Beloved. Who or what is beloved

A detailed Summary of Beloved. Who or what is beloved

Beloved. Who or what is Beloved? Many people think that Beloved is the Devil or a savior. Others just take her at face value as Sethe's dead child come back to haunt her. I believe that all of these ideas come close to her identity, but they are still not completely right. This is not a story about good or evil, but rather a story about facing your own past. Beloved (the character) is simply a physical manifestation of Sethe's guilty conscience.

Sethe's desire to save her children from slavery was stronger than her humanity, and as a result she brutally murdered her baby, and buried it under the headstone "Beloved." Sethe chose to have this engraved on the tomb, because this was the "word she heard the preacher say at the funeral (all there was to say, surely)...Dearly Beloved" (5). The baby is first christened at death, with a name by which the preacher refers to the spectators at the burial. Sethe thus named the child after herself, insofar as she, Sethe, was whom the preacher was addressing as "dearly beloved." In this way she brands her detached conscience with guilt.

I call it her "detached conscience" because in order to go on with life Sethe needed to remove herself from her guilt. She removes herself so com

Sethe's conscience is masochistic in nature. Whenever it looks like her life may improve, her conscience just finds a new way to make her suffer for what she did. So, as life begins to get better for Sethe and Denver again because of Paul D, Beloved shows up, and when she gains some strength she promptly begins to move Paul D out of the house, systematically further and further away from Sethe. This is consistent with the masochistic pattern exhibited by Sethe's conscience, because Paul D is the only individual who shows potential (at this stage in the plot) of helping Sethe overcome her past. In his absence her guilt could punish her more effectively, and so Paul D ends up sleeping in the shed, with Beloved visiting him at night to make him very uncomfortable. When he tries to control his own destiny and explain things to Sethe on her way home from work, Beloved surprises them on the road with no jacket or wrap, scrutinizing Sethe and distracting her from Paul D's side, trying to steal her away from happiness again.

I think that the reason that Beloved disappears is because Sethe's ability to identify with the human race is returned to her and her conscience is reattached when the women hold Sethe back from killing Mr. Bodwin. This allows Sethe to have direct access to her guilt and truly begin to forgive herself. The guilt is still there, and she wants to take the easy way out and die. She tells Paul D "She left me... she was my best thing" (335). Finally, it is Paul D that finally helps her forgive herself the most, when he responds "You are your best thing, Sethe" (335). Sethe is herself beloved. Beloved is gone, but instead of dying, Sethe can now begin to live her free life to the fullest extent. She conquers her conscience and her past with the help of her future, her real daughter, Denver, and her lover, Paul.

Subsequently, Beloved begins to fall apart: "she [knew] that she could wake up any day and find herself in pieces...she thought it was starting" (164). This guilty conscience was having trouble sticking around in human form, now that Sethe was actively fighting it to make her life better. Beloved recognizes Paul D as the source of Sethe's strength, and makes Paul D even more uncomfortable than before. He uses his new knowledge of Sethe's crime as an excuse for moving out not much later. During the entire fight between Sethe and Paul D, he feels Beloved staring at him, adding to his discomfort. He is not comfortable wit

Some common words found in the essay are:
Beloved Sethe, Sethe Beloved, Paul Beloved, Sethe Paul, Beloved Devil, Sethe Clearing, Subsequently Beloved, Paul Paul, Bodwin Beloved, Finally Paul, guilty conscience, sethe beloved, sethe's conscience, detached conscience, beloved sethe, paul sleep inside, help action, beloved disappears, paul house, takes control, sethe denver,

Approximate Word count = 1663
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English