno and Schmidt to analyze the mercenary character,the obedient character and the destructive character.And then followed by questions: How were the morbid social characters of people like Norris formed? From the perspectives of psychoanalysis and social psychology,what are the morbid social characters as well as their specific manifestations? And what are the interactive relations between morbid social characters and morbid society of worship of money and stagnation and even retrogression? The first chapter focuses on the mercenary character.People like Olga and Kuno are willing to sell anything even their own bodies and friendship in order to gain profits.Indifference,greed and hypocrisy are specific symptoms of mercenary character,which accelerate materialization of society.The second chapter discusses the obedient character.People like Norris and William psychologically rely on others to a large extent and lose the abilities of independent thinking and judgment.Their compliance and lack of independence lead to loss of vitality and stagnation of development of the society which accelerate social degradation.The third chapter analyzes the destructive character.People of this kind are extremely self-centered,and they achieve goals by retaliating and hurting others.Once they are in power,civilization is likely to be destroyed and the society goes back to barbarian status.The conclusion part answers the questions above and shows that while the morbid characters are forming and growing,social members' conditions have strong connections with social development.The worship of money,the lack of independence and the neglect of morality worsen the straitened circumstances caused by the First World War of Berlin city,and social development could derail off from the regular track.Isherwood's descriptions of the characters reflect his criticism on the Berlin society,and the story ends with Norris' exposure which shows his good wish of Berlin going back on track.