Dora Greenfield Essay

Dora Greenfield is the main character in the novel “The Bell,” by Iris Murdoch. Dora is an art student, who then marries one of her professors. This marriage is in no way happy or healthy, however, Dora has a difficult time leaving him. Throughout the entire novel we are able to watch Dora’s character evolve and grow into someone much more mature than the young art student she was in the beginning. She is a very timid and shy character, however, she is able to blossom and grow throughout the novel. With this growth and development she becomes the hero of this narrative.

Dora started the novel by returning to her husband, Paul Greenfield, from time apart. She was very scared and flighty throughout the beginning, she was uneasy and couldn’t make decisions for herself. Kaehele and German discussed how Paul's definition of Dora is simple and does not carry much meaning (558). Seeing as Paul did not even see much worth or meaning to his own wife, simply shows how miserable the marriage was for both of them. She shows many examples of these character traits especially in the first three chapters of the book. She was so iffy on the idea of giving her seat up for an older lady,

She is a young art student, who may have been misguided into her first marriage, and later is able to see this and change her actions for the better. She has a better moral code from the beginning to end of the book which helps her grow as a character. She is a hero in many people’s eyes, which she may not even know about herself. Each of these different ideas have played an important role in how Dora has portrayed heroic examples and her overall transformation from the beginning to end of the novel. Dora’s character continued to mature throughout the novel and each set back or mistake she made definitely allowed her to learn from the past and grow as a person that we read about in Iris Murdoch’s “The