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The Ghost In Toni Morrison's Beloved

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In the novel “Beloved”, by Toni Morrison it is made apparent that the ghost that is haunting Sethe, Denver, and Paul D is the child of Sethe’s that she had to murder as a baby. Sethe, Denver, and Paul D had all been sold into slavery. Sethe had already had two sons and did not want Beloved to be sold into slavery, therefore she did what she felt was best in her eyes for Beloved, and that was to kill her. “She wasn’t even two years old when she died” (Morrison 25). After reading on into further investigations to see if maybe Beloved was something evil or sinister, we came to the conclusion that it is simply the deceased child back from the dead. Both my partner and I feel as though Beloved came back for multiple reasons mainly being her wanting …show more content…

at 124 Bluestone, Sethe feels a sense of comfort and was happier than she has ever been. Yet when Beloved later disappears, Sethe feels a disconnection and says “She was my best thing” (Morrison 272). Paul D. thinks carefully about Sethe and the character known as Beloved and then responds, “ You your best thing, Sethe” (Morrison 273). This shows the way Beloved and Sethe had a connection like no other, but also shows that Paul D believes Beloved is not truly needed and has shown throughout the entire novel that he feels this way. Sethe feels a sense of incomplete without having Beloved around. This obvious connection between Sethe and Beloved shows that the two characters have some type of bond that had to be made between the two before Beloved came out of the water, furthermore proving that the ghost, Beloved, is Sethe’s deceased child. The proof of Beloved being the deceased child is drawn out through the entire novel. Beloved knows things that only the daughter of Sethe would ever know such as when they talk about the song that Sethe sings to her …show more content…

Sethe tried murdering all of her children when the school teacher came to take her children away. Sethe felt as if taking their lives that she would be saving them and freeing their souls from the horrible life of slavery. The novel keeps taking Sethe back to the visions of that horrible day she made that choice. The past ultimately comes back to haunt Sethe for the life choices she has made. While thinking she did such a good deed in murdering her own daughter and trying to kill her other children brings regret onto her soul. This helps feed one of Beloved’s motives. Beloved seems to feel some kind of betrayal over the fact that she was killed by her own mother. When Beloved shows up Sethe’s guilt is at its worst. Before Beloved had shown up Sethe had finally felt at peace and started to make what seemed like a family again.
“Okay. Here’s some. There’s a carnival in town. Thursday, tomorrow, is for coloreds and I got two dollars. Me and you and Denver gonna spend every penny of it. What you say?” (Morrison

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While she is stated to be eighteen when the book starts, her actions, much like Beloved later, convey a sense of her still being a child and remaining bound to her mother, enjoying the story of her birth and feeling slighted when Beloved only desires to be with Sethe and not her. Denver and her mother have been in virtual isolation following Sethe’s murder of Beloved and attempted murder of her three other children, which, along with the departure of her brothers and the death of her grandmother at some point before the story began, has left Denver with no company, save her mother and the ghost of her sister. Morrison described Denver as “lonely … since there were no children willing to circle her in a game or hand by their knees from her porch railing” (Morrison, 1987, p. 6). However, Denver seems to withdraw from her mother and any company she might have, most notably Paul D, opting to search for a sign from her deceased sister in order to stave off her feelings of “loneliness” that “wore her out” (Morrison, 1987, p. 14), being so sensitive to the ghost’s presence that she could discern the ghost’s footsteps as she went up the stairs, and being so entrenched in her isolation that it made “Denver long … for a sign of spite from the baby ghost” (Morrison, 1987, p.

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The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison fundamentally relies on the relationship between the former slave Sethe and the daughter she murdered as an infant, only known to the reader as Beloved. In one scene, Beloved is attempting to make Sethe feel guilty as Sethe argues that her attempted murder of her children was out of love, and that she intended for them to be “together on the other side.” Beloved’s response, in which she points out that, after she “died,” “ghosts without skin stuck their fingers in her and said beloved in the dark and bitch in the light,” shatters the intensely loving, devoted tone that Sethe attempts to establish in favor of a more dramatic, graphic tone and creates intense juxtaposition, a device which is continually used throughout the text. (254) The phrase “ghosts without skin,” overall, exemplifies Beloved’s immature perspective.

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