Toni Morrison's, Beloved, is a complex narrative about the love between mothers and daughters, and the agony of guilt. " It is the ultimate gesture of a loving mother. It is the outrageous claim of a slave." These are the words, of Toni Morrison, used to describe the actions of Sethe, the central character in the novel. She, a former slave, chooses to kill her baby girl rather then let her live a life in slavery. In preventing her from the physical and emotional horrors of slavery, Sethe has put herself in to a realm of physical and emotional pain: guilt. And in understanding her guilt we can start to conceive her motivations for killing her third nameless child. Did Beloved's death come out of love or selfish pride? In preventing her child from going into slavery, Sethe, too, protected herself, she prevented herself from re-entering captivity. In examining Sethe's character we can see that her motivations derive from her deep love towards her children, and from the lack of love for herself. Sethe's children are her only good quality. Her children are a part of her and in killing one she kills a part of herself. What hinders over Sethe is her refusal to acce

pt responsibility for her baby's death. Does she do this because she is selfishness or because it need not be justified? Sethe's love is clearly displayed by sparing her daughter from a horrific life, yet, Sethe refuses to acknowledge that her show of compassion is also murder.

Sethe knows that killing her daughter was wrong. And she also knows that killing her was right. She killed Beloved because she wanted freedom and she wanted her daughter to have freedom. Beloved is the embodiment of Sethe, torturing her for love, like Sethe tortures herself because she does not. Her love from her children is presented when she would choose to kill them rather then allow them to be broken by an evil institution. Love is Sethe's primary motivation for killing her children. However, her selfish fault lies in the fact that she shifted the focus of responsibility from herself to the institution that has spawned her. Ultimately, it is Sethe who is responsible for her murder not slavery. Sethe kills her daughter to demonstrate her love. She exhibits her selfish pride by rejecting her own guilt. When presented the notion that Sethe, not her children, is her own "best thing", her reply takes form of a question, "Me? Me?"(273) Sethe has realized that she has loved her children too much, and herself not enough.

Malle, J.L. Toni Morrison's Beloved and Jazz, Canbook Dist. Ontario, Canada, 1989.

With Beloved's return, Sethe can release all the guilt her conscious has laid upon her. And effect repent for her sin. "I'll explain to her, even though I don't have to. Why I did it. How if I hadn't killed her she would have died and that something I could not bear to happen to her. When I explain it she'll understand, because she understands everything already. I'll tend to her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter. Nobody will ever et my milk no more except my own children...Now I can look at things again because she's here to see them too." (201) Beloved provides Sethe with an outlet for her guilt. "By absorbing all her love, which should have been rightly directed at herself, Beloved is Sethe's denial of freedom." (Malle 216) Sethe's guilt will not allow her to love herself, or let herself be loved. Sethe's conscience is the ghos

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Approximate Word count = 1509
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)