In the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, there is some ambiguity about the nature of the main character. On the surface, she appears to be a reborn, adult version of the child who was murdered by Sethe in an intentional act of merciful infanticide. However, it is also possible that she is simply a mentally ill living woman, and perhaps an escaped slave, upon whom Sethe imprints her guilt and the memory of her lost child. In addition to being a character, Beloved is also, on a non-literal basis, a symbol of the repressed past that comes back to haunt the present. These multiple possibilities as to the nature of Beloved's existence and identity make him a subject of much debate. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay It is tempting to argue that Beloved is exactly what the other characters think she is, a supernatural physical manifestation of nature. Sethe's dead child, aged to the point she would have been if she had been allowed to live and grow. Indeed, the adult Beloved appears, in many respects, very infantile in her behavior. For example, this is evident when we are told of his "sleepy eyes"[1] and his inability to wipe his own drops from his chin (60). Paula Gallant Eckard emphasizes this by stating that "she is incontinent, unable to walk and sleeps constantly... Beloved must relearn everything and progress through the stages of infant development"[2]. This supports the idea of ​​Beloved as an embodiment of Sethe's dead child, as she seeks the maternal upbringing and teaching that was denied to her in death. Beloved's particular fixation on Sethe as a mother figure further suggests that she is actually Sethe's deceased daughter. Denver observes Beloved's obsessive inclination toward Sethe, including "how eager she was to hear Sethe talk" (72) and how she "took every opportunity to ask amusing questions and get Sethe going" (72 ). In fact, Beloved herself even admits that she came back to “see [Sethe’s] face” (86) and that “she is the one” Beloved needs (86). Gallant Eckard goes on to state that “Beloved is obsessed with her. “mother” to a degree that goes beyond normal mother-child bonds”[3]. This could arguably be the result of Beloved's long deprivation of maternal affection. Not only did Sethe fail to raise Beloved as she did in Denver, but she actually ended the life she had created, albeit out of intentional pity. It is not unreasonable to assume that Beloved has now returned, due to her desire to live and her mother's upbringing and love. The image of Beloved crawling out of the water can be seen as representing rebirth, the adult Beloved emerging from the lake just as the baby Beloved once emerged from its mother's womb. She is “soaked” (58 years old), like a newly born newborn. Additionally, during Sethe's first encounter with the adult Beloved, "the moment she got close enough to see the face, Sethe's bladder filled to capacity...as if she had flooded the boat at the birth of Denver” (59). This creates connotations of childbirth, specifically the breaking of Sethe's waters. This suggests that Beloved's emergence from the water is somehow connected to Sethe's womb, as the sight of Beloved causes labor-related symptoms to appear, as only a biological child could do it. In addition to his childish behavior and obsession with Sethe, Beloved also seems to strangely recount impossible knowledge andmemories of Sethe's life. Indeed, the adult Beloved is certainly suspicious, for she seems to know more about Sethe than a stranger perhaps would. For example, she knows the song Sethe once sang to her baby, a possible memory of her early life and the short time she had a mother. Additionally, Beloved asks Sethe about her “diamonds” (67). As a slave, it was very unlikely that Sethe would have ever owned diamonds, but she was in fact given crystal earrings by her former mistress. By Beloved's reference to this, it is implied that she has more of a connection to Sethe than she initially reveals. Calling them diamonds rather than crystals also suggests that she sees things through the simple, unconscious eyes of a child, and specifically Sethe's child. Beloved comes to speak as one who has been raised from the dead, as she apparently remembers her experience between her death and her return. This is evident when she tells Sethe that “dead men lay on top of her…skinless ghosts dug into her fingers” (281). This imagery of death and decay could be a reference either to the afterlife or to the ground in which she was buried, which was already filled with other buried corpses. Beloved repeatedly states that she was in a “dark” place (86) before arriving at Sethe’s house. . This can be seen as referring to a tomb in the ground like the one in which Sethe's daughter was buried. Additionally, Beloved says that she is “small in this place” (86). Here she may be referring to her small, baby-sized corpse, and the distinction she makes between "this place" and where she is now is highlighted by Kathleen Marks who states that "the baby now has two houses, the literal tomb and Sethe, a womb/tomb now one with the mourning house of 124"[4]. Indeed, Beloved tells Denver that “in the dark, [his] name is beloved” (86). We could probably talk about the tombstone that his mother had marked with the name “Beloved,” which led the child to take it as his own name. It is also notable that the family dog ​​is absent when Beloved first arrives, using the common convention that animals are capable of sensing spirits and keeping their distance from them. Beloved is described as acting sick and looking sick, but not looking sick (65), suggesting that although her body has been renewed and fully developed, her mind has not. not been. The description of her "new skin, without lines and smooth" (59) also alludes to the renewal of her body, as her description closely resembles that of a newborn's skin. However, while Beloved is certainly seen as a literal ghost by characters such as Sethe and Denver, it is questionable whether Beloved is truly supernatural in nature. Indeed, the appearance of Sethe's deceased daughter could be mental rather than physical, a mother projecting her grief and guilt over her act of infanticide onto an entirely different person. Linda Krumholz highlights this possible interpretation by stating that "Beloved is Sethe's 'ghost,' the return of her repressed past, and she forces Sethe to confront the gap between her maternal love and the realities of enslaved motherhood."