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Beloved's Character


Toni Morrison uses the supernatural elements in Beloved to better show how her characters are haunted by trauma of the past. But including Beloved’s ghost doesn’t just help readers understand Sethe, Denver, and other living characters better, it also gives voice to Beloved and gives readers a pretty unique perspective into how the death of a baby affected the baby herself. I’m going to try to lay out what we know about Beloved’s personality and what motivates her.

We know a fair amount about how Beloved feels about people. We know that she loves Sethe and wants to be around her and hear her stories. We know she hates Paul D because he detracts from Sethe’s attention to her. Beloved’s feelings about Denver seem more complicated. She spends a lot of time with Denver and Denver thinks she enjoys her company when Sethe isn’t around, but she doesn’t express a lot of affection for Denver.

One of the main things we still don’t know about Beloved is why she returned. One possibility that many characters seem to expect is that she wants vengeance. Although Beloved hasn’t yet done much to suggest that she wants vengeance, she may have attempted to strangle Sethe in the clearing. And before Beloved has a corporeal form even Sethe believes Beloved wants vengeance: “Who would have thought that a little old baby could harbor so much rage?” (5).


For the most part, though, Beloved is extremely gentle and seems to be content to “live.”  Maybe she returned simply to claim the life she lost. Sethe certainly believes that Beloved has forgiven her. After realizing who Beloved is she thinks “I thought you were mad with me. And now I know that if you was, you ain’t now because you came back here to me” (217). Beloved also loves Sethe so much that she probably wouldn’t want to hurt her. On the other hand, Sethe killed Beloved because she loved her so much so maybe Beloved will similarly try to hurt Sethe without any malicious motive.

Comments

  1. isabella solisNovember 17, 2018 at 8:06 PM

    Your analysis of Beloved as a character is really eye-opening. Mostly, ghosts have some reason to be back on the Earth walking around, and often it is revenge. Beloved certainly has reason to desire revenge, but Sethe would be the wrong target. (I am now imagining a world in which Sethe and Beloved seek revenge on Schoolteacher). I think that Beloved would recognize that, and instead she can only rely on the somewhat unhealthy attachment she has to Sethe.

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  2. SarahNovember 17, 2018 at 9:00 PM

    I think now that we have come further in the novel, we have discovered that Beloved's reason for returning was indeed vengeance, as you suggested. I think one of the really unique things about her character is that she knows things that no one else can and also has incredible powers that are not included in the capabilities of any other character in the novel.

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  3. Nina GalvezNovember 27, 2018 at 5:53 PM

    While reading, I kept wondering why Beloved chose to return close to when Paul D arrived. I came to the conclusion that since Paul D was helping the family move on and deal with the past, Beloved came back to remind them of it. Her revenge is not letting Sethe forget and making sure she stays trapped in her traumatic past. Good post!

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