Page 1 Introduction Parental favoritism refers to a practice of giving unfair preferential treatment to one child over another. This practice is, to a higher degree, observed in Helen’s family life in Mansfield’s “New Dresses”. Henry and Anne are the parents of three ofspring; i.e., Helen, Rose and Boy. But, obviously the parents can’t demonstrate equal treatment of love and care, and attention to all three children. They display additional degree of intense afection and love towards the Boy and Rose, giving less attention to Helen all the time in the same setting of family life under the same roof. Psychologists assert that favoritism or “playing favorites” is such a phenomenon that causes an adverse and often irreparable damage to the family relationships, and that it generates hostility among siblings and that it might foster aloofness between parent and child, all of which are also prevailing consequences in Helen’s life and family. Now, hypocrisy of family love refers to parents’ commitment of love for children and the inexistence of it in their real life activities and in their words while dealing with children. Although Helen’s parents occasionally tend to show their unbiased treatment towards every children, and although they overtly claim that they love Helen as much as they do the other two children, they typically fail to provide enough evidence of the commitment in their activities and attitude toward Helen. Through their harsh, negative attitudes, they rather demonstrate the truth of their unavailability of the same amount of love as they show to the Boy and Rose. This inconsistence between words and actions does not conform to their claim of love American Research Journal of English and Literature ISSN: 2378-9026 Volume 4, Issue 1, 10 Pages Research Article Open Access A Psychological Analysis of Parental Favouritism and Hypocrycy of Family Love in Mansfield’s ‘New Dresses’ Md. Saiful Alam Lecturer in English, Department of English language and Literature (ELL) University of Creative Technology, Chittagong, Bangladesh saifnottingham@gmail.com Abstract: This paper deals with two afecting family issues: (1) “parental favoritism” and (2) “hypocrisy of family love” represented in one of Mansfield’s best-known stories i.e., “New Dresses” (1912). The analysis of the issues is based on a couple of psychological considerations; i.e., “favoritism” and “hypocrisy of love” of parents. Parent-child relationship is a paramount exhibition in New Dresses. This study encompasses two basic questions: (1) how the themes of parental favoritism and hypocrisy of love are depicted in the story, (2) what consequences of these categories of stances of parents have in the family relationships. The present analysis comes up with a finding that Helen is a much -less favored child. But, her little brother, very afectionately called ‘Boy,’ and her younger sister, Rose, are her parents’ favorites. Helen’s parents show some sort of dislike towards Helen, and they justify it by pointing to a few of her flaws. However, Helen’s parents’ justification, at any rate, does not make sense to her grandmother. With a feeling of astonishment and shock, she observes that Henry and Anne, the parents, cause Helen’s mental destruction by making unjustifiable excuses. Favoritism and hypocrisy of love of her parents result in a hostility between Helen and her parents. Consequently, this leads Helen to go to seek surrogate parents; e.g., her grandmother and Dr. Malcolm. Mansfield’s attention towards her depiction of such issues as parental favoritism and parent-child relationships may have derived from her psychological tension about the contemporary parenting model; it may also have derived from her personal experience of the treatment that she received as a child from her parents. Ergo, this paper, too, briefly focuses on Mansfield’s biographical facts, and often links them with Helen’s scenario. Keywords: Favoritism, parental favoritism, hypocrisy of family love, surrogate parents www.arjonline.org