Under a Glass Bell by Anaïs Nin
"Under a Glass Bell" by Anaïs Nin is a poignant exploration of familial relationships and the struggle between personal desires and societal expectations. The narrative centers on Jeanne and her two brothers, Jean and Paul, who inhabit a fragile and beautifully adorned French mansion, symbolizing their insulated existence. The story unfolds through Jeanne's introspective monologues, where she emphasizes the primacy of their bonds over conventional ties to spouses and children, suggesting a deep-seated rejection of the mundane realities of aging and responsibility.
Jeanne's relationship with her brothers is heavily influenced by their mother, who represents escapism through her drug use and hallucinatory conversations with historical figures. The tension in Jeanne's life deepens with her aborted romance with Prince Mahreb, which reveals her disillusionment with ordinary life. The narrative is further enriched by Jeanne's unsettling encounter with mirrors that reflect not her true self, but an actress persona, highlighting her inner conflict.
As the story progresses, Jeanne faces a critical choice between shattering the protective "glass bell" that isolates them from the world or remaining within the safety of her familial cocoon. Ultimately, her decision leads to a tragic and symbolic conclusion, encapsulating themes of identity, isolation, and the human condition. This layered narrative invites readers to reflect on the complexities of love, self-perception, and the tensions that exist within familial bonds.
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Under a Glass Bell by Anaïs Nin
First published: 1941
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The 1920's and 1930's
Locale: A mansion in France
Principal Characters:
Jeanne , a wealthy young womanJean , Jeanne's brother and also the narratorPaul , Jeanne's other brother
The Story
In "Under a Glass Bell," Anaïs Nin describes the lifestyle of Jeanne and her two brothers, Jean and Paul. The narrator, presumably Jean, first describes the family residence, a well-appointed French mansion where many generations have lived. The furnishings, while beautiful, are so fragile that the butlers are careful not to touch anything. The rooms are lighted by glass chandeliers that the narrator refers to as "blue icicle bushes." Giving off an indirect light, these "icicle bushes" cast an aura that makes everything in the house appear to exist "under a glass bell"—the kind of glass bell often used to preserve bouquets of flowers.
Next, the narrator records a long monologue in which Jeanne, her face seeming to be "stemless," tells of her relationship with her brothers and her mother. Speaking for her brothers as well as for herself, Jeanne insists that their relationships to one another are more important than their relationships to their spouses or their children, that all three scorn the demands of the real world in which their bodies age, and that the three need to live heroic lives, a present-day impossibility. That seeds of this unusual relationship were clearly planted by the mother becomes evident when Jeanne calls her mother the "true" queen of France, who retreated from daily existence by taking drugs and by having hallucinatory talks with Napoleon Bonaparte.
Then the narrator tells the story of Jeanne's aborted affair with Prince Mahreb, a Georgian prince. Jeanne cannot respond to the prince because she believes that he is too ordinary. When the narrator sends her an exquisitely romantic Persian print, Jeanne, assuming that the print has come from the prince, renews the affair. Each day, for four days, the narrator sends Jeanne another Persian print, each one more romantic than the first. However, by the fifth day, Jeanne discovers that the prince has no imagination, and her face hangs down once more like a "stemless plant."
The remainder of the story is framed by two incidents with Paul. Jeanne, finding Paul asleep in the garden, kisses his shadow. Returning to the house, she enters the room of mirrors. Jeanne is disturbed by the fact that the multiple images show that her silk dress is eaten away and that her brooch has lost its stones. Trying to peer into the truth of her soul, she sees instead the actress in herself, not her true self.
Frightened by her experience with the mirrors, she runs back to the garden where Paul is still sleeping. The narrator intimates that at this point Jeanne reaches a crossroads. She can smash the glass bell that separates her and her brothers from the rest of the world or she can elect to remain in her comfortable womblike existence. Predictably, Jeanne's choice is the latter, and once more she kisses Paul's shadow. When Paul awakens, Jeanne tells him fearfully that she has seen the image of her body as it lies in the tomb. At that precise moment, Jeanne's guitar string breaks and she presumably dies.
Bibliography
Blair, Deirdre. Anaïs Nin: A Biography. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Anaïs: The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin. Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.
Franklin, Benjamin, and Duane Schneider. Anaïs Nin: An Introduction. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1979.
Hinz, Evelyn J., ed. A Woman Speaks: The Lectures, Seminars, and Interviews of Anaïs Nin. Chicago: Swallow Press, 1975.
Nin, Anaïs. A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller. Edited by Gunther Stuhlmann. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987.
Pierpont, Claudia Roth. Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
Scholar, Nancy. Anaïs Nin. Boston: Twayne, 1984.
Tookey, Helen. Anaïs Nin, Fictionality and Femininity: Playing a Thousand Roles. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.