In the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, there is some ambiguity surrounding the nature of the titular character. On the surface, she appears to be a reborn, grown-up version of the little girl who was killed by Sethe in an intentional act of merciful infanticide. However, it is also possible that she is simply a living mentally ill woman, and perhaps a runaway slave, upon whom Sethe imprints her guilt and the memory of her lost son. In addition to being a character, Beloved is also, on a non-literal basis, a symbol of the repressed past coming back to haunt the present. These multiple possibilities about the nature of Beloved's existence and identity make her the subject of much debate. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay It's tempting to argue that Beloved is exactly what the other characters believe her to be, a supernatural physical manifestation of Sethe's dead son, aged to the point that she would have been if she had been allowed to live and grow. Indeed, the adult Beloved appears to be, in many ways, very childish in his behavior. For example, this is evident when we are told of his "sleepy eyes"[1] and inability to wipe drool from his chin (60). Paula Gallant Eckard highlights this by claiming that "he is incontinent, unable to walk and constantly sleeps... Beloved must relearn everything and progress through the stages of childhood development"[2]. This supports the idea of ​​Beloved as an embodiment of Sethe's dead son, as she seeks the maternal nurturance and teaching she was denied in death. Beloved's particular fixation with Sethe as a mother figure also suggests that she is in fact Sethe's dead daughter. Denver observes Beloved's obsessive inclination towards Sethe, including "how eager she was to hear Sethe talk" (72) and how she "took every opportunity to ask some funny question and get Sethe going" (72). Indeed, Beloved herself even admits that she has returned to "seeing [Sethe's] face" (86) and that "she is the one" Beloved needs (86). Gallant Eckard goes on to claim that "Beloved is obsessed with her." 'mother' at a level that goes beyond the normal mother-child bond”[3]. This could likely be the result of Beloved's long hunger for maternal affection. Not only did Sethe fail to raise Beloved as she did Denver, but she actually ended the life she created, albeit out of intentional mercy. It is not unreasonable to assume that the Beloved has now returned, due to her desire for life and her mother's education and love. The image of the Beloved crawling out of the water can be seen as a representation of rebirth, with the adult Beloved emerging from the lake just as the Beloved's infant once emerged from its mother's womb. She is “soaking wet” (58) just like a newly born baby. Furthermore, 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...like flooding the boat when Denver was born" (59). This creates connotations relating to childbirth, particularly the breaking of Sethe's waters. This suggests that Beloved's emergence from the water is connected in some way to Sethe's womb as the sight of Beloved causes Sethe to suffer the onset of labor-related symptoms, as only a biological child could. In addition to her childish behavior and obsession with Sethe, the Beloved also seems to disturbingly recount impossible knowledge and memories from Sethe's life. Indeed, the adult Beloved is certainly suspicious, as she seems to know more about Sethe than she doesa stranger might do. He knows, for example, the song that Sethe once sang to her baby, a possible memory of the first time she lived and the brief time she had a mother. Additionally, Beloved asks Sethe about her “diamonds” (67). As a slave, it was very unlikely that Sethe would ever have owned diamonds, but she was actually given crystal earrings from her old mistress. By referring Beloved to this, it's implied that she has more of a connection to Sethe than she initially reveals. Referring to them as diamonds rather than crystals also suggests that he sees things through the simple, unsuspecting eyes of a child, and more specifically Sethe's son. The Beloved speaks as someone who has risen from the dead, as she apparently remembers her experience during the time between her death and her return. This is evident when he tells Sethe that “dead men lay on top of her…skinless ghosts stuck their fingers inside her” (281). This image of death and decay could be a reference to both the afterlife and the ground in which she was buried, already full of other buried corpses. Beloved repeatedly states that she was in a "dark" place (86) before arriving at Sethe's house. . This can be seen to refer to a grave in the ground like the one in which Sethe's daughter was buried. Furthermore, Beloved says that she is "small in that place" (86). Here it is possible that he is referring to his small, child-sized corpse, and the distinction he makes between "that place" and the place he is in now is highlighted by Kathleen Marks who states that "the child now has two homes, the literal grave and Sethe, a womb/tomb now one with the grieving house of 124”[4]. Indeed, Beloved tells Denver that "in the darkness [his] name is beloved" (86). Arguably, she may be talking about the tombstone that her mother had marked with the name "Beloved", leading the little girl to take it as her own name. It is also notable that the family dog ​​is absent when Beloved first arrives, using the common convention that animals are able to sense spirits and keep their distance from them. The beloved is described as behaving badly and looking ill but not appearing ill (65), suggesting that while her body has been renewed and fully developed, her mind has not. The description of her "new skin, lineless and smooth" (59) also alludes to the renewal of her body, as its description is very similar to that of a newborn baby's skin. However, while Beloved is certainly believed to be a literal ghost by characters like Sethe and Denver, it is debatable whether or not Beloved is truly supernatural in nature. Indeed, the appearance of Sethe's dead daughter may be mental rather than physical, with one 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 forces Sethe to face the gap between her maternal love and the reality of motherhood in bondage”[5]. Indeed, Sethe has clearly lived her life haunted by the memory of her murdered son, as evident from the beginning of the novel, when house 124 is apparently haunted by a non-physical manifestation of Sethe's dead son. Here, Sethe tells Denver that the ghost child's power is "no more powerful than the way [Sethe] loved her" (2). He also refuses to leave the house and tells Paul D that this is because