52 pages • 1 hour read
Iris MurdochThe Bell
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1958A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 23-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 23 Summary
The next morning, Dora wakes in her bedroom to hear that the ceremony of the new bell has already begun. Surprised, she sees from her window hundreds of people gathered for the ritual. She runs down the stairs and to the terrace, finding a place from which she can see the procession that is forming. As the workers begin moving the bell toward the causeway and the convent, the Abbey doors slowly open. Suddenly, the bell stops moving in the middle of the causeway, and after a loud groan, the trolley tilts and the ball overturns, plunging into the lake.
The crowd goes wild, and the Abbey doors close. Dora feels obscurely responsible for what has happened, and she is moving toward the lake to see better when Catherine rushes past her, shoving her violently. Dora starts after her, seeing in Catherine’s eyes something lost and almost crazed. Catherine says it is her fault the bell has sunk, saying, “A white garment cannot conceal a wicked heart. There is no passing through that gate. Good-bye” (276). As if in a trance, she enters the lake.
Shouting for help, Dora rushes after her, the mud sucking her in and the weeds tangling her feet. She manages to grab Catherine’s hand, but Catherine yanks her toward the deeper water, and they both start to drown. Dora dimly hears a cry and sees a “black figure” on the Abbey’s side. Two nuns swim over and save both women from the water while James and Mark rush over to help. Dora comes face-to-face with the “grotesque figure” of a semi-naked woman whom she understands to be the nun in her undergarments, and Mark reveals it is the Abbess, Mother Clare.
As Michael approaches, Catherine suddenly staggers up and runs to him with a moan, hugging the shocked man and repeating his name “in tones of frantic endearment” (280).
Chapter 24 Summary
The next day, Paul is leaving for London and taking the old bell with him for research. Dora has accompanied him to the train station, but relations between them are tense and Paul is being sarcastic and hurtful. He hands her a newspaper article about the events at Imber, which mentions her by name as the one who has saved Catherine from drowning. The article also states that there is evidence that the new bell falling into the lake was an act of sabotage.
As the train arrives, so do members of the Imber community: Catherine and Mrs. Mark enter one compartment, Toby another, and Paul chooses a first-class carriage. Everyone avoids meeting Dora’s eye. Before leaving, Paul hands her two letters he always carries with him, both from Dora—one from their early days and full of anxious romance, and the one her goodbye letter as she was leaving him. Although Paul has asked her to return the letters tomorrow as she arrives in London, Dora rips them into shreds.
Chapter 25 Summary
The same morning, Michael has decided to talk to Nick, feeling Catherine's behavior has opened his way to the young man. Her confession of love for him left Michael in deep shock, and when the community decided she should leave for London (chaperoned by Mrs. Mark), Michael felt enormous relief. He was also shocked by Peter’s observation that someone tampered with the causeway; however, Michael soon realized that it must have been Nick. Michael is also aware that the news of the events at Imber will bring the future of the community into question.
As Michael emerges from the house to a beautiful morning, Mark tells him that James needs to speak to him immediately. Disturbed and saddened, James informs Michael that Toby confessed everything to him two nights ago and that he had a stern talk with the boy before sending him home. Michael calls James a “perfect imbecile,” fearing that Toby will take this as affirmation that his feelings are sinful and punish himself. As Michael understands that Nick has known about the kiss all along, he realizes how perfect Nick’s revenge has been: Instead of seducing Toby, he forced him to reenact the same part Nick himself played a long time ago. As Michael states (to James’s protests) that he will resign from his position, Mark comes in to tell them Murphy is howling at the Lodge “in a very odd way” (296). Michael rushes over to the Lodge and finds Nick dead from suicide by shotgun. Sitting in the grass in front of the building, Michael cries, understanding that this is Nick’s final act of revenge.
Chapter 26 Summary
Four weeks later, Michael and Dora are the only two people left at Imber. The community has dissolved, and Mrs. Mark is still in London with Catherine, who is slowly recovering and does not yet know about her brother’s death. Michael was relieved to see everybody go, and Dora has rendered herself indispensable by cooking for him, cleaning the Court, and helping to conclude matters of the community. She has taught herself to swim and has proven “buoyant and fearless in the water” (299).
