Beloved Character Analysis

In the book Sethe states, "When I put that headstone up I wanted to lay in there with you, put your head on my shoulder and keep you warm, and I would have if Buglar and Howard and Denver didn't need me, because my mind was homeless then." (241) I can't even begin to imagine the tremendous amount of pain she felt when murdering her first child. As the story goes on Sethe is blinded by love and grants Beloved's every desire. Beloved would consume every resource they had to the max and she wouldn't care if her mother or sister ate, "But the pain was unbearable when they ran low on food, and Denver watched her mother go without-pick-eating around the edges of the table and stove: the hominy that stuck on the bottom; the crusts and rinds and peelings of things." (285) Sethe was practically eating the little bit of leftovers Beloved left behind whole Denver starved. Denver has grown up to be an only child ever since Howard & Buglar ran away. So when she met Beloved she automatically got attached and poured all her love into her until she decided she had enough. One day she decided to get out of the house and seek for

Although this event is repeated several times, it is never repeated for the some reason or in the same way. We go from meeting Amy before Denver is born, to the actual birth on the boat, and finally the story of naming the baby after she is born. This sequence of events, and the use of the story over and over again, show its significance in Sethe’s life so far. Not only was it the start of a wonderful relationship with her daughter, but it was also the start of some pretty horrible memories. This is referring to Sethe’s sudden urge to try to kill her children as protection from future slavery. While she thought this was a good idea at the time, it turned out to be yet another horrible memory in her life. Using this story a number of times in the text shows the overbearing weight Sethe must carry with this

In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved there is a mother-daughter relationship in which Sethe out of motherly love, murders her daughter Beloved to free and protect her from the harshness of slavery. Through this, the ghost of her deceased daughter haunts her conscience and later further haunts Sethe about her act of love. From the time she slits the throat of her infant daughter and until the end of the novel, Morrison presents justifications of Sethe's actions and understanding of her use of this conflict to recreate history in relaying the harshness of slavery in this time period. Morrison uses tactics which incorporates Beloved and slavery making them synonymous and depicting the importance of the bittersweet ice skating scene.

First, she “moves” him to the rocking chair in the kitchen, then to Baby Suggs’ old room, then to the storeroom, and then finally to the cold house. Her “moving” of Paul D meant that he wasn’t physically near Sethe as much as he once was, fulfilling Beloved’s selfish intentions to have Sethe for herself. For Paul D, the fact that Beloved was “moving” him meant that he was being controlled once again, as shown in the passage, “he had come to be a rag doll—picked up and put back down anywhere any time by a girl young enough to be his daughter” (Morrison 148). Being controlled like this, much like he once was by the hands of the schoolteacher, was a source of shame and humiliation for Paul D, for “there was nothing he was able to do about it” (Morrison 148), making him feel like he was back at Sweet Home and a “slave” once again. In addition to moving him, Beloved also requests that Paul D, “touch [her] on the inside part” (Morrison 137) and to call her by her name. For Beloved, this is sexual action symbolizes Paul D’s betrayal of Sethe and shows that he does not truly love her, perhaps giving Beloved the idea that the relationship between the two will eventually end and she will have her mother to herself. Paul D, on the other hand, wants to believe that the requests mean absolutely nothing. However,

Sethe says she believes she won't even have to explain her motives for killing her (a love so great she can't let her be taken into a life of slavery). "I don't have to remember nothing," Sethe tells herself on page 183. "I don't even have to explain. She understands it all." Sethe believes the one true way she will find restitution and understanding with Beloved, is by knowing the mark she has left on her daughter. "I only need to know one thing. How bad is the scar?" Sethe feels that by knowing the scar, by touching the "memory of a smile under her chin," she can feel her daughter's pain and connect with her.

