Beloved and Pearl, the two spirit-like characters of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, share one important theme for the main characters of Sethe and Hester. They are both people that are a consequence of an unfortunate event, that of adultery and premature death, that serve as a sign of a priority that Hester and sethe must take care of. For Beloved, Sethe's priority is to begin to stop denying the past and facing it and for Hester, Pearl serves as reminder of why she must reconcile with her past and her actions. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s and Toni Morrison’s Pearl and Beloved have the freedom to operate outside society’s grip and give greater understanding to the novels dynamics. It is important to remember,
…show more content…
These two characters are both extremely complex and heavily influence the social dynamics of their novels. However, they would not have the ability to harness this power if it was not for the ways that Toni Morrison and Nathaniel Hawthorne used them. They both used Beloved and Pearl for symbolism. Just like how the letter is the consequence of a crime like adultery in Puritanical times, a child can be a consequence, which would be Pearl. Toni Morrison and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s insightful use of symbolism allows the characters to be more tangible to the reader, further making the texts and social dynamics …show more content…
The death of Beloved represents the struggles mothers like Sethe and children like Beloved have to go through. Sethe had to kill Beloved to save Beloved.
“It aint my job to know what’s worse. It’s my job to know what is and to keep them away from what I know is terrible. I did that.”(194)
Sethe is guilty of having love that is too thick. A type of love that prompted her to kill her third child, Beloved, to keep Beloved alive. Paul D. definitely felt that Sethe’s love was too strong and, in fact, dangerous, saying:
“Your love is too thick,” he said, thinking, That bitch is looking at me; she is right over my head looking down through the floor at me.”(194)
However, Sethe felt as though killing Beloved was the only way to keep her children safe. If anyone of her children was going to die, it would be by her own hands, not the hands of white people. These are the type of decisions that many parents like Sethe had to make in that time period, and their spirits and voices are curated within the house of
These two characters are both extremely complex and heavily influence the social dynamics of their novels. However, they would not have the ability to harness this power if it was not for the ways that Toni Morrison and Nathaniel Hawthorne used them. They both used Beloved and Pearl for symbolism. Just like how the letter is the consequence of a crime like adultery in Puritanical times, a child can be a consequence, which would be Pearl. Toni Morrison and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s insightful use of symbolism allows the characters to be more tangible to the reader, further making the texts and social dynamics …show more content…
The death of Beloved represents the struggles mothers like Sethe and children like Beloved have to go through. Sethe had to kill Beloved to save Beloved.
“It aint my job to know what’s worse. It’s my job to know what is and to keep them away from what I know is terrible. I did that.”(194)
Sethe is guilty of having love that is too thick. A type of love that prompted her to kill her third child, Beloved, to keep Beloved alive. Paul D. definitely felt that Sethe’s love was too strong and, in fact, dangerous, saying:
“Your love is too thick,” he said, thinking, That bitch is looking at me; she is right over my head looking down through the floor at me.”(194)
However, Sethe felt as though killing Beloved was the only way to keep her children safe. If anyone of her children was going to die, it would be by her own hands, not the hands of white people. These are the type of decisions that many parents like Sethe had to make in that time period, and their spirits and voices are curated within the house of