Beloved Sethe Relationship

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,

to her. Amy Denver saves Sethe. Amy is a white girl who came to Sethes

Sethe’s consciousness is always working, always a part of her decisions affect her children, the best things in her life. She is indeed, ambivalent too what would destroy her mothering. As strong as Sethe is, she cannot stop her children from leaving; and her strength is what scares some of them.

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.

One may argue that she does not display much emotion while killing her children, she unquestionably resembles a lunatic. Without this vital scene, Beloved would lack the utterly shocking element that such violence provides. People want to immerse themselves into stories about lunatics, emerge in the drama, and sympathize with the dire pain Sethe feels. Violent scenes, among other elements, allow for this to occur in a novel.

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.

As Sethe's demise and Beloved's mischief become overwhelming, Denver assumes the responsibility to assure the survival of her family. Due to Beloved's presence, Sethe loses her job and soon all of her savings is spent. There is no food, however, Beloved's demands do not cease. Sethe begins to wither away from frustration and a wounded conscience and Denver becomes "listless and sleepy with hunger" (242). Denver realizes that, "she would have to leave the yard; stop off the edge of the world, leave the two behind and go ask somebody for help" (243). Denver must face her terror of a mundane society to keep her sister and mother from starvation.

It is shown that after the act of taking the life of Beloved and attempting the life taking of Denver, Howard, and Buglar, that Sethe truly does love her children. The way Sethe tried to go about saving her children seems unethical and horrible, but there did not seem to be all too many options for Sethe to save her children from the slave life. Howard and Buglar left Sethe and Denver to get away from Sethe, they had even warned Denver about what she had attempted to do to them. Although Howard and Buglar ran from Sethe and there was the attempted murder in the barn, Sethe still thinks of them because they are her children. Denver was tossed as an infant that day in the barn, and she clearly survives. Even after all the events and situations created from the presence of Beloved there is still a strong bond of love between Sethe and Denver. Sethe loves Denver very much, she is her one surviving child that is still with her.

Denver’s exclusion from Sethe and Beloved helps her realize the negative effects Beloved has on her and Sethe so that she can turn her life around for the better. Beloved’s distraction of Sethe brings Denver isolation and hunger. “The thirty-eight dollars of life savings went to feed themselves with fancy food and decorate themselves with ribbons and dress goods” (283). Sethe spends all of her savings, which are meant for an emergency, on Beloved to make up for her murder of Beloved. After Sethe stops going to work, she put her full focus on Beloved and tries to please her with the most expensive food and goods that she can buy. Sethe’s actions allow Denver to realize that Sethe is spending all of her money to please Beloved who is manipulating Sethe. Denver starts to isolate herself from Beloved because she is seeing the effect on her mother and does not want to be near someone who is going to manipulate her. Denver’s removal of herself from Beloved, helps improve her life and brings her closer to being an independent

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

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

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

Knowing the value of this rarity, Sethe was extremely attached to her children, and refused to lose them, lest she lose herself.  The link between mother and child, then, is an important underlying theme throughout Beloved, and one with which Sethe became obsessed.

In Beloved, Toni Morrison frequently alternates between telling stories from Sethe's past, to telling events in the present. Morrison introduces Beloved, who serves as the link between Sethe and Paul D's past at "Sweet Home" as slaves, and the present, living in Ohio as a free family of three: Sethe, Paul D. and Denver. The character of Beloved allows Morrison to explain the experiences and characteristics of the three characters, and how they are reactions to their pasts. Up to Beloved's arrival, Sethe and Denver lived in a "spiteful house.", which created a state of uneasiness. The ghost of Beloved had driven off Sethe's two sons, yet the mother and daughter continued to live at 124. With the arrival of Paul D., some of Sethe's