Iris Murdoch, The Bell

Iris Murdoch

Oct 4

**The Bell by Iris Murdoch (1958)**

Lecture by Miles Leeson, 26 September 2021
Blog post by Lisa Hutchins

Iris Murdoch, a mid-twentieth century author working in the realist mode of Dickens, an exponent of the Gothic who hoped to be seen as an heir to Henry James, and whose work is loaded with references to philosophy and religion, was the subject of the Literature Cambridge online study session on 26 September.

Dr Miles Leeson, Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre at the University of Chichester, showed us how an author with a reputation for difficulty, thanks to the philosophical ideas underpinning her work, can be perfectly accessible to general readers – although the underlying philosophy is a rewarding study for those who wish to engage with it.

Miles' lecture focused on Murdoch's fourth published novel, The Bell (1958), part of a sequence of early works in which she experimented with different styles before settling down to her mature writing form. She drew on many literary and philosophical influences, including Existentialism and Platonic thought. The book sold well and won an enthusiastic reception from critics.

Miles told us that Murdoch moved through a number of belief systems in the 1940s and 50s including communism and Christianity. A close friend at Oxford became a nun at Stanbrooke Abbey in Yorkshire, which may have provided the inspiration for the novel's Imber Abbey. Murdoch wrote to her: 'Take me with you as much as you can'. She was drawn to the world of contemplation and imagination portrayed in The Bell even as she became an ardent atheist later in life.

Miles discussed the interesting antecedents of Imber Court, the building at the centre of the novel, housing the religious lay community that is its subject. He suggested Murdoch took inspiration from the eponymous abandoned village in Wiltshire which has a house of that name and its own Bell Inn, which also appears in the book. Murdoch is known to have visited, and we know she often took inspiration from actual places and events.

Miles told us that the novel contained one of Murdoch's most important statements about art and the central position of love in it; the realisation of the existence of something outside one's self is central to this novel and Murdoch's writing. This is a point she also makes in her non-fiction writing:

Art and morals are, with certain provisos, […] one. Their essence is the same. The essence of both of them is love. Love is the perception of individuals. Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.
(From 'The Sublime and the Good', Existentialists and Mystics, 1951)

We were asked to consider who in the novel is staging a performance, and which characters are able to be true to themselves. Who is damaged, and who refuses to pass that damage on to a new generation? We enter the novel through Dora, one of the youngest and most naïve characters, who nevertheless believes that the best years of her life are behind her, partly due to the difficult relationship she has with her husband Paul.

The theme of transcendence occurs in chapter 14 of the novel where, Miles said, Murdoch captures a real moment of Dora responding to more than the material significance of what she encounters:

Dora was always moved by the pictures. Today she was moved, but in a new way. She marvelled, with a kind of gratitude, that they were all still here, and her heart was filled with love for the pictures, their authority, their marvellous generosity, their splendour. It occurred to her that here at last was something real and something perfect… [she] felt a sudden desire to go down on her knees before it, embracing it, shedding tears.
(The Bell, Vintage Classics, p. 196)

Miles pointed out other examples of transcendent experience, including Dora's interactions with the lost Abbey bell, lying drowned in the lake, also her learning to swim and becoming comfortable in the water after a drowning incident where she is unable to help a struggling swimmer and has to be rescued herself. He said Murdoch uses the question of space and the relationship of earth to water all through the book, and also raised Toby's exploration of the abbey where he climbs over the wall even though the door is open, and is met by a nun. Toby is an innocent character, and it is his innocence that allows him to penetrate the labyrinth with such ease.

Miles drew a contrast with the scene, almost 100 pages later, where the bell is raised from the lake, and said that this scene contained many Platonic overtones, with the bell as an ancient, mystical, mythological object and the subject of much speculation. He spoke of the poetics of space in the novel, and how the bell represents female space while other objects, including the clapper and the bell tower, incomplete without its instrument, are phallic.

Finally, Miles tackled the problematic issue of Michael, and whether the freedom Murdoch allows her characters means he is let off too easily. As a teacher in his mid-20s, he has had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old pupil of a kind society now openly condemns as an act of abuse. We know he will continue to teach, and there is a strong suggestion that he may abuse again.

Miles suggested the character's freedom is here something dangerous, and an indication that Michael has learned nothing in the course of the novel. It is also significant that we only ever hear about this from Michael's point of view and not from that of his victims.

Miles did much in this lecture to demystify Murdoch and position her as a highly readable and enjoyable author who, at this stage of her career, produced work populated by well-rounded and approachable characters, alongside the perhaps more common image of her as a weighty philosopher.

Miles is teaching a course on Iris Murdoch and London for Literature Cambridge, with 4 x fortnightly sessions, Wednesdays, 6.00 pm: 6 April, 20 April, 4 May, 18 May 2022.

Iris Murdoch, The Bell

**The Bell by Iris Murdoch (1958)**

Lecture by Miles Leeson, 26 September 2021
Blog post by Lisa Hutchins

Further reading and listening:

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Iris Murdoch, The Bell

The Bell by Iris Murdoch (1958)

Lecture by Miles Leeson, 26 September 2021 Blog post by Lisa Hutchins

Further reading and listening:

Historical Context of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon

Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris

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**The Bell by Iris Murdoch (1958)**

Lecture by Miles Leeson, 26 September 2021
Blog post by Lisa Hutchins