Use of the Female Gothic in Beloved Essay - 2984 Words

Use of the Female Gothic in Beloved Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved is a slave narrative, but it encompasses much more than slavery. Unlike many slave narratives that focus on the male perception of slavery, Morrisons novel portrays slavery from a feminine point of view. The main characters are Sethe, her daughter, Denver, and the mysterious Beloved. In the beginning of the novel, Sethe and her daughter live alone in 124, a house that is haunted by the ghost of Sethes first daughter. Sethes two older boys, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old. Soon after the sons have fled, Baby Suggs, Denvers grandmother, dies. The novel centers on Sethes past, in particular, the death of her†¦show more content†¦She describes what little of a relationship she had with her mother, saying that she was gone before Sethe woke up and when she was not working, she was sleeping. She describes a particularly saddening moment when her mother showed her how to identify her; she opened up h er dress front and lifted her breast and pointed under it. Right on her rib was a circle and a cross burnt right into the skin (Morrison 57). The young Sethe, confused about the situation, receives a slap from her mother when she says that she wants a mark too. The reader recognizes the lack of humanity in slavery. Like a cow, she is branded and her brand is the only way to recognize her as an individual. It is a terrible realization, one Sethe makes later on. It was Sethes experience as a slave child and a slave mother that caused her to commit the act that is every parents worst nightmare. Another event that seemed to change Sethe forever was the brutal attack committed upon her by schoolteachers nephews. Schoolteacher came to take care of the plantation when Mr. Garner, the original owner, died. She was still nursing her first daughter when it happened. When she is relating the story, her attitude reveals the sense of violation and humility she felt when this vicious act was committed; those boys came in there and took my milk. Thats what they came in there for. Held me down and took it (Morrison 16). She described this horribleShow MoreRelatedResurrected Love: an Analysis of Edgar Allen Poes Ligeia Essay1442 Words   |  6 PagesEdgar Allen Poes short story Ligeia, in a style much like that of The Fall of the House of Usher, has all the makings of a classic, gothic horror tale. It is a story of a love so strong that it overcomes the realms of death. The unnamed narrator is so in love with the Lady Ligeia, as she is with him, that her untimely death soon after their marriage was unable to separate them. Ligeia rejoins the narrator in life through the body of another, Lady Rowena Trevanion of Tremaine. 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