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.
Essay Topics
To what extent does Dora’s arrival to Imber Court force the changes that take place in the community? Explore three examples.
Analyze Michael’s character from the perspective of psychoanalytic literary theory.
How does Iris Murdoch utilize the character of Toby Gashe to shape events in the novel? Analyze three examples.
Creative Assignment: Write about the events between Michael and teenage Nick from Nick’s perspective in the form of a journal.
“Michael had suddenly a strange sense of déjà vu. Where had this scene, with its inevitable ending, happened before?” (Chapter 12). Analyze the parallels and contrasts between Michael’s affairs with Nick and with Toby.
Explore the literary function of the ancient and the new bells in the novel.
How does narrative focus on the characters of Dora, Michael, and Toby shape the novel? Examine this authorial choice and what it achieves.
Which characters embody the spiritual and which the materialistic impulse in the novel? Analyze at least one example of each.
Explore how the character of the Abbess interacts with other characters and to what purpose.
“But in this moment, and it was its last moment, it [Imber Court] belonged to her. She had survived” (Chapter 26). Explore why the estate symbolically belongs to Dora at the end and what her survival means.
Related Titles
By Iris Murdoch
