Essay: Life, Death, and Bells

Once again I am posting an essay I wrote for class. This one is about a novel I read over the summer for my English class, The Nine Tailors, written by Dorothy Sayers. As it is a mystery novel (and a brilliant one at that!), I would recommend that you read the book before reading this essay, so that the ending is not spoiled for you. It may also help you to understand this essay.

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A typical reader, upon picking up a copy of Dorothy Sayers’ novel, The Nine Tailors, might expect to have found a tale involving nine crime-solving men whose day jobs are to adjust people’s clothing. As the reader becomes more involved in the story, however, he or she will come to realize that a tailor, as an occupation, has very little to do with the story. Instead the reader will discover that the nine tailors from the title of the book actually refer to church bells. This meaning, though not obvious at first, becomes the most plausible meaning for the title. There is much mention of bells throughout the book, but even so, why would such a great author as Dorothy Sayers title what is dubbed her finest mystery novel after inanimate objects, instead of something more profound? This question itself is flawed, because in the novel, bells are more than just inanimate objects. While the meaning of the title of the book has an obvious meaning apparent to anyone who reads the book, it also possesses many deeper and far more important meanings. Thus, the title of the novel is probably at its most profound.

The first, most apparent meaning for the title of the book becomes known in the first few chapters; the nine tailors are the peals rung for a dead man. Since the book is so focused on the work of the bells, it is important to note that the bells also ring for births, baptisms, and marriages, in addition to deaths. Thus, the existence of the bells is centered around events involving life and death. The term “nine tailors” could also refer to the ringers of the bells themselves. These ringers, who must of necessity be alive, are the ones who ring the nine tailors for dead men. Since life is required to announce the presence of death, life and death are once again intertwined in the novel. This is an accurate portrayal of the reality of life and death in real life, since in order for there to be a death, there must have first been a life. The lives of these ringers are vastly important in the story because not only do they deal with the bells, but they also have to do with the Church itself.

One of the less obvious meanings of the title, The Nine Tailors, involves the symbolism of the Church. In the time in which the book takes place, the Church in England was very tied into life and death. For instance, Christians according to the Bible die to their old selves in baptism. Also, in The Nine Tailors, the church represented life by acting as an ark during the flood at the end of the story. The preacher in this church, Mr. Venables, did his job and acted as the shepherd to his flock by guiding his parish into safety.  1 Corinthians 12:12-13 says, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jew or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” This picture of the Church is represented in The Nine Tailors in more instances than just when Mr. Venables did his duty and saved his parish. For example, towards the end of the book the main character, Lord Peter Wimsey, unfolds how the victim was killed by the sound of the bells in the church tower. However, it was not just the bells that killed the man—it was also the fault of the ringers themselves. These ringers, members of the body of Christ, worked together to carry out God’s justice in the man’s death.

Yet another important meaning of the title of the book lies in how the justice of God was carried out. Mr. Venables suggests at the end of the book that the bells acted as God’s messengers by killing the victim, Deacon, for his sins. This idea is strengthened by Mr. Venables’ reminder that one of the bells, Batty Thomas, has a reputation for having killed two other men. In a conversation between Lord Peter Wimsey and Hezekiah Lavender, Lavender said, “Yew ain’t no call to be afeard o’ the bells if so be as yew follows righteousness.” Lavender means by this that the bells punish the wicked, like Deacon. Not much can be said for the other two men Batty Thomas killed, but Lavender’s statement definitely fits with the circumstances surrounding Deacon’s death. More symbolism appears in the fact that Deacon died within the church, while harboring sins of greed within his heart. On the other hand, Lavender, a righteous man in this tale, lives to a ripe old age. This once again ties back to the theme of life and death in the book, since the nine tailors protect the lives of the righteous and punish the lives of the unrighteous.

Sayers could have titled her book after its theme, life and death, but she chose instead to add symbolic flair to the title yet still hold true to the novel’s theme. The reader sees time and again that the book’s theme, life and death, ties into the book’s title. This happens mainly when the church bells cause the death of Deacon, but also because of the living men who rang the nine tailors for the dead man. The physical church and the members of the body of Christ both worked together to carry out God’s justice, again relating back to life and death. So in the end, although Sayers did name The Nine Tailors after a set of inanimate objects, these inanimate objects serve as a symbolic bridge between what we observe and what she wants to teach the reader about life and death.