MovieChat Forums > Beloved (1998) Discussion > so was beloved real or she was a demon?

so was beloved real or she was a demon?


i mean when the women are singing after that climatic scene she just disappeared ,what happened to her

and why aint paul d claim his child

reply

She's a Demon

reply

i haven't seen the film yet, but to me one of the more brilliant aspects of the novel is that it works when you interpret it either way- that beloved had come back from the dead, or if it was just a girl who'd escaped from a white man who was taking advantage of sethe.

one thing to keep in mind (in the book again) is that the people in that particular community were disposed to believe in supernatural occurences- thus you can interpret beloved's haunting and then reappearance logically because all there is a whole community, including most of the main characters, who are narrating the events in a supernatural light.

reply

Yeah. Beloved was a demon. She was a baby when she died and her 'spirit' went to Heaven while 'this' Beloved is a demon from Hell. Obviously, she was very vengeful and wrathful, even though she displays the characteristics of an innocent, young woman. Sethe killed her because she didn't want Beloved to suffer in slavery the way she did. As a haunting spirit in the house, she did some awful things and scared her family. She even carelessly scared off the boys, sadly to never be seen again.

You know, Beloved's eyes were BLACK, even though those were contact lens LOL! But, it was showing that she had darkness in her.

reply

She was both real and a demon.

reply

My guess is that they "excorsised" her out of sethe's home, and as far as I know, anything that has to be excorsised is evil. So yeah, it'd stand to reason that she was a demon. Other statements to prove it would be the fact that she came from hell. Now what would an innocent baby be doing in hell?

reply

"Now what would an innocent baby be doing in hell?"

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
In other words, it was deception.

reply

Isn't taught in some religion that unbaptized babies that die go to hell....

Habataitara modorenai to itte
Mezashi-ta no wa aoi aoi ano sora

reply

she was guilt.

reply

Im not sure, I would say she was a demon except... they got rid of her real easily, didnt they?!

She's been haunting the house for a good 18 years, to the point where she physically harmed people and animals, thrown furniture around etc, then she is so powerful she actually resurrects herself into a physical entity- not a hallucination but a flesh and blood person you can see and touch. The film suggests she is a real person for at least 2 years or more, she gets pregnant (!!!!!) and if she hadnt disappeared would have given birth to- what? A real baby?

And yet a bunch of old ladies that no one has ever seen before, who dont even like Sethe that much just show up, wave some bibles, sing and chant for 5 minutes- and make her disappear? THEY get rid of BELOVED???? Just like that?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

reply

A telling moment occurs after Beloved's disappearance, when Paul encounters Denver on the way to work and asks who she thinks Beloved was. Denver responds that sometimes she thinks that it really was her sister come back to life and at other times thinks that she was something else. She also comments, when Paul begins to offer his opinion, that "I've got my own opinion." Paul then responds that "You've grown up some." In other words, whoever or whatever Beloved might have been, she achieved the purpose of shaking some folks up who needed to snap out of their old patterns of behavior.

reply

She was unaware, but I suspect she was a feeling mother carried with her. . like a personified burden. To simply call her good or evil doesn't justify how she was portrayed...like an innocent animal in a devil's suit. You can never really say the animal was evil or not.

She was put in that position when her mother murdered her. She died innocent but her spirit remained. Her spirit witnessed all kinds of darkness and I felt more sorry for her than fear towards her.

reply

This is the only question that remained after watching this movie and I"m fine without having this end tied up. It is open to interpretation of course.

There we some good answers: guilt. the personification or manifestation of burden. I've decided that beloved was a spirit that only Paul D, Sethe and Denver could see. This would explain why she dissappeared so easily after that half-assed exorcism. lol I don't necessarily believe she was the spirit of Sethe's baby. She could have been any spirit that seized upon this opportunity to wreak havoc on a spiritually and emotionally weak family. Beloved represents more than the child Sethe lost though. Way more. She could have been any baby that died in this manor. But she also represented the burden and pain and reality of slavery itself.

Mind you, I haven't read the book, just my interpretation.

reply

^^Agreed, great analysis there.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit' me!" Hudson in Aliens.

reply

I don't agree that Beloved could only be seen by Paul D, Sethe and Denver---b/c when Sethe and Beloved came out of the door (with Beloved being completely nude), the Church Ladies about collapsed, but roused themselves and started chanting and singing. Their strong belief and the calling upon Jesus caused Beloved's soul to go on to Heaven....and her body return to the grave.

The thing I was always surprised about was when Beloved struggled to spell her name and Sethe didn't really react! Didn't Sethe bury her child? Who put "Beloved" on the tiny headstone? Maybe it's in the book, which I haven't read. Anyone know?

reply

In the novel, Sethe is indeed the one who orders the headstone, a glittery, pink soapstone one, if memory serves. You've raised an interesting point about Demme's directorial decision to leave Sethe unmoved by the utterance of her name. Could 'Beloved' have been a popular name among African-Americans of the time? And even so, why not even a glimmer of recognition from Sethe? I've pondered about this myself.

Helga, I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at the dirt.

reply

Others saw her greeting Sethe on her way home too

reply

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist

Darkness lies an inch ahead

reply

I think Beloved was the ghost of the child that had been killed. She came back to revenge, but also because she needed love from her mother. She did all the bad things because her anger was so big...

reply