English: Forgiveness
The main character Sethe, the slave, escaped from the “Sweet House” with her three children, and having been discovered and threatened by her former master to be brought back, she being guided by despair, killed one of her children, the daughter Beloved. Now when managed to save herself and her babies from slavery, she, however, faced accusations. The society turned its back to her. Sethe is guilty in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of the black society and in the eyes of her daughter.
The idea of forgiveness is one of the primary here and we realize this from the very first page of the book, where an epigraph from “The letter of Paul to Romans” 9:25 is given. One of the main concepts of the Christian faith is forgiveness, which is granted only to those, who can confess his guilt and repent (Moerk).
Sethe carries the burden of guilt and if in the eyes of the law, after having spent some time in prison, she is forgiven, the society still views her as a murderer. Eighteen years passed but she and her daughter Denver remained social outcasts. Even the woman’s sons left her unable to forgive.
Beloved is reincarnated in order to give Sethe forgiveness but at the same time she is a living reminder of the crime, which makes Seth revive the memories of the bygone days over and over again.
The mother and the daughter have to catch up all the time, they did not spend together. They form a strong bond, which finally turns mother and daughter into one indivisible whole. The more Sethe gives, the more Beloved takes, as if wants to regain everything she was deprived of before. The woman desperately needs to be relieved from the burden: “Sethe pleads for forgiveness, counting, listing again and again the reasons” (Morrison)
Sethe is granted with forgiveness the moment she comes to the conclusion that Beloved is her reincarnated daughter. The sense of relief accompanies the realization that the ghost is her Beloved and thus leads to the sense of being forgiven. Tony Morrison describes this feeling in the following way: “[Sethe] even looked straight at the shed smiling, smiling at the things she would not have to remember now. Thinking, she ain’t even mad with me. Not a bit” (Morrison)
One more detail is missing to complete the picture: the forgiveness from the society. One of the final scenes describes Denver taking on the responsibility and asking for help from the society, since there was nothing to eat in the house. These black women did not turn the girl down, they come for a rescue instead. Sethe hears the sound of their song and this represents a sign of forgiveness.
Works cited:
Caroline Rody. ‘Toni Morrison's Beloved: History, "Rememory," and a "Clamor for a Kiss"’.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Print
Maria Moerk. ‘A Religious and Psychological Approach to Forgiveness in Toni Morrison’s
Beloved’. 11 March 2013
Tony Morrison. ‘Beloved’. London: Vintage books, 2005. Print