[ 5]. Indeed, Sethe has clearly lived her life haunted by the memory of her murdered child, as evidenced early in the novel when House 124 is apparently haunted by a non-physical manifestation of Sethe's dead child. Here, Sethe tells Denver that the baby ghost's power is "no more powerful than the way [Sethe] loved him" (2). She refusesalso to leave the house and tells Paul D that it's because she "will never run away from anything else on this earth" (15). Here, it is evident that Sethe regrets her past actions and does not want to leave what she believed to be her child motherless again. If we are to accept that Beloved is not truly supernatural in nature, then the question of the woman's true physical identity still remains unanswered. Although many of his mannerisms and behaviors seem childish and often disturbing, this may well be the result of mental trauma rather than resurrection. Daniel Erickson highlights this uncertainty by stating that "Beloved's infantile characterization...the very characteristics which indicate that she is the child's ghost, also support the contradictory thesis that she is an escaped slave, who was imprisoned for most of his life. »[6]. Indeed, it is initially a question of her identity assumed by the other characters since Paul D simply thinks that “a young woman of color adrift was emerging from ruin” (60). Beloved's aforementioned claims of dead men lying on top of her and ghostly fingers stuck in her may well be her memory of rape, and the additional inclusion of dead men and ghostly fingers may be a fabrication caused by a disorder of post-traumatic stress. The fingers she describes as skinless could be her way of interpreting the white skin of the slavers who attacked her. The way Beloved herself comes to identify herself as Sethe's dead baby could be the result of her traumatized, perhaps amnesiac, mind absorbing the memories projected onto her by Sethe. Whether Beloved is alive or a ghost, a baby or a homeless woman, are questions that are ultimately of lesser importance. What's more important is what it represents. The real question is not who Beloved is, but what she is, with what she is a symbol. Beloved can be seen as an incarnation of the past. She is often interpreted as being a ghost, both by Sethe's family and critics. She is more than the ghost of a deceased baby, she symbolizes the way in which the characters are haunted by their traumatic past, much like a house can be haunted by a ghost. They buried their past, just like Sethe buried her child. Krumholz argues that "[Morrison] makes the past haunt the present through the baffled and confusing character of Beloved."[7] Indeed, when Sethe is with Beloved, she becomes completely fascinated by her, and by extension, by the past. Throughout the novel, the dead child and the traumatic past of those the beloved comes into contact with are discovered and must be dealt with. In this way, Beloved is almost a healing force, allowing characters to reform their fragmented identities by confronting their slave past. Denver's observation about how Beloved "took every opportunity to ask a funny question and get Sethe going" (73) highlights not only Beloved's obsession with Sethe, but also the way she brings out stories of memories that Sethe had kept hidden and refused to talk about. While it is clear that Beloved is a representation of the past and its influence on individual characters, it also has a much broader meaning. As Carolyn Foster Segal says, "It is clear that the main character in Toni Morrison's Beloved is a composite character"[8]. Indeed, Beloved is more than a character, she is an allegory for slavery itself and the composite of the traumatic experiences many black people suffered because of it. Whether she is theghost of a baby killed by its mother to save it from slavery or a living black woman subjected to captivity and rape by slavers, she presents herself as an enslaved character who suffered unimaginably because of it. . His return after years of death conveys the message that the experience of slavery, even after one escapes or is freed, would stay with a person for life, haunting them much like a ghost. Krumholz argues that "Beloved comes to represent repressed memories of slavery, both for the characters and for the readers"[9]. Indeed, Beloved, in addition to embodying the torments associated with slavery, also serves to bring to the surface the dark memories of slavery for Paul D and Sethe. For example, as she seduces Paul D in the barn, he thinks back to a series of horrible memories he had buried inside. Heerak Christian Kim argues that "Morrison effectively uses the genre element of horror to preserve the important past memory of the African American community and to aid the community's current identity."[10] Indeed, the horror surrounding Beloved's appearance at House 124 and the story behind the death of Sethe's daughter effectively depict the suffering that black people have been subjected to throughout history. Indeed, Christian Kim goes on to affirm that “contrary to superficial reading, the greatest horror is not a mother who kills her child. The real horror is the oppression of slavery”[11]. The idea of ​​Beloved as a collective symbol rather than a physical character is supported by the footprints in the woods mentioned in the final chapter of the novel. The footprints left by the ghostly Beloved are described as "so familiar." If a child, an adult, puts their feet there, they will fit in” (321). This highlights that the tragic loss of life suffered by Beloved at the hands of her mother mirrors the loss of life suffered by all those condemned to slavery. While they may not have all lost their lives in the same physical sense as Beloved, they lost their freedom, their possessions, their loved ones, and were forcibly taken from their native homes. The symbolism of the footprint further highlights the collective suffering caused by slavery, as the narrator says that if the person who had put their feet in the footprints "took [their feet] out, they would disappear again like no one else had never walked there” (321). . This can be seen as representing the dehumanization that slaves were subjected to, being treated like animals rather than people. Likewise, Sethe's baby is never named in the book. Beloved is the adult woman's name, but it is simply what was engraved on the baby's tombstone, highlighting the loss of identity that many slaves experienced. White slaveholders rarely referred to their slaves by name, leading them to distance themselves from their humanity and identity. Furthermore, Krumholz also states that “Beloved is also everyone's ghost”[12]. Indeed, even if it presents itself as a representation of those subjected to slavery, the past that it represents is shared by all. Through the character of Beloved, the reader is brought to confront the past of slavery just as much as the characters. In a post-slavery world where horrors are often forgotten, Morrison uses a character's supposed return from the dead to show that just because a horror is in the past doesn't mean its repercussions are. Krumholz argues that “beloved is the ghost of the reader who forces us to confront the historical past as a living, vindictive presence”[13]. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized item now”, 115.