Brandenburg 1

Lauren Brandenburg

Teacher X

Class X

November 8, 2021

Agency, Power, Love: A Brief Examination of Denver and Sethe in Beloved

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written,

Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

- Romans 12:19

Oh Beloved, Oh Beloved,

take me. take away what I want.

Liberate my soul. Take away what I do.

Fill me with your love and Take away what I need.

release me from the two worlds. Take away everything

If I set my heart on anything but you that takes me from you.

let fire burn me from inside. -Rumi

Toni Morrison’s Beloved begins: ”124 was spiteful...For years each put up with the site in

his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims. The

grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Bulgar, had run away by the

time they were thirteen years old…”(3). By the time the reader enters the world of Sethe and

Denver, they have been abandoned by those around them, by death or by escape--both

intentional, and left to deal in powerlessness on their own. Denver embraces the spirit of her

older sister, thinking it gives her agency, the choice to be around someone other than her mother,

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who she is reticent of. Sethe looks at the spirit of her sacrificed daughter as a debt being paid;

something she must carry always -- she knows her own powerlessness. Ultimately Denver and

Sethe have complex relationships with their own power and with the consequences of love that

are demonstrated through relationships with one another and with Beloved.

Denver has a complex relationship with notions of agency, power, and love. Denver has

never really experienced the feeling of being an agent in her own destiny. She was born on a boat

as her mother birthed her into freedom at the hands of a white stranger who just happened by.

Her whole existence was a story in miracles; a type of powerlessness from the outset of life.

However, she views this story of a birth as a source of power, but also remains strangely leery of

it. Not long after Beloved’s arrival, Denver tells Beloved the story as a type of bedtime story:

“Denver stopped and sighed. This was the part of the story she
loved. She was coming to it now, and she loved it because it was all
about herself; but she hated it too because it made her feel like a bill
was owing to somewhere and she, Denver had to pay it...Now,
watching Beloved’s alert and hungry face, how she took in every
word...Dever began to see what she was saying and not just hear it:
there is this nineteen-year-old slavegirl--a year older than herself---
walking through the dark woods to get to her children who are far
away. She is tired, scared maybe, and maybe even lost. Most of all
she is by herself and inside her is another baby she has to think about
too. Behind her dogs, perhaps; guns probably..Denver was seeing it
now and feeling it…” (Morrison 91).

Denver knows it is something special, knows it gives her power, but through

Beloved’s gaze and rapt attention, Denver realizes that maybe there’s something

deeper, something she owes.

Indeed, her birth is a story of power in Sethe’s life in a long line of stories about slavery,

powerlessness, and anguish. The story of Denver’s birth is in part a result of Sethe’s decision to

run -- to find a better life for her children. At the end of the ordeal, Sethe is on the other side of

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the river in Ohio, free, and her baby is alive in her arms. It is at parting with Denver that this

story begins to take on a mythic quality:

“‘She’s never gonna know who I am. You gonna tell her? Who brought her
into this here world?’ She lifted her chin, looked off into the place where
sun used to be. ‘You better tell her. You hear? Say Miss Amy Denver. Of
Boston.’ Sethe felt herself falling into a sleep she knew would be deep. On
the lip of it, just before going under, she thought, ‘That’s pretty. Denver.
Real pretty’”(Morrison 100).
Sethe has a constant reminder of her push for freedom, where in Beloved, Sethe has a constant

reminder of her terror at being wretched back into slavery and committing an act that would take

Sethe’s short-lived freedom for her for many years.

It is once Beloved comes into the lives of Denver and Sethe that the reader begins to

understand the complex relationships the two women have to ideas of power and love. Denver

admits that she feels powerless. She is alone with her mother who she fears in a home she fears

to leave. As Denver says, “So I can never leave this house and I watch over the yard, so it can’t

happen again and my mother won’t have to kill me” (Morrison 242). In reality what Denver fears

is the white man. While she understands that her mother killed her sister, and that she killed her

sister because the white man entered the yard, she does not understand why Sethe did what she

did--the love and the terror that brought Sethe to that decision. Since the day Schoolteacher came

to 124 to “reclaim his property,” Sethe has had all of her agency taken from her by Beloved.

