Beloved appears as the ghost of Sethe’s killed daughter. This tangible, fleshly ghost causes to awaken the inhabitants and restore dignity to home 124. This essay describes the significant role of the ghost and asserts the performance as the major complementary to the overall theme of the novel which is acknowledging the history of African-Americans.
The book Beloved is a Gothic novel because the existence of the ghost is stretched throughout the whole story. Nevertheless, Beloved, to a large extent differs from those of conventional ghosts in Gothic narratives. This key character is somehow a real woman, with “new skin, lineless and smooth” (61). She walks, becomes thirsty, gets tired, feels hurt in her lungs, and “amid all […] she was smiling” (60). Beloved is represented as a tangible ghost, to de-familiarise the Gothic qualities of uncanny, aiming to stimulate a fresh perception. Benet and Royel argue that “[t]he uncanny is not just a matter of the weird or spooky, but has to do more specifically with a disturbance of the familiar’ (35). Likewise, in the novel Beloved, immediately after her arrival, the woman starts to interrupt the usual life in 124. For the first time since her childhood, Sethe experiences the uncontrollable urge to urinate right at the moment she sees Beloved. Furthermore, in response to Paul D, Beloved spells her name exactly as it was engraved on the headstone of Sethe’s dead daughter. According to Benet and Royel, the uncanny has to challenge rationality through unfamiliar occurrences (37). Beloved is visibly and audibly perceptible ghost, and that makes her quite different with the stereotypical ghosts in Gothic narratives. Therefore, as a fleshly ghost, Beloved encounters logic through her various manifestations.
The disinterment of Beloved is the way that Sethe’s optimistic anticipation seems capable of an embodiment. For Sethe, it is desirable that once an idea becomes real it exists forever. In a conversation with her daughter, when Denver asks “nothing ever dies” (44), Sethe emphasises on the importance of memory and asserts that “[n]othing ever does” (44). This is crucial in relation to Beloved because she converts Sethe’s mere ideals to reality for her physical representation of the baby girl and thus makes Sethe’s memories last forever. It suggests that in order to avoid forgetting the past and recognize the history, the materialisation of memory is inevitable. Memory is just concepts in the mind, but from Sethe’s point of view, once a memory materialised it can be shared, and of course, observed and multiplied. Sethe says “you bump into a memory that belongs to somebody else” (43). Beloved is an embodied memory and as a turbulent fleshly ghost, she prevents the evil of slavery to remain disavowed. In other words, Beloved reveals the untold parts of the history and drives it forward until it is acknowledged. “This is not a story to pass on” (324). The narrator warns that any further repressive may lead the ghost to start haunting again. Indeed, the significance of the past memories should be urged and the historical legacies of slavery must be recognised. Therefore, the significance of Beloved as a mature woman implies the remembrance of the dead baby girl; and her performance visualises the dark side of the story which was otherwise not possible to be developed so effectively.
The haunting ghost in the character of Beloved provides the inhabitants of 124 with an apprehension and leads them to be more aware of themselves. Beloved is not just a random runaway young woman who accidentally reaches to the home 124, neither she is a mere supernatural appeal attached to the novel, but a fleshly and tangible ghost with some very close connections to the past living experiences of the inhabitants. For that, she possesses a suspicious knowledge about the past, particularly in relations to Sethe. That is why she asks provocative questions about Sethe’s previous belongings and experiences: "Where your diamonds?" (69). Beloved is also obsessed to “search” Sethe's face, and her eagerness astounds Sethe “it amazed Sethe” (69). Since then, Sethe never talked about it as the narrator explains “it was unspeakable; to Denver's inquiries Sethe gave short replies or rambling incomplete reveries” (69). Nevertheless, Beloved's solicitations are inflammatory and sufficiently capable of erupting those potentialities of pains. Thus, Beloved as the ghost of the dead baby girl carries secrets, and Sethe, as well as others, need those secrets to be revealed. Benet and Royel affirm that “[t]he only reason why people think they see ghosts is because of the dead take secrets with them when they die” (184). In this way, the tangible, fleshly ghost in the shape of Beloved is as significant as a major motif in the novel. Beloved let the story to move on, and more importantly, establishes the overall subject of the novel which is the racial difference in relations to the history of slavery in North America.
The significance of Beloved as a ghost is not limited to the emphatic recognition of the memories but also persuasion for further acts in favour of freedom and ending slavery. Beloved affects all others, and particularly, causes Sethe to feel an extreme passion with her. Sethe asserts that Beloved “was my best thing” (321), she is determined to protect Beloved by any means. When a white man drives towards the house 124, Sethe assumes full responsibility to save Beloved. She uses the same procedure as she commenced many years ago. However, this time not to kill her own daughter, but to try murdering the white man, because in Sethe’s mind “he is coming for her best thing” (308). This last ever incident happens in presence of thirty other women. Beloved’s profound impression on these women has brought them to 124, and after many years of rejection, the house regains respect.
In conclusion, Beloved appears in the character of a tangible and fleshly ghost who propels the story forward. The ghost provides the novel with the Gothic qualities such as uncanny in order to develop the story in a creative approach. Consequently, people in Bluestone Road are awakened, history is acknowledged, and 124 is admired again.
References:
Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory, edited by Andrew Bennett, and Nicholas Royle, Taylor and Francis, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwsau/detail.action?docID=4429796.
Morison, Toni. Beloved. Reading Guide ed. London: Vintage Classic, 2010. Print. Vintage Classics.