Beloved 2

Beloved – Toni Morrison Essay, Research Paper

The meaning of the character of Beloved in Toni Morrison s Beloved

The character of Beloved in the novel Beloved, by Toni Morrison, is symbolic of several important ideas that are essential to a complete understanding of the novel. In the context of the story itself, Beloved is a specter that has returned to haunt the woman that killed her when she was child. On a deeper, subconscious level to the characters within the story, the character of Beloved can be considered to be reminder of the past. Specifically, the character of Beloved helps two characters, Sethe and Paul D., to deal with their pasts. Finally, in a historical context, Beloved can be interpreted to be a symbol of the problems that developed between mothers and their daughters as a result of the atrocities experienced through slavery. This paper will examine all of these aspects in detail and also demonstrate how they are necessary for a greater understanding of the story contained within the novel and how they complement the historical context of the story.

In the storyline of Beloved, the character of Beloved is a ghost that has returned to haunt the woman that killed her. It is important to understand the circumstances around her death in order to understand why the character of Beloved must return to her mother. The character of Beloved is the daughter of Sethe. Sethe is a black woman who has escaped a slave farm in the South with her children to the house of her mother-in-law, who is named Baby Suggs. The house is referred to as 124 in the story. Sethe fled a slave owner called Teacher, who is very sadistic man that had submitted her to many kinds of mental and physical torture. One of the particularly diabolical things about Teacher was that he had attempted to study, in a scientific manner, the slaves he kept as if they were animals, treating them as if they were less than human. Sethe s three children flee to the house ahead of her and Sethe, pregnant with child, follows shortly afterwards on foot. As Sethe is running through the woods she gives birth to her fourth child, a baby girl that she names Denver. Eventually Sethe and Denver arrive at 124 and shortly afterward, a party is thrown at 124 by Baby Suggs. The other people in the town appear to be jealous of Baby Suggs good fortune, and in their jealousy do not tell her, or Sethe, that a white man is coming down the road towards 124. The white man turns out to be Teacher, who has come to take Sethe back to the farm from which she has escaped. In order to protect her children from her prior life (her past) Sethe takes drastic measures and attempts to murder her own children. She kills her second youngest child, and injures the others. When Teacher finds that what she s done he decides that he cannot recover Sethe and heads for home without her stating that she is not valuable to him anymore. After his departure, Sethe is picked up by the local authorities for murdering her child but is eventually released. Consequently, it is under the circumstances of Sethe s determination to avoid her past life that her child departs this world.

When the reader first comes into the story it is past the event of her Beloved s death. In fact, Sethe does not even remember her daughter s name, but she does remember what the priest said at the funeral. The priest said Dearly Beloved hence, the name Sethe now associates with her dead daughter. In addition, the specter of Beloved has taken to haunting the house at 124 and people now experience a sense of depression as they enter 124. Later in the story, the ghost of Beloved inexplicably returns to Sethe as a young woman by appearing outside the house one day. She even uses the name that Sethe has ascribed to the ghost Beloved. After a while Sethe does eventually makes the connection between the name of her visitor and the name of her dead daughter. At the end of the book, the ghost of Beloved is exorcised from 124 by same women that were present at the party on the day of her living death. Thus, in the context of the story Beloved really is a specter that has come back from death and that Sethe, and the community in general, must deal with in order to bring closure to the story.

On a subconscious level within the story, the character of Beloved can be considered to be much more than just a specter. In fact, she is a representative of the past to the characters in the story and her presence continues to remind them of their pasts. Specifically, the character of Beloved has a healing effect with two characters in the story, Sethe and Paul D., become able to accept with their pasts and move on with their lives. When Paul D. first arrives at 124 he brings back, to Sethe, all of the memories of living on the farm with Teacher. In an interesting turn of events, the first action performed by Paul D. upon his arrival at 124 is to confront the disembodied spirit of Beloved that creates the feelings of depression in the threshold to the house. His confrontation temporarily casts the spirit from 124 but the peace that follows is short lived and within a short time the spirit of Beloved returns to the house as a young woman. The event of her return causes a number of emotional reactions in Paul D. and Sethe.

With regards to Sethe, we find that Beloved is constantly asking questions regarding her past. She seems to have knowledge regarding past events