Dora comes from a London lower-middle-class family, having lost her father when she was nine. At 18, Dora started studying painting but soon met Paul, who was 13 years her senior, and married him. Well before the novel opens, Dora has begun to feel trapped in a marriage to a man who is domineering and a bully, and she decides to leave him. Murdoch describes Dora as lazy not just physically but also emotionally; she is apathetic. Her character arc involves her exploration of herself, of her abilities and desires, and of how she wants to continue with her life.

Dora is very young but feels almost matronly. However, there is an essential immaturity to her character at the novel’s outset that the events at Imber Court begin to change. While still sharing an apartment with Paul, she has begun an affair with a debonair journalist Noel Spens, who seems to be everything Paul is not: carefree, unconcerned, and tolerant. However, Dora learns throughout the novel that she does not need any man to support or define her. She learns this primarily through the events surrounding her idea to exchange the old bell for the new one. This plan, as careless and immature as it appears, allows Dora to exercise her own will, her sense of planning and organization, and her imagination.