Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Beloved, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Slavery
Motherhood
Storytelling, Memory, and the Past
Community
Home
Summary
Analysis
Beloved gradually forces Paul D out of 124. He feels restless and uncomfortable everywhere, and doesn’t know how to stop it and feels as if he is uncontrollably moving himself, or being moved. The process begins one night when he sleeps in a rocking chair rather than upstairs with Sethe. He begins to sleep downstairs in the chair every night.
Beloved begins to disrupt Paul D’s attempt to finally have a stable home at 124. Beloved wants Sethe completely for herself.
Themes
One evening, Paul D switches to Baby Suggs’ old room. Then, he moves to the storeroom. He recognizes that he has felt the urge to leave a home before, but this is different, since he still loves Sethe and wants to stay. Once tired of the storeroom, he begins sleeping outside in the cold house. By this time, it is autumn and cold at night.
Paul D has felt a similar restlessness before, but this time is different, prompted by Beloved. He clearly wants to stay at 124 and create a home with Sethe.
Themes
Beloved enters the cold house one night and asks Paul D to sleep with her. He refuses but she eventually seduces him. As she approaches him, the tobacco tin holding his painful memories begins to open.
Beloved’s seduction of Paul complicates her identity. She can be seen as representing a harmful extreme of desire, as she exploits what each character wants most (a sister for Denver, a daughter for Sethe, a lover for Paul D). As Paul D’s tobacco tin opens, he begins to succumb to his painful past.
Themes