he will "never run away from another thing 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 motherless child again. If one has to accept that Beloved is not trulysupernatural in nature, then the question of the true physical identity of the woman is still unanswered. While many of his mannerisms and behaviors seem childish and often disturbing, this may be the result of mental trauma rather than resurrection. Daniel Erickson highlights this uncertainty by stating that “Beloved's childhood characterization...the very characteristics that indicate that she is the child's ghost also support the competing thesis that she is a runaway slave, who has been imprisoned for much of his life ”[6]. Indeed, this is initially her assumed identity by the other characters, as Paul D simply thinks “a young black woman adrift was drifting from ruin” (60). Beloved's aforementioned claims of dead men lying on top of her and ghostly fingers sticking into her could very well be her memory of being raped, and the additional inclusion of dead men and ghostly fingers could be a fabrication caused by post-stress disorder -traumatic. The fingers she describes as skinless may be her way of interpreting the white skin of the slavers who attacked her. How Beloved herself comes to identify as Sethe's dead child may be the result of her traumatized, perhaps amnesiac mind absorbing memories projected onto her by Sethe. Whether Beloved is alive or a ghost, a child or a homeless woman, we know. issues that ultimately matter less. What's more important is what it represents. The real question is not who the Beloved is, but what she is, what she is a symbol of. The beloved can be seen as the embodiment of the past. She is often portrayed as a ghost, both by Sethe's family and by critics. She is more than the ghost of a deceased child, she is symbolic of the way characters are haunted by their traumatic past, just as a house can be haunted by a ghost. They buried their past, just as Sethe once buried her son. Krumholz argues that “[Morrison] makes the past haunt the present through the disoriented and disconcerting character of Beloved”[7]. Indeed, when Sethe is around Beloved, she becomes completely transfixed by her and, in turn, by the past. Over the course of the novel, both the dead child and the traumatic pasts of the people the Beloved comes into contact with are brought to light and must be faced. In this way, Beloved is almost a healing force, allowing the characters to reform their fragmented identities by confronting their pasts as slaves. Denver's observation of how Beloved "took every opportunity to ask a few funny questions and keep Sethe going" (73) not only highlights Beloved's obsession with Sethe, but also the way he manages to surface stories of memories that Sethe had kept hidden and refused to talk about. of.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 states, “it is clear that the title character of Toni Morrison's Beloved is a composite character”[8]. In fact, Beloved is more than a character, he is an allegory for slavery itself and the set of traumatic experiences that many people of color suffered because of it. Regardless of whether she is the ghost of a child killed by his mother to save him from slavery, or a living black woman subjected to captivity and rape by slaveholders, she represents a character who is enslaved and has suffered unimaginably because of it . . His return after years of death conveys the message that the experience of slavery, even after escape or liberation, would remainwith a person all their life haunting them just like a ghost. Krumholz argues that “Beloved comes to represent the repressed memories of slavery, both for the characters and for the readers”[9]. Indeed, Beloved, in addition to embodying the torment associated with slaves, also serves to bring to the surface the dark memories of slavery for Paul D and Sethe. For example, while seducing 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 element of the horror genre to preserve an important past memory of the African-American community and to aid the community's present identity”[10]. Indeed, the horror surrounding Beloved's appearance at House 124 and the story behind the death of Sethe's daughter effectively outline the suffering that black people have been subjected to throughout history. Christian Kim goes on to state that “contrary to superficial reading, the greatest horror is not a mother killing her child. The real horror is oppression and slavery”[11]. The idea of ​​the 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, put his feet in them, they would be fine” (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 not 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 natal homes. The symbolism of the footprint further highlights the collective suffering caused by slavery, as the narrator states that if the person who placed their feet in the footprints were to "remove [the feet], they would disappear again as if no one had ever walked there" (321 ). . This can be interpreted as a representation of the dehumanization to which slaves were subjected, treated like animals rather than people. Likewise, Sethe's baby is never named in the book. Beloved is the name of the adult woman, but this is simply what was engraved on the child's tombstone, highlighting the loss of identity experienced by many slaves. White slaveholders rarely referred to slaves by their names, leading them to become estranged from their humanity and identity. Furthermore, Krumholz also states that “The beloved is also everyone's ghost”[12]. Indeed, although it represents those who are subject to slavery, the past it represents is shared by all. Through the character of Beloved, the reader is forced to confront the past of slavery as much as the characters. In a post-slavery world where horrors are often forgotten, Morrison uses a character's supposed return from death to demonstrate that just because a horror is in the past, doesn't mean the repercussions are. Krumholz argues that "The beloved is the ghost of the reader who forces us to face the historical past as a living and vengeful presence"[13]. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom EssayIn In conclusion, Beloved is certainly, to some extent, a physical character and is the driving force of the narrative. The importance of her physical presence in the novel is underlined by Krumholz, who maintains that "Beloved cannot be reduced to a symbol as she manipulates the characters with her sweet, mischievous and enveloping presence"[14]. Who she is remains ambiguous, as she is never explicitly labeled as a supernatural entity or a living woman. Overall,”, 115.