The new bell has been rescued from the lake and unceremoniously introduced to the convent. Michael and Dora have both been seeing the Abbess, speaking with her of their lives and plans. Michael and the Abbess have supported Dora in her decision not to return to Paul, who has been calling her and sending threatening letters. Dora has decided to return to painting, and her friend Sally has written to offer her a shared apartment in Bath. Michael arranges a small grant for her and a part-time teaching post in the town.
Toby writes a letter to Michael, and through it, Michael sees with relief that the boy has recovered and put the story of Imber behind him. His own feelings after Nick’s death have been in terrible turmoil, and his sorrow was initially such that he wished himself dead as well. Yet, slowly, “a sense of his own personality returned to him” (309). For a while, he felt distant from his sense of religion, but he gradually began to attend Mass again, feeling its factuality soothing him.
A letter arrives from Mrs. Mark informing Michael that Catherine is better and that he can now visit her to inform her of her brother’s death. Dora, who has begun to develop vague romantic feelings for Michael, is saddened that their time together at Imber is ending; the same afternoon that he leaves for London, she will be leaving the Court forever. At the train station, she learns that Michael is the owner of Imber and that he is giving the Court to the convent nuns as living quarters. Dora finds the idea that the whole estate will become enclosed terrible, but Michael tells her it is a “just reversal of roles” (313), as the convent was for centuries a curiosity of the estate.
Dora returns to Imber for the last time and decides to take the boat to the house. As she sits in the middle of the lake, she looks around her and realizes that she has survived and that even now Imber is becoming the history of her future life.
Chapters 23-26 Analysis
Chapter 23 represents the climax of the novel, as multiple strands gather together to form a strange and deeply ironic tapestry. Dora, so vital and out of place in the community, wakes late for the ceremony, and observes it passively, her plans to replace the bell having fallen through after she realized the “ludicrous” nature of her efforts. The new bell topples into the lake, and the roles are reversed as the ancient one waits in the bar. This reversal of fortune echoes throughout the ending of the book; the community dissolves and people leave the place, Catherine renounces her vows, Dora leaves Paul for good, and Michael leaves his priestly vocation behind forever. Murdoch imbues the climax with further elements of farce, even though the events that take place are far from comical. Catherine attempts to commit suicide by drowning, echoing the fate of the bell, and ironically, it is Dora who tries to save her life—a nonswimmer, a nonbeliever, and a woman who views Catherine’s beauty as a threat. Furthermore, the nuns leave their enclosure to help bring both women to safety, thus revealing themselves to the world. Their arrival echoes the deus ex machina technique from ancient Greek plays in that they appear seemingly out of nowhere to save the day and then return to their invisible, otherworldly existence.
Catherine’s attempted drowning finds another parallel in Nick’s completed suicide. The brother and sister, so obviously unsuited for the world (though in different ways), represent the novel’s tragic figures; they never directly participate in the action and barely influence it, yet they are the victims of actions committed by other characters. Faced with Nick’s suicide, even Michael, who loves him, views the event as Nick’s “perfect revenge,” centering himself and his emotions instead of simply mourning the loss of a life. Similarly, Toby’s confession to James shocks Michael not primarily because of how the events have affected Toby (even though he constantly professes concern for the young boy’s mind and emotions), but because he sees it as another breach of trust. What has happened between them should, in Michael’s mind, forever be their own (or rather, Michael’s to control). Michael’s selfishness on par with Paul’s, who leaves Dora to go back to London with the ancient bell, but it finally persuades Michael to renounce his priestly calling and become a teacher, immersing himself in the world yet again (and potentially repeating his past with another boy).
The novel concludes four weeks after the major action is over. Only Dora and Michael now remain at Imber, soon to leave forever. Imber Court, Michael’s property, will go to the nuns, as if after centuries the convent can finally expand into that bit of the world while all those outside it scatter to their respective fates. Dora, emerging victorious—more mature, secure in herself, and satisfied—has symbolically conquered the place and its previous inhabitants, growing into a woman who can control her own destiny.
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