Interestingly, once Beloved comes back Sethe feels as though she has regained some

power over her story. Previously unthinkable to tell -- she avoided telling Denver or Paul D--

telling Beloved seemed to bring relief to Sethe and joy to Beloved:

“...Sethe learned the profound satisfaction Beloved got from storytelling. It

amazed Sethe (as much as it pleased beloved) because every mention of her
past life hurt. Everything in it was painful or lost. She and Baby Suggs
agreed without saying so that it was unspeakable; to Denver’s inquiries
Sethe gave short replies or rambling incomplete reveries. Even with Paul D,
who had shared some of it and to whom she could talk with at least a

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measure of calm--the hurt was always there--like a tender place in the corner
of her mouth that the bit left. But, as she began telling about the earrings,
she found herself wanting to, liking it. Perhaps it was Beloved’s distance
from the events itself, or her thirst for hearing it--in any case it was an
unexpected pleasure” (Morrison 69).
The power to reclaim her own story is a powerful force for Sethe. Previously ashamed of what

she did, terrified of what happened in the past, Sethe avoided the world and somehow managed

to prevent adding any chapters to her life from the day she killed Beloved. She placed her life on

hold and placed the life of Denver on hold. Beloved’s presence gives Sethe the freedom to

breathe, recapture her story, and continue with living.

However, all the good Beloved brings can not last. All things that come from the ground

must go back to the ground. The shift in the dynamic of the household creates a few changes:

Sethe gives herself over fully to Beloved who is determined to exact her revenge, as Romans

12:19 concisely explains, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto

wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord”; in addition, Denver

becomes an outsider in the home and is forced to pull herself from the situation in order to save

both her mother and herself, creating a life for herself in the process.

Upon Paul D’s exit, the dynamics of 124 become untenable. Beloved has driven Sethe

into unemployment, into poverty, to insanity, and to the edge of death. Sethe is fired and begins

spending all of her time tending to and loving Beloved (Morrison 282). Denver describes the

situation, stating, “Sethe [was] happy when Beloved was; Beloved lapping devotion like cream”

(Morrison 286). Rumi describes it best, “Oh Beloved, take me. Liberate my soul. Fill me with

your love and release me from the two worlds. If I set my heart on anything but you let fire burn

me from inside.” Sethe wants both forgiveness and punishment from Beloved, but neither is

possible because Beloved is not human, and does not have the power for love and forgiveness.

Sethe gives herself fully to her daughter.

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On the edge of death and with no control; Sethe does not see the darkness in Beloved.

The situation becomes volatile:

“The more Sethe began to talk, explain, describe how much she suffered,
been through for her children...None of which made the impression it was
supposed to. Beloved accused her of leaving her behind...When once or
twice Sethe tried to assert herself--be the unquestioned mother whose word
was law and who knew what was best--Beloved slammed things, wiped the
table clean of plates, threw salt on the floor, broke a windowpane...She was
wild game...Little by little it dawned on Denver that if Sethe didn’t wake up
one morning and pick up a knife, Beloved might” (Morrison 284-285).

Sethe has completely handed herself, and Denver, over to Beloved, giving all the control to the

ghost of her child and the ghost of her past. Ultimately it is Denver’s courage to control her own

life that saves Sethe.

Denver is able to recognize the relationship between Sethe and Beloved for what it is --

dangerous. She pulls herself away from the draw of the horrible magic and darkness of 124 and

looks for work, searches out food to care for her mother and her sister incarnate. She knows she

needs to tell the story, so she reaches within herself to share what is going on at 124 with Janey

Wagon. Ultimately, it is this final decision to take agency, to be her father’s daughter, to show

power in her own life that rescues Sethe from a slow death. She can not save her mother from the

past, but she can save her mother from the past trying to kill her in the present.

In the end, Beloved is exorcised, Denver is freed to live a life full of her own decisions.

However, Sethe is still haunted by her decisions. Unable to move forward. She takes to her bed

in an attempt to will herself to death--powerless to decide when she will die she waits once again

on the Universe. While Paul D promises to help her, heal her, there are no guarantees; she has

nothing left to give.

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Works Cited

Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Vintage International, 2004. Print.

“Poems of Passion · Rumi - Rumi Quotes and Rumi Poems.” Rumi, www.rumi.org.uk/passion/.

“Romans 12.” Romans 12 KJV, biblehub.com/kjv/romans/12.htm.

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