Mrs. Bessie Glass Character Analysis in Franny and Zooey

Mrs. Glass is the wife of Les Glass and the mother of Seymour, Buddy, Boo Boo, Walt, Waker, Franny, and Zooey Glass. Mrs. Glass remains devastated by the deaths of two of her sons, Seymour by suicide and Walt in an accident during the U.S. Army’s occupation of Japan (1945–1952). After Franny has a minor breakdown and returns home to the family apartment from college, Mrs. Glass expresses her love by constantly offering Franny chicken soup and meddlesomely petitioning Franny’s siblings, primarily Zooey, to talk to Franny. In many ways, Mrs. Glass embraces the conventional, post-WWII U.S. society that Franny and Zooey find so alienating—she trusts in psychoanalysis and follows celebrity romances, for example—yet Zooey ultimately suggests to Franny that there is something mystical, holy, and worth recognizing in Mrs. Glass’s love for her children.

Mrs. Bessie Glass Quotes in Franny and Zooey

The Franny and Zooey quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Bessie Glass or refer to Mrs. Bessie Glass. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

As much as anything, it was the stare, not so paradoxically, of a privacy-lover who, once his privacy has been invaded, doesn’t quite approve when the invader just gets up and leaves, one-two-three, like that.

Related Characters: Buddy Glass (speaker), Franny Glass, Zooey Glass, Mrs. Bessie Glass

Page Number and Citation: 78

Explanation and Analysis:

“You can’t live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes[.]”

Related Characters: Mrs. Bessie Glass (speaker), Lane Coutell, Zooey Glass, Franny Glass, Seymour Glass, Walt Glass

Related Symbols: Chicken Soup

Page Number and Citation: 85-86

Explanation and Analysis:

“This whole goddam house stinks of ghosts. I don’t mind so much being haunted by a dead ghost, but I resent like hell being haunted by a half-dead one. I wish to God Buddy’d make up his mind. He does everything else Seymour ever did—or tries to. Why the hell doesn’t he kill himself and be done with it?”

Related Characters: Zooey Glass (speaker), Buddy Glass , Seymour Glass, Walt Glass, Mrs. Bessie Glass

Page Number and Citation: 88

Explanation and Analysis:

“You don’t even have enough sense to drink when somebody brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup—which is the only kind of chicken soup Bessie ever brings to anybody around this madhouse.”

Related Characters: Zooey Glass (speaker), Buddy Glass , Mrs. Bessie Glass, Franny Glass

Related Symbols: Little Book/The Way of a Pilgrim, Chicken Soup

Page Number and Citation: 165-166

Explanation and Analysis:

Mrs. Bessie Glass Character Timeline in Franny and Zooey

The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Bessie Glass appears in Franny and Zooey. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...it begins by complaining about a long letter Buddy has just received from their mother Bessie Glass , which asks Buddy to get rid of the private phone line installed in his... (full context)

Buddy admits that he decided to write to Zooey not because of Mrs. Glass ’s letter—she writes him letters all the time worrying about Zooey and Franny (his youngest... (full context)

...in which the role of “Rick” has been underlined. While Zooey is reading overwritten dialogue, Mrs. Glass knocks and tells him to pull the shower curtain because she wants to come in. (full context)

Zooey drops the manuscript to the bathmat, draws the curtain, and irritably calls Mrs. Glass in. Mrs. Glass wears an ancient kimono containing cigarettes and home-improvement tools. She is carrying... (full context)

Mrs. Glass sits down in the bathroom and starts complaining about Buddy’s refusal to get a phone... (full context)

Abruptly, Mrs. Glass asks whether Zooey has a washcloth. Zooey replies that he doesn’t want a washcloth—he wants... (full context)

For a moment, Mrs. Glass and Zooey bicker about unusualness and beauty. Then Mrs. Glass exclaims that she has no... (full context)

Mrs. Glass breaks off complaining to ask what Zooey finds so funny. Zooey claims to find nothing... (full context)

When Zooey mocks Mrs. Glass ’s fixation on Franny eating chicken soup, Mrs. Glass retorts that a poor diet could... (full context)

Zooey asks Mrs. Glass to leave. Mrs. Glass complains that she doesn’t know what to do about the painters:... (full context)

...his own eyes rather than contemplating his entire appearance, part of his “war against narcissism.” Mrs. Glass appears behind him and asks whether getting in touch with Waker could help Franny: while... (full context)

Mrs. Glass says that if the issue were “strictly Catholic,” she might help Franny herself, but the... (full context)

Zooey asks who Lane is. Mrs. Glass retorts that Zooey knows: he’s Franny’s “very sweet” boyfriend. Zooey replies that Lane is “a... (full context)

Mrs. Glass points out that Lane is just a college kid and that Zooey disconcerts people: when... (full context)

Mrs. Glass says that, in any case, Franny says Lane is intelligent. Zooey replies that that’s “sex... (full context)

Mrs. Glass reminds Zooey that she never goes into Seymour’s room. Zooey apologizes and suggests they stop... (full context)

...gets “bored” or “preachy”—and he can’t eat without first saying the Four Great Vows. When Mrs. Glass asks what the vows are, Zooey recites aloud the Four Great Vows of Buddhism and... (full context)

Zooey asks Mrs. Glass to leave. She replies that she wishes he’d get married. Though Zooey is used to... (full context)

When Mrs. Glass protests that she was only thinking about a psychoanalyst, Zooey tells her that if she... (full context)

Zooey says that if Mrs. Glass will keep silent, he’ll tell her about the little books. When Mrs. Glass agrees, Zooey... (full context)

When Mrs. Glass asks whether Franny has been saying the Jesus Prayer, Zooey tells Mrs. Glass to ask... (full context)

Zooey tells Mrs. Glass to get out—he needs to meet someone called LeSage at 2:30 and would like to... (full context)

That said, Zooey tells Franny that her breakdown is very hard on Mrs. Glass and Les and that her behavior smacks of “piousness.” Moreover, he dislikes her “blanket attack”... (full context)

On Zooey’s way out, he encounters Mrs. Glass , who asks whether he talked to Franny. Zooey says that he did and that... (full context)

In the living room, Franny is yet again refusing chicken soup from Mrs. Glass . When Mrs. Glass protests that she doesn’t know how Franny will get well without... (full context)

...Franny notes that “Buddy” sounds as though he has a bad cold and asks what Mrs. Glass told him about her. A pause ensues—very like Buddy’s pauses, which had often annoyed “both... (full context)

...Glasses can provide. Moreover, Franny has overlooked the real religion in the house, such as Mrs. Glass ’s “consecrated chicken soup”—and if Franny can’t recognize the holiness of her mother’s chicken soup,... (full context)

Mrs. Bessie Glass Character Analysis

Mrs. Bessie Glass Quotes in Franny and Zooey

Zooey Quotes

Mrs. Bessie Glass Character Timeline in Franny and Zooey