What is the symbolic significance of the Anglo-Bengalee Company in the novel? How does it illustrate the morals of the characters involved in the company?

Several characters move between social and economic classes throughout the novel. How does Dickens depict the act of social climbing and falling in the novel? What sort of socioeconomic commentary on Victorian society do these changes in fortune offer?

Explore the idea of justice and injustice in the text. How does the novel analyze and represent these concepts? How does its representation of law and crime expose some of the weaknesses of social and legal justice in England and America at the time?

How is femininity depicted in the text? How do the characterization and experiences of Ruth, Mary, Merry, and/or Cherry reflect Victorian conventions about womanhood or challenge such conventions?

Martin Chuzzlewit is an indictment of selfishness. Pick two characters who represent this quality and trace how their stories represent the hazards of self-interest. How are their experiences and characterization different or similar?

The novel bounces back and forth between its two settings of London and Wiltshire. How do these two settings compare with one another? What is the wider significance of each?

Consider Dickens’s American characters like Colonel Diver, Jefferson Brick, and Agent Scadder. How does Dickens use stereotyping and satire in his depiction of America? How does Dickens’s depiction reflect or challenge common perceptions of America at the time?

How does Dickens use humor in the novel? How does the humor help to support some of the text’s critical commentary on social mores?