The names that Toni Morrison gives to her characters always carry more meaning than originally meets the eye. Beloved's name is explained as what's engraved on her tombstone. In the beginning of the novel we are told that Sethe could only remember the phrase "Dearly beloved" from the speech the preacher gave at the burial for the crawling already baby. Sethe thought the engraving was fitting because that's the most important thing about the baby -- that she was loved.
This explanation carries a lot more weight when we learn the full story of what happened to the baby girl. Sethe was the one that killed her, but she claims to have done it out of love. The name "Beloved" is an explanation and a justification for Sethe's actions.
The name also shows that Sethe is willing to do literally anything for her children. From traveling long distances to ensure they are fed, to killing them if it means they are spared the horrors of slavery. The story of how the engraving came about is another example of Sethe's fierce love. She pays the engraver in sexual favors to ensure that her daughter has something written on her tombstone. Sethe's motherly love is her defining characteristic and all of her actions are driven by her love. Again and again Sethe commits undeniably dauntless acts for her children, although some of them are morally questionable. Paul D tells her that her love is "too thick".
The full phrase from the funeral was probably something like "Dearly beloved: we are gathered today to pay our final tribute to...". "Dearly beloved" is what the preacher uses to address the congregation. The congregation is the "dearly beloved" of the deceased. In this case, since it was a baby, it would be all those who dearly loved the baby. Beloved is actually named after everyone who attended her funeral. Sethe misunderstood the preacher and thought he was referring to the baby. I sure that this misunderstanding is an intentional detail from Toni Morrison.
Beloved is named after all of the people of the town, who are both responsible for her arrival into freedom and the reason she died. The Underground Railroad system brought the baby to Cincinnati but also refused to warn Sethe that the four horsemen were approaching, leading to her desperate actions. Fitting the recurring theme in the novel, it's possible that the past lives in Beloved's present even through her name.
I think this idea that Sethe's defining characteristic of motherly love is central to the story. Morrison uses Sethe's complete devotion to her children as a tool to show how slavery forces people into horrific scenarios in which they must choose between their children living in slavery or without slavery in death. Furthermore, at the end of the novel Morrison shows us how much it tore Sethe apart, when Beloved begins to torture by using her guilt from the infanticide. Ironically, Paul D has to even explain to Sethe that she herself should be the most important person in her life, not her children.
ReplyDeleteI think the names are really importnat point! Also, when the three Paul's from Sweet Home are introduced, that is another set of names that catches your eye: three Pauls? Baby Suggs' name is rooted in a past that meant a lot to her, and through her name we learn more of her backstory. I like the intentionality of the name's and am glad you wrote this post because it does so much for the narrative!
ReplyDeleteThis observation that names are meaningful in the novel is interesting. I began to wonder about Sethe and the meaning of her name. The immediate definition I found for "sethe" was "appointed, placed". While I am not certain whether or not the author named her Sethe with this definition in mind, I do wonder if there is a correlation. To appoint is to assign someone a task, or role. Sethe was appointed to Sweet Home to replace Baby Suggs. The idea of having a job, or role seems incredibly prevalent in this novel. As you said, Sethe's actions stemmed from motherly love. She seemed to believe it was her duty to protect and love her children as much as she could.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about that aspect of "Dearly beloved" as addressing the congregation. It's interesting to think about the role that the rest of the community played in Beloved's life and what significance Sethe's perhaps unintentional recognition of them is. I think it's also worthy to mention that many of the townsfolk also come to exorcise Beloved from 124 and help Sethe and Denver, so the community really does have a big part to play in the lives of the main family.
ReplyDeleteWow--this is an interesting point that I've never considered before. I've thought about Beloved's "name" (which seems to only have been given to her after her death--if she had a name before that, no one in the novel uses it; she's just "crawling already? baby") as an *assertion* of Sethe's love, which we only grasp once we know why her love would have been called into doubt. But the fact that she's essentially "named after" the community that condemns Sethe so strongly is really interesting to consider, and I like how you connect this to the idea that her death is in some way all of their responsibility. And as Jackson points out, in a key scene we hadn't gotten to yet when you wrote this, "the community" in the form of Ella and the women finally returns to 124 to reconcile with Sethe and "save her" from this ghost, further solidifying this connection.
ReplyDeleteI would have never looked back and realized that "Dearly beloved" was not the preacher addressing the baby, and I think your analysis of this misunderstanding on Sethe's part was really well thought out. It's interesting that the the people of the town both fostered the baby's arrival and led to her subsequent death.
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