Stamp Paid, a former slave who ferries Sethe and Denver across the Ohio River, tried to take Beloved’s corpse from the mother’s clinging hands and give Denver to her. A mother killing her own child is an act that subverts the natural order of the world. A mother is expected to create life, not destroy it, but with Sethe’s case, she was insane and out of control at that specific moment when she imagined that her child might face the same assault in future. Thus, she prefers to put an end to this situation. On the other hand, we notice that she was very anxious about the feeling of Beloved, her murdered child. She stated, “Do you forgive me? Will you stay? You safe here now”

Even after she acknowledges Beloved's identity, Sethe shows herself to be still enslaved by the past, because she quickly succumbs to Beloved's demands and allows herself to be consumed by Beloved. Only when Sethe learns to confront the past head-on, to assert herself in its presence, can she extricate herself from its oppressive power and begin

Destruction of identity, another theme of the novel, relates to the violent scenes. In the second part of Beloved, Sethe takes a stand and expresses her feeling on the violent acts being performed on her. “Nobody will ever get my milk no more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else—and the one time I did it was took from me—they held me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby” (Morrison 200). Sethe finally comes to terms with her past and vows to never let such a horrendous act happen to her again. Beloved’s reincarnation occurs because Sethe needs to face her dark past head on and free herself from living in shame. It took time, but, Sethe eventually overcomes the odds and begins to live freely and peacefully in her house.

When Sethe first meets Beloved, she welcomes her with a suspiciously large magnitude. Furthermore, it is clear that Sethe never revealed her past experiences to Denver, yet the moment Beloved asks about her lost earrings, it was “the first time she had heard anything about her(Sethe’s) mother’s mother”(61). This proves that Beloved, and not anyone else, is pulling Sethe to the past, by making her recollect of her days as a slave. In addition,“it is clear why she holds on to you(Sethe), but I just can’t see why you holding on to her,” Paul mentioned(67). This shows how Paul realizes that Sethe has taken in Beloved without much reasoning, and when Beloved hums a song that Sethe happened to make up, Sethe fully but blindly embraces Beloved as family. In fact, she “had gone to bed smiling,” anxious to “unravel the proof for the conclusion she had already leapt to”(181). This shows how consumed by Beloved she is.

Sethe is not simply attempting to kill her children just for the sake of doing it; she sees no other option for the betterment of their lives. Sethe is attempting to take the lives of her children out of pure love and the opportunity to not drag them through a life of suffering.

Sethe kills Beloved because she wants to protect her from a vicious life of slavery. Moreover, Sethe sees killing Beloved as an act of love because she saved Beloved from a strenuous life of enslavement. Sethe thinks that death is better than a life of bondage. Paul D cannot understand her reasoning and leaves her after he finds out the truth. He wonders, “This here Sethe talked about safety with a handsaw. This here new Sethe didn’t know where the world stopped and began” (193). This illustrates a contrast between men and women in the novel since Paul D lacks the maternal instincts that Sethe possesses. Paul D is incapable of being a mother and experiencing that bond, so he cannot quite come to terms with Sethe’s choice. However, one can argue that Sethe’s choice is based on rationality and logic, instead of emotions, which would be the stereotypical response of a woman. Paul D actually experiences this womanly response because he responds emotionally to Sethe’s murder. Therefore, Paul D responds in a traditional feminine way and Sethe responds in a traditional masculine way, which demonstrates a reversal of conventional gender

In Walden by Henry David Thoreau, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Beloved by Toni Morrison, the authors describe cruel and flawed aspects of society as system and human nature in individuals within a society. As a punishment for adultery, Hester Prynne, the main character in The Scarlet Letter, is required to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest and stand on the scaffold in the town center every day to endure public shaming. During his stay at Walden Pond, Thoreau escapes the rigidity and critical nature of society, denouncing societal norms and prejudices in favor of a simpler, more solitary life. Throughout Beloved, Sethe witnesses the horrors of slavery both first hand and through her friends and family. While each work

Sethe lives in the shadow of her act of infanticide throughout the entire length of the book. This is because its legacy pervades itself throughout the entire novel, showing events leading up, and ways the future has been affected. The novel begins as such: “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom. (Page 1)” This baby refers to Beloved, who became a ghostly presence in Sethe’s house and continuously terrorizes the house

In the novel, “Beloved” it is about a slave woman, Sethe, who before the book even begins kills her baby

Through character development, the story also portrays the theme of escaping the past. Sethe’s actions are influenced heavily by her dead child, Beloved. When the “human” form of Beloved arrives while sleeping