Voices Heard And Unheard

Iris Murdoch is an outstanding British writer and philosopher. The Bell (1958) is her fourth of 26 novels which received great popularity. The events happen at a religious community around an old bell and a new bell. Murdoch conveys the difficulty and beauty of the road to self-knowledge, freedom, love and art through the description of her characters' life and love. Based on Murdoch's idea of "Good", this thesis will analyze the bells, characters relations and their struggles in the novel to finally find out the voices of Murdoch. Self-knowledge cannot be too romantic and religion cannot help in self-knowledge. One must face the reality. Freedom is more than self-knowledge and needs to know and understand others. Love is the essence of Good. Without freedom, true love cannot be achieved. Art is abstraction of Good. Good art can lead people to Good.