Beloved (1987) is a fictional novel by author Toni Morrison, depicting events taking place in the lives of Sethe, Denver, and Paul D, as well as other former slaves living in Cincinnati, Ohio shortly after the American Civil War. In this novel, the reader is presented with topics relating to the traumatic memories of slavery and the difficulties in forming an identity after traumatic experiences. This essay will briefly discuss elements relating to feminism, and in particular the concepts of ‘social castration’ and gender solidarity in the novel. These ideas will be contrasted with the book Beginning Theory (2017), by Peter Barry.
According to Barry, feminist literary criticism originated in the 1960s as a ‘movement [which] realised the significance of the images of women promulgated by literature and saw it as vital to combat them and question their authority, and their coherence’ (Barry 123). Barry adds that feminist literary criticism is concerned with ‘the representation of women in literature…and exposing the mechanisms of patriarchy…which perpetuated sexual inequality’ (Barry 124). In feminism, a great deal of focus lies in identifying power structures, which contribute to upholding male hegemony in a society. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Grubar argue that women generally ‘lack social power’, and ‘power over their own identity’ whereas men in turn take such power more or less for granted (qtd. in Barry). Barry provides further details of the idea of ‘lack of power’ and refers Gilbert and Grubar’s analysis on Catherine and her ‘social castration’ in Wuthering Heights: According to their analysis, Catherine is forced to deny and reject her femininity and identity, she essentially gives up the ‘power over her own destiny to achieve acceptability’ and by doing so she becomes a victim of the oppressive patriarchal power structure(s) (137). The main aim of this essay is to analyse and discuss how i) the character of Beloved represents patriarchy and ii) how the characters of Sethe and Denver initially become victims of ‘social castration’, and how they succeed in resisting this ‘lack of power’ by enlisting the help of ‘the sisterhood’ in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. Ultimately, this essay argues that through the characters of Denver and ‘the sisterhood’, Morrison attempts to show the readers how female gender solidarity helps to fight against, and overturn patriarchal power structures.
In the novel Beloved, the character of Beloved represents patriarchy and its oppressive power, which return to haunt Sethe, forcing her to give up power over her own destiny. The character of Sethe is a former slave, who has escaped from the Sweet Home farm in Kentucky to Cincinnati, Ohio (Morrison 3; 7). In the beginning of the novel, she and her child Denver live together in a house in 124 Bluestone Road (Morrison 68). Sethe has managed to secure a job at Sawyer’s restaurant, and she does her best to provide for her daughter, until a ghost that resembles her first-born daughter appears on the porch (Morrison 61; 68). This ‘ghost-child’, by the name of Beloved ‘targets Sethe, eats her with her eyes’ (Morrison 68), and she becomes more and more demanding as time goes by. Beloved gets immensely jealous if Sethe is spending time doing something else or thinking about something else than herself (Morrison 119). Beloved also sees the character of Paul D as a direct threat, and seduces him, which leads to Paul D abandoning the house. Eventually, Beloved’s constant demands result in Sethe losing her job at the restaurant (Morrison 282). Ultimately, Sethe and Denver are unable to leave the house, and spend their days playing games and arguing with each other and Beloved. Denver observes how ‘Thirty-eight dollars of lifesavings went into feeding themselves…to decorate themselves with fancy ribbons’ (Morrison 282) and how Beloved was ‘getting bigger and plumper each passing day’ (Morrison 281). Denver concludes by stating that ‘it was Beloved who made demands. Everything she wanted, she got’ (Morrison 283). This persistent abuse, carried out by Beloved, who uses both social and sexual power to coerce people into doing what she wants, leads to Sethe becoming a slave again; she went from having suffered immense pain as a slave at Sweet Farm, to building up a decent, independent life for herself and Denver in Ohio and earning her own money, to losing it all when Beloved appears. This suggests that Beloved’s self-appointed position of dominance, her control over Sethe and her enforcement of traditional gender norms (Sethe has to clean and cook for Beloved) makes her the embodiment of patriarchal oppression in the novel. As in Gilbert and Grubar’s analysis on Catherine and her ‘social castration’ in Wuthering Heights, in Morrison’s novel Sethe can be said to have given up the ‘power over her own destiny to achieve acceptability’ in the eyes of Beloved. This notion of Sethe being a victim of Beloved’s ‘patriarchal’ abuse, and the resulting loss of her identity is supported by the narrator, who remarks how ‘Sethe’s eyes were bright but dead, alert but vacant, paying attention to everything about Beloved’ (Morrison 285). Due to Beloved’s never-ending demands and her ruthless employment of power, Sethe is forced to deny and reject her own needs and identity. In essence, Sethe has become a victim of the same oppressive patriarchal structures as at Sweet Home farm, but this time the oppressive system is embodied in Beloved.
In the novel Beloved, Denver manages to resist Beloved’s attempt of ‘social castration’ by enlisting the help of ‘the sisterhood’ in feeding her and in banishing Beloved from the house. Towards the end of the novel, Sethe is reduced to a servant, and forced to cater to Beloved’s every whim. Denver realises that the situation is outright dangerous for both her and Sethe, and she leaves the house to search for help: ‘Denver knew it was on her; she would have to leave the yard and go ask somebody for help’ (Morrison 286). Denver is initially lost; she has no existing social network outside of the house, but she makes her way to a former teacher’s house, who in turn enlists the help of other women in the neighbourhood in feeding Denver and Sethe, until Denver can get a job (Morrison 292-295) ‘Maybe they were sorry for her’, Denver thinks, ‘Or for Sethe. Maybe they were just nice people’ (Morrison 293). The novel reaches its climax when the ladies hear of Beloved’s behaviour towards Sethe: ‘The news…spread among the coloredwomen. Sethe was worn down…This daughter beat her, tied her to the bed, pulled out all her hair’ (Morrison 300). This ruthless abuse of Sethe is not tolerated by the other women, and for many of them Beloved’s actions bring back traumatic memories from their own past. The narrator remarks how for Ella, ‘there was also something very personal in her fury’ (Morrison 302): Ella had spent her ‘puberty in a house where she was shared by a father and son, and whom she called “the lowest yet. It was “the lowest yet” …against who she measured all atrocities’ (Morrison 301). Ella also notes how ‘as long as the ghost showed out from its ghostly place…Ella respected it. But if it took flesh and came into her world, well, the shoe was on the other foot’ (Morrison 302). This brief remark from Ella highlights the moment when the women, who have previously lacked ‘social and sexual power’ and ‘power over their own identity’ decide to challenge the patriarchal system by taking that power back and using it against the oppressor. The women congregate outside of 124 Bluestone Road, and ‘the voices of women searched for the right combination, the key, the code, the sound that broke the back of words’ (Morrison 308) and they succeed in banishing Beloved. This further supports the notion that although many of the female characters who come to Denver’s aid have been abused, they all seem to share a belief that by coming together and combining their forces and raising their voices, they will be able to challenge patriarchal norms and gain power of their own. By depicting this collective power, held and used by women, Morrison seems to suggest that it is female gender solidarity, which enables women to fight against and challenge oppressive patriarchal systems and ideologies.
Works Cited
Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory. 4th ed., Manchester University Press, 2017.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage Books, 2007.
Notes on Literature 