Classical Backgrounds to English Literature

Study Questions

Beloved

• Please consider Beloved’s effect on Paul D in light of today’s discussion about what Beloved means / represents. Why does she have such an effect on Paul D?

• On pp 148ff, we finally learn what happened on the day Sethe killed her baby. Why does she do it? Are her actions justifiable? To return to the old Medea question – is she guilty or innocent (remembering, of course, to define these terms).

• Why does the incident in the shed effect Baby Suggs so profoundly, when nothing else has? Why does she stop holding the prayer meetings in the woods? (And since we didn’t get to talk about it – what is the significance of those prayer sessions?)

• What is the significance of the skating scene? Why does Morrison keep repeating the line: “And nobody saw them fall”?

• How does Sethe finally recognize who Beloved is? And why does she have the reaction to this realization that she does?