Beloved Literary Analysis

In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved is a character whose identity is primarily unknown. She retains some of her memories, although they are mostly obscure and symbolic. Even though she become increasingly obsessed with Sethe, her true objectives are only later revealed, when Sethe realizes that she is most likely the reincarnation of the daughter she killed to protect from slavery. Beloved uses Sethe’s guilt to subjugate her, she forces her mother to give, and then forfeit, everything she has to her, including her own sanity. “Beloved didn’t move; said, ‘Do it,’ and Sethe complied. She took the best of everything – first” (Morrison 277). Beloved starts wearing her mother’s clothes and mimicking her behaviors; Beloved becomes the mother, and Sethe the child. “The bigger Beloved got,

She had taken a hammer, knocked the dog unconscious, wiped away the blood and saliva, pushed his eye back in his head and set his leg bones. He recovered, mute and off-balance… nothing could persuade him to enter the house again.” (14) While this quote seems to show the power of Beloved in the home, with further and deeper analysis I was able to recognize a deeper message. Beloved is the slave owner and Here Boy is the slave. This is a representation of what slaves go through in life. Beaten, injured, made into lifeless beings, all things not in the least bit uncommon in a slaves life. Sethe does not intervene because she may possibly have a feeling of guilt. She is the one who took Beloved’s life. Now because of her own actions, she is being punished. Not physically, but mentally and emotionally. It is possible Beloved became jealous of the attention the dog received, believing that should be

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.

Beloved is consumed by her cruel acts, and simply drains more and more of Sethe’s health. In the beginning of the novel, Beloved appears to be a pretty, young, and lost girl that wanders into Sethe’s house. However, as time passes, she began to display signs that she is Sethe’s past daughter, the daughter that was killed. As Beloved is induced more and more into the family, she begins to feel

Beloved has been amongst the living and the dead. According to her, the purpose of life is to become dead. Halle, the man on her face, has accomplished this through disappearing. Nobody knows anything about him, so he is as good as dead. Contrarily, Beloved has always been on Sethe’s mind. Killing her own daughter is memory that she can not forget. Beloved is brought back to life because she can not be forgotten. “What I remember is a picture floating around out there outside my head” (page 36). It is impossible to forget the memory of Beloved because she was murdered in the shed right outside 124Bluestone Road. The memory stays right in the place where it happened. Halle’s death is back in Sweet Home since he never made it to 124Bluestone Road. Sethe has never gone back to there, so she can not pass by the place to bring back her rememory and so he stays dead. “her [Sethe’s] face is my own and I want to be there in the place where her face is and to be looking at it too” (page 210). Earlier in the chapter Beloved wants to be with her mother. She misses Sethe because, even after all Sethe has put her through, she is still her mother. She wants to look up to that familiar face that can be recognizable as her own. As Beloved thinks more about Sethe, her tone changes, “the woman is there with the face I want the face that is mine” (page 211). Beloved no longer wants to look up to Sethe, but to control her. This is what ends up

We learn a lot about the healing process of Sethe due to what Beloved has done to her. Beloved forces Sethe to confront her past so much that she is

Denver tries to warn Beloved of Sethe but Beloved still feeds the need to have Sethe's face. She wants to be one with her. Beloved says that Sethe was about to smile at her when the men without skin came but she lost her. She doesn't want to ever lose Sethe again. The voices start to mix but it ends by telling Beloved she won't be left again.

Denver believes she must protect Denver from Sethe and that beloved is here to help Denver wait for her father

Beloved is seen as the resemblance of Sethe’s dead baby. Beloved is portrayed as a teenage girl, however she is different from other black teenager, “…and younger than her clothes suggested – good lace at the throat, and a rich woman’s hat. Her skin was flawless except for three vertical scratches on her forehead so fine and thin they seemed at first like hair, baby hair before it bloomed and roped into the masses of black yarn under her hat.” (Morrison 62). Beloved unexpectedly came to 124, the house where Sethe, Denver, and Paul D lived. However, Sethe became attracted to her, “Sethe was deeply touched by her sweet name; the remembrance of glittering headstone made her feel especially kindly toward her. Denver, however, was shaking. She looked at this sleepy beauty and wanted more.” (Morrison 63) represent Sethe’s fascination towards Beloved, because she made Sethe recall her dead baby, which also has the word Beloved engraved in the gravestone. The name Beloved itself makes Sethe sentimental from

Memories, however, persist. They remain, lurking in places like 124 and Sweet Home to remind Sethe that the punishment she suffers is self inflicted and self perpetuating. First as a poltergeist and later as a mysterious young woman, the memory of Beloved remains unrequited. Beloved's appetite is insatiable. She "never got enough of anything... the more she took, the more Sethe began to talk, explain.." (240-1). No effort, no amount, no explanation is adequate. Sethe gives her face to Beloved and still she demands more. Beloved eventually becomes bloated with Sethe's loving excesses, but her thirst remains unquenched. Paul D. understands the dangers inherent in this kind of love when he warns Sethe, "Your love is too thick" (164). Beloved has no distinct identity separate from Sethe. Without Sethe, Beloved is ultimately left "crouching in a dark, dark place, forgetting to smile" (252). Likewise, Sethe's own identity is nearly lost or completely surrendered in her fusion with Beloved.

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

In Beloved, Morrison discusses the power that the past can hold over a person. Sethe murdered her daughter and was stopped before she had the chance to murder her other children. However, the murders did not occur out of malicious intent. After escaping her owner, Sethe is terrified that someone will catch her and her children and force them into slavery. She feels that the worst thing in the world is

Sethe begins to nurture her children, only for her children to have a growing fear that Sethe would kill them one day, enacting her children to distance themselves. Due to Sethe mother’s abandonment, Sethe in fact has never been a “daughter” and the love she displays, Paul D. describes as “too thick” (193) causes resentment from her children. As Sethe undergoes mental and physical abuse from Beloved, causing her strong personality to wither away and becoming fully dependent on Beloved, Sethe gives herself to Beloved, “[a]nything she wanted she got” (283). This is a story not to be passed on for Sethe, she allowed herself to be swallowed up by her own inability to move past her dreadful memories at Sweet Home. The past, “Beloved” began to slowly creep on her, draining away the strong woman she once was. Sethe always tried to nurture her child, the way her mother never nurtured her. However, in the end when she becomes dependent on Beloved, she becomes old and weak. Yet, her positive development occurs when Paul D tells her that she, herself is the most important thing and finally then Sethe moves on.

Sethe, Paul D., and Denver, are all in some state of conflict in the current circumstances of their lives at the beginning of the novel. Although Beloved's arrival to 124 initially brings more upset to the lives, it eventually leads to resolution for the family. Beloved embodies many of the secrets of the three's pasts. She symbolizes the history of the family not only with her physical appearance, but also with the relationships she forms with the three.

The novel beloved is based on the livelihood of slaves after their time in slavery and reinstatement back in society. The novel revolves around the maternal relationship between a mother and daughter, Sethe and Denver. The relationship is however, distracted by the introduction of Paul D, Sethe’s husband and beloved a supernatural being or ghost haunting the family.