Why do I empathize with Sethe’s decision to kill her child? Am I crazy? Or is she?
While reading Beloved, I often find myself angry at the characters who cannot forgive or even sympathize with Sethe and her situation at 124. People who have also been through slavery and escaping it, ostracize Sethe for killing her daughter when Schoolteacher comes to bring her back to Sweet Home—but why are they so quick to judge her actions? Shouldn’t we praise her for pushing back against the institution that so readily enslaved her? Characters like Paul D. say that it wasn’t her only option, but wasn’t it? Could she have gone willingly with Schoolteacher and her children back to Sweet Home and then try to run again, yes, but would that experience and added trauma that she and the children would go through be worth it? There’s no telling what ottrocites would have happened at Sweet Home. Perhaps all of her children would have died or they would have become so traumatized by the incident that they ended up like Halle. Killing Beloved was a sacrifice for the family, a sacrifice for their freedom, a sacrifice for no more pain. By doing the most painful thing, Sethe finally frees herself and her family from slavery—it no longer can touch them. This moment reminds me of Medea by Euripides, a Greek tragedy, where Medea goes and kills her children as a last resort. These two moments are acts which are so unthinkable and so taboo to readers, but make perfect sense to the mothers, in fact they finally seem to have a sense of agency over their children. This may seem like a twisted way of thinking about it, but within the context of these two stories, the women’s children are not even legally theirs. According to society, they have no sense of ownership or motherhood over their children because of their status and background, but by killing their children, they can have the last word and do what is right by their motherhood. For women to judge and condemn their actions seems insensitive and shows a lack of understanding. I feel this inherent sense to defend Sethe and Medea because there is no one else who is willing to put themselves in that unthinkable situation. Of course they both live with immense guilt and pain after the fact, but their rash actions were done in a moment of complete instinct and survival, so it’s just as hard for them to process as it is us. It’s hard to picture what they went through, but we get no where closer to their thoughts by simply critizing them.
One response so far
The comparison of Sethe and Medea is a very interesting one that I hadn’t thought of before and am not sure I completely agree with. The point that they are both mothers who assert their agency by sacrificing their children is one that I follow, as is the fact that their children aren’t even theirs. That being said, Medea’s killing of her children was more done in the name of revenge than in the name of freedom and family. She killed them as a way to get back at Jason which is what makes her such a tragic figure. When Sethe kills Beloved, she’s putting into action the fact that death is better than slavery. Despite this, I do agree that there are comparison between the two characters and that it’s difficult for us as readers to place ourselves in their positions while making those choices.